Introduction to Pragmatics - Softcover

Birner, Betty J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1405175834 ISBN 13: 9781405175838

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012

Synopsis

Introduction to Pragmatics guides students through traditional and new approaches in the field, focusing particularly on phenomena at the elusive semantics/pragmatics boundary to explore the role of context in linguistic communication.

• Offers students an accessible introduction and an up-to-date survey of the field, encompassing both established and new approaches to pragmatics
• Addresses the traditional range of topics – such as implicature, reference, presupposition, and speech acts – as well as newer areas of research, including neo-Gricean theories, Relevance
• Theory, information structure, inference, and dynamic approaches to meaning
• Explores the relationship and boundaries between semantics and pragmatics
• Ideal for students coming to pragmatics for the first time

About this title

From the Back Cover

Pragmatics is the study of language use in context. It concerns itself with the relationship between language and the humans who use it, and specifically how their beliefs and intentions affect both the form and the interpretation of their utterances. This introductory textbook presents an up-to-date survey of the field, addressing the traditional range of topics within pragmatics – such as implicature, reference, presupposition, and speech acts – as well as newer areas of research including neo-Gricean theories, Relevance Theory, information structure, inference, and dynamic approaches to meaning.

Throughout the book the relationship between semantics and pragmatics is continually addressed and reassessed. By encompassing both traditional and new approaches, and focusing particularly on phenomena at the semantics/pragmatics boundary, Introduction to Pragmatics sheds light on one of the major issues in the field: the role of context in linguistic communication.

About the Author

Betty J. Birner is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English at Northern Illinois University. She is the author of several books, including The Discourse Function of Inversion in English (1996), Information Status and Noncanonical Word Order in English (with Gregory Ward, 1998), and Drawing the Boundaries of Meaning: Neo-Gricean Studies in Pragmatics and Semantics in Honor of Laurence R. Horn (with Gregory Ward, 2006).

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1405175834
• ISBN 13: 9781405175838
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352