Pragmatics: The Basics

Description

Pragmatics: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introduction to the study of verbal and nonverbal communication in context. Including nine chapters on the history of pragmatics, current theories, the application of pragmatics, and possible future developments in the field, this book: Offers a comprehensive overview of key ideas in contemporary pragmatics and how these have developed from and beyond the pioneering work of the philosopher Paul Grice; Draws on real-world examples such as political campaign posters and song lyrics to demonstrate how we convey and understand direct and indirect meanings; Explains the effects of verbal, nonverbal, and multimodal communication and how the same words or behaviour can mean different things in different contexts, including what makes utterances more or less polite; Highlights key terms and concepts throughout and provides chapter-end study questions, further reading suggestions, and a glossary. Written by an experienced researcher and teacher, this book will be an essential introduction to this topic for all beginning students of English Language and Linguistics. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of figures and tables Acknowledgments Conventions Preface Chapter 1 Introduction: The Very Basics Communicating and Understanding What Pragmatics Aims to Explain Finding Out More Further Reading Chapter 2 Meaning More Than We Say: Grice’s Suggestion Rationality and Meaning Types of Meaning Principles and Maxims Saying and Implicating Types of Implicature Finding Out More Further Reading Chapter 3 Adjusting The Maxims: Neo-Gricean Pragmatics Developing Grice’s Approach Horn’s Two Principles Levinson’s Three Principles Leech’s Approach Finding Out More Further Reading Chapter 4 Principles and Heuristics: Relevance Theory A Generalisation about Communication Defining Relevance: Effects and Effort Two Principles and a Heuristic Explicatures and Implicatures Limiting Interpretations Finding Out More Further Reading Chapter 5 Managing Interaction: (Im)politeness Being (Im)polite in Verbal Interactions Early Approaches: Lakoff, Leech, Brown and Levinson Finding Out More Further Reading Chapter 6 What Words Can Do: Speech Acts Doing Things with Words Types of Speech Acts Properties of Speech Acts Speech Acts, Semantics, and Pragmatics Applying Speech Act Theory Finding Out More Further Reading Chapter 7 Beyond Words: Prosody Prosodic Forms What Do Prosodic Forms Mean? Finding Out More Further Reading Chapter 8 Beyond Words: Nonverbal and Multimodal Communication Nonverbal Communication Multimodal Communication Finding Out More Further Reading Chapter 9 The Future: Developing Pragmatic Theories Where Pragmatics Has Gone Where Pragmatics Might Go Finding Out More Glossary References Index