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.
Author(s): Billy Clark
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 210
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
