The Definition of Pragmatics

Lilih Insyirah, 2021

Pragmatic is a branch of linguistics that studies about how language is used in communication, and how investigates meaning as context rather than as something abstract or ambiguous in communication. In studying pragmatics, a common problem is in speaking or communicating, the existence of pragmatics has not been known about its true meaning and purpose. Communication that is informative has a deep function of speaking activities. This is where pragmatics plays a role in knowing the meaning and intentions conveyed in the various communication processes that occur. Thus, as students who study linguistics as well as humans who communicate, it is important for us to know what pragmatics actually guides us in speaking or communicating well.

Pragmatics is the branch of linguistics which studies how utterances communicate meaning in context. The study of meaning is commonly known as 'semantics' and it has long been one of the most daunting and difficult areas of language study. In the 1950s and 1960s, however, linguists and philosophers slowly began to realize that part of the difficulty lay in their failure to distinguish two quite different aspects of meaning.

Journal, 2016

This paper explores and exposes the historical development, scope and subject matter or object of study of Pragmatics as well as explaining with relevant data how pragmatics, Semantics and Discourse Analysis handle the study of meaning in language. Pragmatics, which is a branch of linguistics concerned with the use of language in social context, did not just appear in the study of language like a 'ghost' but has a historical origin, a scope that it covers, and a subject matter. In addition, this research, apart from arming us with the information on the origin, scope and subject matter of Pragmatics, had gone a step further to tell us how Pragmatics, in conjunction with Semantics, which is the study of the meaning of linguistic expression, and Discourse Analysis, which is the study of the ways in which language is used in texts and contexts, deal with the study of meaning in language at different levels, as separate disciplines of English and Linguistics.

Journal of Pragmatics, 2011

This is Volume 1 in the Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights series edited by Verschueren and Ostman. As the series approaches pragmatics as a highly interdisciplinary field of inquiry, the volume seeks to ''provide a practical and theoretical tool for achieving coherence in the discipline'' (p. xi). It demonstrates the ways in which the basic notions in the field of pragmatics are relevant to the interdisciplinary study of human interaction in the cognitive, social, cultural, and linguistic dimensions. The volume consists of 13 chapters which can be grouped into three thematically related parts. The first part, the opening chapter, provides an overview of the historical development of pragmatics in terms of its cross-disciplinary nature. The second part (chapters 2-8, 10, 12-13) consists of topics frequently discussed in pragmatics such as adaptability, channel, communication, context and contextualization, conversational logic, deixis, implicitness, presupposition, semiotics, and speech act theory. The third part (chapters 9 and 11) deals with non-verbal communication and primate communication, topics rarely touched upon in the field of pragmatics. The introduction to the volume, written by Verschueren, discusses the interdisciplinary roots of pragmatics. Verschueren contends that pragmatics originated from the unification of semiotics with different disciplines. He argues that pragmatics first took as its subject those topics which could not be suitably explored within syntax and semantics and later interacted in various ways with a number of disciplines. In accordance with this historical overview of pragmatics, Verschueren proposes to pursue a functional perspective on language-paying special attention to language use. That is, to make 'making choices' in communication as the core concept of current work. He notes that the interpretation of 'making choices' involves three hierarchically related notions: variability, negotiability, and adaptability, which are considered to be 'the interrelated properties of the overall investigation for linguistic pragmatics, the functionality of language' (p. 20). Verschueren's introduction provides detailed guidance to the principles underpinning this volume, and also implies that pragmatics is undergoing change as contributions from different disciplines deepen our understanding of the field. Each chapter of the second group of topics in this volume addresses the most salient issues in pragmatics, showing how the researchers' different backgrounds and interests have given rise to various interpretations of common notions in pragmatics. Adaptability is one of three key notions in Verschueren's model of pragmatics (1999/2000). In his model, Verschueren stresses the importance of adaptability by placing it at the core of language use. His discussion of adaptability focuses primarily on its contributions to pragmatic descriptions and explanations, including identification of context, the process of making choices in communication, and the importance of cognition in language use. But in this current article (chapter 2) 'Adaptability', Verschueren and Brisard shift their attention to the association between adaptability and evolutionary theory. They argue that language is by nature adaptive, and reflect on two different senses of adaption. In its biological sense, language emerges and develops adaptively to circumstances, while in its social-interactive sense, language functions adaptively to the process of communication. These two uses are not discrete as both are inseparable from human cognition. The authors not only emphasize the theoretical importance of an adaptability theory of pragmatics in the study of language use, but also exemplify some of the applications of adaptability to human-computer interaction, political rhetoric, language acquisition, accommodation theory, and language disorders. In chapter 3, 'Channel' by Slembrouck, the basic assumption of the author is that the conventional distinction of channel between spoken and written language in linguistic studies is 'crude and narrow' (p. 48), as channels of communication have a greater variation in language use. According to Slembrouck, the crudity can be exposed through a comparison between print and handwriting or between spoken television news and casual conversation. By probing into the complexities of written and spoken language, Slembrouck suggests that changes in channels of communication have an impact on the nature of institutionalized forms of language-use, and pragmatic research should stay abreast of what is happening in practice. He extends the sense of channel by taking into consideration non-verbal signs involved in representation and communication, including images and digital hypertext. Along with his focus on reexamining channels of communication, Slembrouck highlights some topics of current interest in pragmatics' research, such as multimodality. Some readers may find this section

