Pragmatics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Pragmatics is the field of linguistics which studies how aspects of meaning encoded by grammar interact with the context of use. These interactions come in many forms, including the following traditional subareas of pragmatics: 1. Indexicality: the context in which an utterance is made help determine what it literally means. 2. Implicature: the context in which an utterance is made help determine what meaning the speaker is able to communicate. 3. Presupposition: The context helps determine which future utterances are natural and which are not. 4. Speech acts: An utterance helps create the context going forward. In this course, we will begin with a historically informed overview of these four traditional areas and then move on to current topics of research and debate. Topics will be decided based on student interest, but likely candidates include the following: 1. Reference and dexis in sign languages: the spatiotemporal modality of sign languages allows them to express reference, deixis, and perspective in different ways from spoken languages. 2. Information structure and discourse structure: Advances in pragmatics have taken us beyond traditional concepts of presupposition and speech acts to create integrated theories of how a discourse evolves. Requirements: Reading, participation, homework assignments, group or individual presentations.