Meaning in interaction an introduction to pragmatics pdf

Chapter Seven deals explicitly with Thomas' definition of pragmatics. Pragmatics is about interlocutors' intersubjective understanding of the situation or as Thomas puts it: "Pragmatics is not about: meaning; it is about making meaning, about mean- ing potential, showing how people negotiate meaning in interaction" p. Prag- matics is therefore seen as a dynamic enterprise.

And in this Thomas is surely right; but then why are the dynamics of interaction restricted to 'strategies', that is to the description of what the interlocutors do with their resources "to change the way things are or in order to maintain the status quo"?

Pragmatics describes activity types, in contrast to sociolinguistics which is con- cerned with speech events, "the systematic linguistic correlates of social and con- textual variables" p. Undoubtedly, these statements are of interest to pragmatics, but if we take Levinson's approach to 'events', i. Why is it only the way in which people will work round restrictions that is pragmatically interesting "Allowable contributions"?

Why is only the degree to which people can exploit turn-taking norms "in order to control an interaction" pragmatically interesting "Turn-taking and topic control"?

According to Thomas, pragmatics is concerned with expected conventional linguis- tic behaviour only when it conTes to the Gricean maxims or the interpersonal max- ims.

These issues are certainly interesting for pragmatics. But, attention should also be paid to the expected conventional acts of interlocutors. In both cases, they create the context by the choices they make. Unexpected acts m a y be more stimulating for the analyst, but this does not make them any more or less pragmatic than those acts that are expected, provided that the latter are not seen as being 'dic- tated' by societal norms.

Considering discourse as a dynamic undertaking, enacted by speaker and hearer, post hoc classifications by analysts are o f no interest. To put it in T h o m a s ' words, discussing analysis o f discoursal ambivalence: "In pragmatics we want to know what the participants understood to be going on at this point" p.

Therefore evidence for findings in pragmatics is primarily found in "the language produced" p. Evidence is available in "The perlocutionary effect of an utterance on the hearer", "Explicit commentary by the speaker", "Explicit c o m m e n t a r y by someone other than the speaker", and the "Subsequent discourse".

T h o m a s ' interactional dynamic approach to pragmatics is certainly a v e r y fruitful one, and it would certainly have been worth while relating this and, therefore, Chap- ter Seven, more explicitly to the rest o f the book. The decision not to do so m a y be motivated by the b o o k ' s target audience. As a textbook, Meaning in Interaction is very accessible and written in a clear, forthright and unpretentious style. Technical minutiae which would have made an introductory text of this kind unwieldy have been omitted.

In sum, Meaning in Interaction provides a succinct and stimulating overview of the current state o f pragmatics. It is an excellent introduction to this complex subject. References Atkinson Martin, David A. Kilby and Iggy Roca, Foundations of general linguistics, 2nd edn. Lon- don: Allen and Unwin. Austin, John L. How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brown, Penelope and Stephen C.

Levinson, []. Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dascal, Marcelo, Pragmatics and the philosophy of mind I: Thought in language. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Fraser, Bruce, Perspectives on politeness. Journal of Pragmatics 14 2 : Grice, H. Paul, Logic and conversation. In: P. Cole, ed. New York: Academic Press. Grundy, Peter, Doing pragmatics. London: Edward Arnold.

Leech, Geoffrey N. Explorations in semantics and pragmatics. Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman. Levinson, Stephen C. Activity types and language. Matsumoto, Yoshiko, Re-examination of the universality of face: Politeness phenomena in Japan- ese. Journal of Pragmatics Mey, Jacob L. Whose language'? Pyle, C, The function of indirectness. Searle, John R. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Indirect speech acts. A classification of illocutionary acts.

Language in Society 5: Spencer-Oatey, H. Cross-cultural politeness: British and Chinese conceptions of the tutor-student relationship. Unpublished Ph.

Thesis, Lancaster University. Sperber Dan and Deirdre Wilson, On Grice's theory of conversation. Speech acts3. Conversational implicature4.

Approaches to pragmatics5. Pragmatics and indirectness6. Theories of politeness7. The construction of meaning. View via Publisher. Save to Library Save. Create Alert Alert. Share This Paper.

Background Citations. Methods Citations. Results Citations. Citation Type. Has PDF. Publication Type. More Filters. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. How to do things without performative verbs Explicit and implicit performatives Utterances as actions Locution, illocution, perlocution Speech acts Conclusion 51 3 Conversational implicature Introduction H. Grice Implicature Conventional implicature Conversational implicature Implicature and inference The Cooperative Principle The four conversational maxims Observing the maxims Non-observance of the maxims Distinguishing between types of non-observance Different nature of maxims Maxims may overlap Problems of calculability Grice's informal approach J.

Searle Indirect speech acts Searle's conditions for speech acts Distinguishing speech acts Plugging the gaps in Searle's rules The speech act of apobgizing: a case study Over-generality of rules The speech act of warning: a case study. To browse Academia. Skip to main content. You're using an out-of-date version of Internet Explorer. By using our site, you agree to our collection of information through the use of cookies. To learn more, view our Privacy Policy.

Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics is a comprehensive introductory text which discusses the development of pragmatics - its aims and methodology - and also introduces themes that are not generally covered in other texts.