Defining Pragmatics

This groundbreaking book challenges the prominent definitions of pragmatics and the assumption that specific topics belong on the pragmatics turf.

Mira Ariel (Author)

9780521517836, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 June 2010

348 pages, 4 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.68 kg

'In this groundbreaking book, Ariel deconstructs the field of pragmatics and demonstrates how it can be reconstituted on a code versus inference distinction as a basis for a grammar/pragmatics divide … an excellent and exciting book.' Qingli Zhao, Journal of Pragmatics

Although there is no shortage of definitions for pragmatics the received wisdom is that 'pragmatics' simply cannot be coherently defined. In this groundbreaking book Mira Ariel challenges the prominent definitions of pragmatics, as well as the widely-held assumption that specific topics – implicatures, deixis, speech acts, politeness – naturally and uniformly belong on the pragmatics turf. She reconstitutes the field, defining grammar as a set of conventional codes, and pragmatics as a set of inferences, rationally derived. The book applies this division of labor between codes and inferences to many classical pragmatic phenomena, and even to phenomena considered 'beyond pragmatics'. Surprisingly, although some of these turn out pragmatic, others actually turn out grammatical. Additional intriguing questions addressed in the book include: why is it sometimes difficult to distinguish grammar from pragmatics? Why is there no grand design behind grammar nor behind pragmatics? Are all extragrammatical phenomena pragmatic?

1. What's under the big-tent pragmatics?
Part I. Deconstructing Pragmatics: 2. Surveying multiple-criterion definitions for pragmatics
3. Problematizing the criteria
Part II. Reconstituting Pragmatics: 4. Grammar as code, pragmatics as inference
5. Inferential pragmatic theories
Part III. Mapping the Big Tent: 6. The canon
7. Functional syntax
8. Beyond pragmatics
9. Many questions, some resolutions.

Subject Areas: Semantics, discourse analysis, etc [CFG]