Understanding Pragmatics (Understanding Language)

Description

Understanding Pragmatics takes an interdisciplinary approach to provide an accessible introduction to linguistic pragmatics. This book discusses how the meaning of utterances can only be understood in relation to overall cultural, social and interpersonal contexts, as well as to culture specific conventions and the speech events in which they are embedded. From a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective, this book: debates the core issues of pragmatics such as speech act theory, conversational implicature, deixis, gesture, interaction strategies, ritual communication, phatic communion, linguistic relativity, ethnography of speaking, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, languages and social classes, and linguistic ideologies incorporates examples from a broad variety of different languages and cultures takes an innovative and transdisciplinary view of the field showing linguistic pragmatics has its predecessor in other disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, ethology, ethnology, sociology and the political sciences. Written by an experienced teacher and researcher, this introductory textbook is essential reading for all students studying pragmatics. Cover Understanding Pragmatics Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Pragmatics and philosophy: What we do when we speak and what we actually mean – speech act theory and the theory of conversational implicature 1.1 Introduction 1.2 John Austin’s speech act theory 1.3 John Searle’s speech act theory 1.4 Pieter Seuren on the socially binding force of speech acts 1.5 Maxims that guide conversation: H. Paul Grice’s theory of conversational implicature 1.6 Concluding remarks 1.7 Exercise/work section 1.8 Suggestions for further reading Notes 2 Pragmatics and psychology: Deictic reference and gesture 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Deictic reference 2.3 Spatial deixis 2.4 Gesture 2.5 Concluding remarks 2.6 Exercise/work section 2.7 Suggestions for further reading Notes 3 Pragmatics and human ethology: Biological foundations of communicative behaviour 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Expressive movements and their ritualization into signals 3.3 Rituals, ritual communication and interaction strategies 3.4 Concluding remarks 3.5 Exercise/work section 3.6 Suggestions for further reading Notes 4 Pragmatics and ethnology: The interface of language, culture and cognition 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Phatic communion 4.3 Linguistic relativity: the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 4.4 The ethnography of speaking 4.5 Concluding remarks 4.6 Exercise/work section 4.7 Suggestions for further reading Notes 5 Pragmatics and sociology: Everyday social interaction 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Erving Goffman’s interaction order 5.3 Harold Garfinkel’s ethnomethodology 5.4 Harvey Sacks and Conversation Analysis 5.5 Concluding remarks 5.6 Exercise/work section 5.7 Suggestions for further reading Notes 6 Pragmatics and politics: Language, social class, ethnicity and education and linguistic ideologies 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Basil Bernstein’s code theory 6.3 William Labov and the variability concept 6.4 Language ideologies 6.5 Concluding remarks 6.6 Exercise/work section 6.7 Suggestions for further reading Notes 7 Understanding pragmatics: Summary and outlook 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Summary 7.3 A brief outlook on future developments within the discipline: Emancipatory pragmatics Note References Index