What is Pragmatics?

What is Pragmatics?

Definition^[1]

• the study of the practical aspects of human action and thought.
• the study of the use of linguistic signs, (words and sentences), in actual situations.

Pragmatics outlines the study of meaning in the interactional context

It looks beyond the literal meaning of an utterance and considers how meaning is constructed as well as focusing on implied meanings. It considers language as an instrument of interaction, what people mean when they use language and how we communicate and understand each other.  

 

Jenny Thomas^[2] says that pragmatics considers:

• the negotiation of meaning between speaker and listener.
• the context of the utterance.
• the meaning potential of an utterance.

 

This may be best presented in an example:

 

Speaker: 'Are you putting the kettle on?'

Listener knows the speaker is hinting that they would like a hot drink.

OR

Speaker: 'What time do you call this?'

Listener interprets it as 'Why are you so late?' and knows it is not appropriate to reply with the literal time. 

The context of the interaction and our everyday experiences allow us to construct and interpret layers of meaning beyond what is literally suggested. For similar theories and ideas, see What is Conversation Analysis?, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis and Semantics.