Pragmatics

This textbook provides a lucid and integrative analysis of the central topics in pragmatics - deixis, implicature, presupposition, speech acts, and conversational structure.

Stephen C. Levinson (Author)

9780521294140, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 June 1983

438 pages
22.6 x 15 x 2.5 cm, 0.713 kg

Those aspects of language use that are crucial to an understanding of language as a system, and especially to an understanding of meaning, are the acknowledged concern of linguistic pragmatics. This textbook provides a lucid and integrative analysis of the central topics in pragmatics - deixis, implicature, presupposition, speech acts, and conversational structure. A central concern of the book is the relation between pragmatics and semantics, and Dr Levinson shows clearly how a pragmatic approach can resolve some of the problems semantics have been confronting and simplifying semantic analyses. The exposition is always clear and supported by helpful exemplification. The detailed analyses of selected topics give the student a clear view of the empirical rigour demanded by the study of linguistic pragmatics, but Dr Levinson never loses sight of the rich diversity of the subject. An introduction and conclusion relate pragmatics to other fields in linguistics and other disciplines concerned with language usage - psychology, philosophy, anthropology and literature.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Notation conventions
1. The scope of pragmatics
2. Deixis
3. Conversational implicature
4. Presupposition
5. Speech acts
6. Conversational structure
7. Conclusions
Bibliography
Subject index
Index of names.

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