Pragmatics

This article is about the subfield of linguistics. For the journal, see Pragmatics (journal). For the philosophy topic, see Pragmatism.
Part of a series on
Linguistics
General linguistics
Applied linguistics
Theoretical frameworks
Topics
Portal

In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the interpreted.[1] Linguists who specialize in pragmatics are called pragmaticians. The field has been represented since 1986 by the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA).

Pragmatics encompasses phenomena including implicature, speech acts, relevance and conversation,[2] as well as nonverbal communication. Theories of pragmatics go hand-in-hand with theories of semantics, which studies aspects of meaning, and syntax which examines sentence structures, principles, and relationships. The ability to understand another speaker's intended meaning is called pragmatic competence.[3][4][5] In 1938, Charles Morris first distinguished pragmatics as an independent subfield within semiotics, alongside syntax and semantics.[6] Pragmatics emerged as its own subfield in the 1950s after the pioneering work of J.L. Austin and Paul Grice.[7][8]

  1. ^ Mey, Jacob L. (2006). "Pragmatics: Overview". In Brown, E. K.; Anderson, Anne (eds.). Encyclopedia of language & linguistics (2nd ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier. pp. 51–62. doi:10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00306-0. ISBN 978-0-08-044854-1.
  2. ^ Mey, Jacob L. (1993) Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell (2nd ed. 2001).
  3. ^ Kim, Daejin; Hall, Joan Kelly (2002). "The Role of an Interactive Book Reading Program in the Development of Second Language Pragmatic Competence". The Modern Language Journal. 86 (3): 332–348. doi:10.1111/1540-4781.00153. JSTOR 1192847.
  4. ^ Takimoto, Masahiro (2008). "The Effects of Deductive and Inductive Instruction on the Development of Language Learners' Pragmatic Competence". The Modern Language Journal. 92 (3): 369–386. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.2008.00752.x. JSTOR 25173064.
  5. ^ Koike, Dale April (1989). "Pragmatic Competence and Adult L2 Acquisition: Speech Acts in Interlanguage". The Modern Language Journal. 73 (3): 279–289. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.1989.tb06364.x. JSTOR 327002.
  6. ^ Israel, Michael (2011). The grammar of polarity: Pragmatics, sensitivity, and the logic of scales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 10.
  7. ^ Kroeger, Paul R. (2019-01-12). Analyzing meaning: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics (2nd ed.). Berlin: Language Science Press. pp. 12, 141. doi:10.5281/ZENODO.2538330. ISBN 978-3-96110-136-8.
  8. ^ Coppock, Elizabeth; Champollion, Lucas (2019). Invitation to formal semantics (PDF) (2019 ed.). p. 37. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-09-07. Retrieved 2020-01-01.[verification needed]