Although characterisation is a much-aged matter in literature, certain aspects have yet to be explored, such as how fictional characters implicate in their discourse, what takes influence from this, and what comes to pass in the production and interpretation process of the phenomenon. As the contribution is of subtlety, implicata in characters’ discourse have not exclusively been studies in detail as elements of characterisation. Therefore, in view of the cognitive approach leant towards by leading researchers on the subject of characterization such as Jonathan Culpeper, this research relies on Sperber and Wilson’s ‘relevance theory’ to define cognitive procedures into instances of implicata verbally exchanged between fictional characters to determine a) how authors exploit such instances for trait progression of their characters and upholding character discourse credibility, and b) how readers can achieve what Furlong terms a ‘non-spontaneous’ interpretation of such exchanges. To address the stated issue, we conducted a detailed cognitive-effectual analysis on five instances of implicata made by four flat and round characters within Arthur C. Doyle’s ‘A Study in Scarlet’, the results of which yielded a mechanism wherein writers’ making implications and readers’ calculating and interpreting them hinge on both parties making presuppositions on certain topics to ensure certain pragmatic presuppositional effect for readers. A five-stage bottom-up process was also proposed which links character traits to implications conveyed within inter-character discourse, following through which can lead to readers’ achieving maximal relevance on the made implications and a non-spontaneous interpretation of them.

Inspired by the cognitive approach to characterisation and in view of relevance theory, this research attempted to outline a relevance-theoretic account of how affective attachment between fictional characters influences writers’ use of implicata through characters as part of inter-character discourse by defining cognitive processes into fictional characters as a pivotal element of implicit characterisation. Our attempt addressed the veracity of such an influence and the question whether awareness of the intensity degree of such sentimentality influences readers’ non-spontaneous interpretation of character-generated implicata and characters’ intention to actually execute relevant implicating. By adherence to defining cognitive processes into character discourse, we conducted an analysis on six samples of implicata exchanges within inter-character verbal discourse between the mutual parties of the primary affective attachment of the narrative, between the protagonist and another round character out of Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ and Veronica Roth’s ‘Divergent’. In every instance of character-generated implication, we found decisive facilitatory influence for awareness of three levels of calculable implicated conclusions, inter-character sentiment intensity, and characters’ communicative intents on readers' achieving what Furlong terms ‘maximal relevance’ through non-spontaneous interpretation of literary texts. Additionally, tracking the progression of inter-character sentiment intensity throughout the two narratives yielded strategic drops during the gradual formation of inter-character bonds employed mainly to demonstrate a mutual sense of fastidiousness in characters’ choice of a companion in romance and also strengthening the said bonds.