Exploring Pragmatics

How do people mean more than they say? How are these extra meanings identified and understood? Comprehensive, thought-provoking and reader-friendly, this book is a practical introduction to Pragmatics, one of the most dynamic fields in the contemporary language sciences. Addressing the key notions of speech acts, implicature, presupposition, and others, it describes the ways in which ‘just words’ can accomplish a variety of goals in individual encounters as well as complex social interaction. The six chapters in the book work with authentic examples, from ordinary talk to institutional and political discourse, to describe and help analyze the core patterns of meaning making and interpretation. Apart from cutting-edge reading sections, they include guided activities and exercises with answer keys that provide opportunity for a successful and enjoyable self-study. The book will meet the needs of a broad academic community, including under- and post-graduate students and their teachers, as well as research practitioners seeking a resource that organizes the main concepts in Pragmatics into a practical, discourse analytical toolkit.

Introduction 7 Chapter 1: Speech Acts 11 Chapter 2: Implying and Inferring 57 Chapter 3: Presupposition 107 Chapter 4: Linguistic Politeness and Impoliteness 147 Chapter 5: Context and Deixis 199 Chapter 6: Pragmatics and Discourse 251 Final Self-Assessment Quiz 275 References 293