INTRODUCTION TO

LINGUISTIC PRAGMATICS
 ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED:

1. PRAGMATICS AS A LINGUISTIC DISCIPLINE:

PRELIMINARY REMARKS
2. THE ORIGIN OF PRAGMATICS
3. DEFINITIONS OF PRAGMATICS AS A LINGUISTIC
DISCIPLINE
4. CENTRAL TOPICS OF PRAGMATICS
 1. PRAGMATICS AS A LINGUISTIC
DISCIPLINE

PRAGMATICS IS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS DEALING WITH

THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE USE.
PRAGMATICS IS OPPOSED TO FORMAL LINGUISTICS, WHICH
FOCUSES MORE ON LANGUAGE FORM THAN ON USE.
PRAGMATICS, AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS, CAME INTO
EXISTENCE IN THE 60-70THS OF THE 20TH CENTURY AS A REACTION
TO AN AUTONOMOUS LANGUAGE APPROACH, AN APPROACH
INITIATED BY FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE (1857–1917).
LINGUISTS GRADUALLY CAME TO UNDERSTAND THAT
LANGUAGE CANNOT ONLY BE STUDIED AS A CLOSED SYSTEM:
TIME CAME TO LOOK AT LANGUAGE FROM THE OUTSIDE, I.E. TO
SEE WHAT THE SPEAKER DOES WITH LANGUAGE.
LINGUISTIC PRAGMATICS FOCUSES ON THE SPEAKER, HIS
OR HER INTENDED MEANING, AND THE ADDRESSEE AND
HIS OR HER INTERPRETATION OF THE SPEAKER’S MEANING.
 2. THE ORIGIN AND HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT OF THE TERM
“PRAGMATICS”.

LATIN PRAGMATICUS – SKILLED IN LAW OR BUSINESS,

FROM GREEK PRAGMATIKOS, FROM PRAGMAT-, PRAGMA
– DEED, FROM PRASSEIN – TO DO (MERRIAM-WEBSTER’S
11TH COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY).
PRAGMATICS AS A BRANCH OF SEMIOTICS

THE TERM “PRAGMATICS” WAS PROPOSED BY THE AMERICAN

PHILOSOPHER CHARLES MORRIS (1938) AS THE NAME OF A
SEPARATE BRANCH IN SEMIOTICS (SCIENCE OF SIGNS OR
SEMIOTIC AS MORRIS PREFERRED).
CH. MORRIS USED IDEAS FROM PEIRCE'S PRAGMATISM OR
PRAGMATICISM FOR CREATING HIS OWN THEORY OF SIGNS
(SEMIOTIC).
CH. MORRIS DISTINGUISHED THREE BASIC BRANCHES OF
SEMIOTICS:
1. SYNTACTICS (SYNTAX)
2. SEMANTICS
3. PRAGMATICS.

THESE THREE-PART DIVISION IN LINGUISTICS IS ALSO

KNOWN AS “SEMIOTIC TRIANGLE”.
• SYNTACTICS (OR SYNTAX) AS THE STUDY OF "THE FORMAL
RELATION OF SIGNS TO ONE ANOTHER".
• SEMANTICS AS THE STUDY OF "THE RELATIONS OF SIGNS TO
THE OBJECTS TO WHICH THE SIGNS ARE APPLICABLE" (THEIR
DESIGNATA).
• PRAGMATICS AS THE STUDY OF "THE RELATION OF SIGNS TO
INTERPRETERS"

(MORRIS, 1938: 6).

 TRADITIONAL TRICHOTOMY IN LINGUISTICS
SYNTAX IS THE STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
LINGUISTIC FORMS.
SEMANTICS IS THE STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN LINGUISTIC FORMS AND ENTITIES IN THE
WORLD.
PRAGMATICS IS THE STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN LINGUISTIC FORMS AND THE USERS OF THESE
FORMS.
ONLY PRAGMATICS DEALS WITH THE LANGUAGE SPEAKER
LINGUISTIC PRAGMATICS IS ALSO ASSOCIATED WITH ANOTHER
LANGUAGE PHILOSOPHER, AUSTIN.
J. AUSTIN (1911–1960) PUT FORWARD AN ORIGINAL THEORY OF
SPEECH ACTS IN HIS MONOGRAPH HOW TO DO THINGS WITH WORDS
(EDITED POSTHUMOUSLY, IN 1962) IN HIS MONOGRAPH HOW TO DO
THINGS WITH WORDS (EDITED POSTHUMOUSLY, IN 1962).

THIS WORK MARKED THE BEGINNING OF LINGUISTIC PRAGMATICS, A

RADICAL CHANGE IN THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO LINGUISTIC
STUDIES.
THE BEST KNOWN REPRESENTATIVES OF PRAGMATICS ARE G. GRICE, J.
SEARLE, J. AUSTIN, T. VAN DIJK, G. LEECH, S. LEVINSON,
 PRAGMATICS VS. PRAGMATISMS

 PRAGMATICS IS THE RELATION OF SIGNS TO THEIR USERS.