In C. Chapelle (General Editor) Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 4588-4594) Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. , 2012

Pragmatics may be defi ned as "the study of language use" (Levinson, 1983, p. 5); however, such a simple defi nition hardly reveals what the fi eld really encompasses and it may be more productive to describe the range of phenomena studied within the domain of pragmatics . Such a description would have been easier to develop 30 years ago than it is now, since the boundaries of the area of pragmatics have grown to intersect with disciplines such as linguistics, sociology, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, philosophy of language, anthropology, cognitive psychology, human-computer communication, computer-mediated communication, bilingual/multilingualism, ethnography of communication, and fi rst and second language acquisition.

2018

Pragmatics is a major study of linguistics that defines the hidden meanings of a writer and speaker towards the conjoining effort of linguistic form. It is stated along with its user. Within pragmatics the importance is usually given to a contextual meaning, where every other meaning of given context is referred to speaker as well as writer that wishes to state something. Therefore, the field of Pragmatics helps to deal with speaker's intended meaning. It is the scope of pragmatics that shows some of linguistic relating terms. They are often stated as utterances, which are informative contribution through physical or real utterance of the meaning, uses of word, structure and setting of the conversations. The second is a speech act that focuses on what the writer and the speaker wants to say to someone. So in this way, the major purpose of pragmatics is engaged with addressor's intended words to communicate with the addressee.

Pragmatics has to be defined in relation to al1 kinds of other enterprises within the field of Linguistics. Traditionally, Pragmatics has been conceived of as an additional component of a theory of Linguistics, on a par with disciplines such as Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax. My position with respect to the definition of Pragmatics is that you do not get very far if you try to define it as an additionai component to a theory of language. The reason is that for Pragmatics you cannot identi+ a specific unit of anaiysis. This is something that you can do for other domains in Linguistics. Phonology, for example, deals with speech sounds, Morphology with the structure of words, and Syntax with the structure of sentences, and even for Semantics there are a couple of typicai units of analysis. For instance, Lexical Semantics is involved with words, and most other kinds of Semantics deai with structures cailed propositions. Nothing of that sort can be identified with Pragmatics. It is more helpful if we adopt a broader approach whereby Pragmatics is defined as the cognitive, social and cultural s u d y of language and communication.' Pragmatics, the state of the art. A talk with TefVerschueren

2010

I. Introduction: What Is Pragmatics II. Key Terms III. Key Thinkers IV. Key Texts V. Worked Examples of Pragmatics.