Introduction to Pragmatics

Introduction A branch of linguistics concerned with the use of language in social contexts and the ways in which people produce and comprehend meanings through language. The term pragmatics was coined in the 1930s by the philosopher C.W. Morris.

Pragmatics was developed as a sub-field of linguistics in the 1970s. "Pragmatists focus on what is not explicitly stated and on how we interpret utterances in situational contexts. They are concerned not so much with the sense of what is said as with its force, that is, with what is communicated by the manner and style of an utterance." (Geoffrey Finch, Linguistic Terms and Concepts. Palgrave Macmillan, 2000) Pragmatics and Human Language Behavior "What does pragmatics have to offer that cannot be found in good old-fashioned linguistics? What do pragmatic methods give us in the way of greater understanding of how the human mind works, how humans communicate, how they manipulate one another, and in general, how they use language?

 "The general answer is, pragmatics is needed if we want a fuller, deeper, and generally more reasonable account of human language behavior. "A more practical answer would be: outside of pragmatics, no understanding; sometimes, a pragmatic account is the only one that makes sense, as in the following example, borrowed from David Lodge's Paradise News: 'I just met the old Irishman and his son, coming out of the toilet.' 'I wouldn't have thought there was room for the two of them.' 'No silly, I mean I was coming out of the toilet. They were waiting.' (1992:65) How do we know what the first speaker meant?

Linguists usually say that the first sentence is ambiguous, and they excel at producing such sentences as Flying planes can be dangerous or: The missionaries are ready to eat in order to show what is meant by 'ambiguous': a word, phrase, or sentence that can mean either one or the other of two (or even several) things. "For a pragmatician, this is, of course, glorious nonsense. In real life, that is, among real language users, there is no such thing as ambiguity--excepting certain, rather special occasions, on which one tries to deceive one's partner or 'keep a door open.'" (Jacob L. Mey, Pragmatics: An Introduction, 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2001)