 PRAGMATISMS/PRAGMATICISM (CHARLES S. PEIRCE) IS AN
APPROACH THAT EVALUATES THEORIES OR BELIEFS IN TERMS OF THE
SUCCESS OF THEIR PRACTICAL APPLICATION (OXFORD DICTIONARY
OF ENGLISH, 3RD EDITION © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2010).
PRAGMATISMS/PRAGMATICISM IS THINKING OF OR DEALING WITH
PROBLEMS IN A PRACTICAL WAY, RATHER THAN BY USING THEORY OR
ABSTRACT PRINCIPLES (COLLINS COBUILD ADVANCED LEARNER’S
ENGLISH DICTIONARY. NEW DIGITAL EDITION 2008).
IN GENERAL, PRAGMATISMS/PRAGMATICISM IS A PRACTICAL
APPROACH TO SOLVING PROBLEMS.
 PRAGMATICS VS. SEMANTICS

1. SEMANTICS DEALS WITH TRUTH CONDITIONAL ASPECTS OF

MEANING.
PRAGMATICS DEALS WITH NON-TRUTH CONDITIONAL
ASPECTS.
2. SEMANTICS DEALS WITH CONTEXT-INDEPENDENT ASPECTS
OF MEANING.
PRAGMATICS DEALS WITH ASPECTS WHERE CONTEXT MUST
BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT. CONTEXT IS UNDERSTOOD HERE IN
A BROAD SENSE THAT INCLUDES PREVIOUS UTTERANCES
(DISCOURSE CONTEXT), PARTICIPANTS IN THE SPEECH EVENT,
3. SEMANTICS DEALS WITH CONVENTIONAL ASPECTS OF MEANING, THAT
IS, WHERE THERE IS AN ESTABLISHED CONNECTION BETWEEN FORM AND
MEANING.
PRAGMATICS DEALS WITH ASPECTS OF MEANING THAT ARE NOT ‘LOOKED
UP’ BUT WHICH ARE ‘WORKED OUT’ ON PARTICULAR OCCASIONS OF USE.
4. SEMANTICS IS CONCERNED WITH THE FORMAL DESCRIPTION OF
MEANINGS.
PRAGMATICS DEALS WITH THE USES MADE OF THOSE MEANINGS.
SEMANTICS TAKES A FORMAL APPROACH AND PRAGMATICS A
FUNCTIONAL APPROACH (CRUSE, 2006).
 2. DEFINITIONS OF PRAGMATICS AS A LINGUISTIC DISCIPLINE

• PRAGMATICS AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS IS DEFINED FROM DIFFERENT

ANGLES:
• THE BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS DEALING WITH LANGUAGE IN USE AND THE
CONTEXTS IN WHICH IT IS USED, INCLUDING SUCH MATTERS AS DEIXIS, THE
TAKING OF TURNS IN CONVERSATION, TEXT ORGANIZATION, PRESUPPOSITION,
AND IMPLICATURE (OXFORD DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH, 3RD EDITION OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS 2010)
• THE BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS THAT DEALS WITH THE MEANINGS AND
EFFECTS WHICH COME FROM THE USE OF LANGUAGE IN PARTICULAR
SITUATIONS (COLLINS COBUILD ADVANCED LEARNER’S ENGLISH DICTIONARY.
NEW DIGITAL EDITION, 2008).
• PRAGMATICS AIMS TO RESEARCH HOW CONTEXT AND CONVENTION – IN THEIR
BROADEST SENSE – CONTRIBUTE TO MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING.
PRAGMATICS STUDIES LANGUAGE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF LANGUAGE USERS
EMBEDDED IN THEIR SITUATIONAL, BEHAVIORAL, CULTURAL, SOCIETAL, AND
POLITICAL CONTEXTS, USING A BROAD VARIETY OF METHODOLOGIES AND
INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES DEPENDING ON SPECIFIC RESEARCH
QUESTIONS (SENFT G. THE INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMMUNICATION
THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY 2016).
• PRAGMATICS IS THE STUDY OF THOSE RELATIONS BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND
CONTEXT THAT ARE GRAMMATICALIZED, OR ENCODED IN THE STRUCTURE OF A
LANGUAGE (LEVINSON 1983)
• PRAGMATICS STUDIES THE FACTORS THAT GOVERN OUR CHOICE OF LANGUAGE
IN SOCIAL INTERACTION AND THE EFFECTS OF OUR CHOICE ON OTHERS.” (D.
CRYSTAL)
 WHY DO WE NEED PRAGMATICS?

• GENERAL ANSWER: 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 THE
PRAGMATIC ACCOUNT IS THE ONLY ONE THAT MAKES
SENSE.
 CENTRAL TOPICS OF PRAGMATICS.

• DEIXIS
• REFERENCE AND INFERENCE
• CONTEXT
• PRESUPPOSITION
• SPEECH ACT THEORY (AUSTIN 1961, 1962; SEARLE 1965, 1975, 1979)
• CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE (GRICE 1975)
• THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE (GRICE 1975)
• CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS ((GRICE 1975)
• RELEVANCE THEORY (SPERBER AND WILSON 1995)
• PRINCIPLE OF POLITENESS (BROWN AND LEVINSON 1978; LEECH 1983)
• CONVERSATION ANALYSIS (SACKS, SCHEGLOFF AND JEFFERSON, 1974)
 BACKGROUND READING ON PRAGMATICS

• LEECH, G.N (1983) PRINCIPLES OF PRAGMATICS, LONGMAN

• LEVINSON, S. (1983) PRAGMATICS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• MEY, J.L. (2004) PRAGMATICS. AN INTRODUCTION. 2ND ED. OXFORD: BLACKWELL
PUBLISHING.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION