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ENG432Arts3 Unitsintermediate

Pragmatics

This course demonstrates how language functions in practical social situations, challenging the view that it is a mere cognitive skill. It explores how speakers and writers make language choices to achieve their intentions, guided by context to encode and interpret meanings beyond words or grammatical structures. The course aims to expose students to the crucial notion of speaker/writer's intended meaning-making process, impacting their language performances.

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120h

Study Time

13

Weeks

9h

Per Week

none

Math Level

Course Keywords

PragmaticsSociolinguisticsSpeech ActsContextIntention

Course Overview

Everything you need to know about this course

Course Difficulty

Intermediate Level

Builds on foundational knowledge

65%

intermediate

📚

Math Level

No Math

🔬

Learning Type

Hands-on Practice

Course Topics

Key areas covered in this course

1

Definitions of Pragmatics

2

Historical Overview of Pragmatics

3

Context in Language Use

4

Concepts in Pragmatics

5

Theories of Pragmatics

6

Pragmatics and Discourse Structure

7

Speech Acts

8

Conversational Principles

9

Politeness Principle

10

Reference and Inference

11

Deixis

12

Presupposition

Total Topics12 topics

Ready to Start

No specific requirements needed

This course is designed to be accessible to all students. You can start immediately without any prior knowledge or specific preparation.

Assessment Methods

How your progress will be evaluated (3 methods)

assignments

Comprehensive evaluation of course material understanding

Written Assessment

tutor-marked assessments

Comprehensive evaluation of course material understanding

Written Assessment

final examination

Comprehensive evaluation of course material understanding

Written Assessment

Career Opportunities

Explore the career paths this course opens up for you

Communication Specialist

Apply your skills in this growing field

Linguist

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Editor

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Public Relations Officer

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Content Creator

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Industry Applications

Real-world sectors where you can apply your knowledge

EducationMediaAdvertisingPublic RelationsCommunication

Study Schedule Beta

A structured 13-week journey through the course content

Week

1

Module 1: Meaning and Scope of Pragmatics

2h

Unit 1: Meaning and Scope of Pragmatics

2 study hours

•Study definitions of pragmatics by Leech, Levinson, and Yule.
•Identify the common features of these definitions.
•Reflect on situations where you interpreted statements pragmatically.

Week

2

Module 1: Meaning and Scope of Pragmatics

2h

Unit 2: Historical Overview of Pragmatics

2 study hours

•Examine the contributions of Charles Morris to pragmatics.
•Distinguish between Morris's use of 'pragmatics' and modern linguistic pragmatics.
•Analyze Carnap's trichotomy of semiotics.

Week

3

Module 1: Meaning and Scope of Pragmatics

2h

Unit 3: Context in Language Use

2 study hours

•Define context and describe its features.
•Differentiate between linguistic, physical, interpersonal, situational, and institutional contexts.
•Discuss Halliday's components of discourse context.

Week

4

Module 2: Concepts in Pragmatics

2h

Unit 1: Tact

2 study hours

•Explain tact as a pragmatic concept.
•Describe the relationship between tact and politeness.
•Analyze forms of illocutionary function and face-saving tact.

Week

5

Module 2: Concepts in Pragmatics

2h

Unit 2: Deixis

2 study hours

•Explain deictic reference and differentiate it from anaphoric reference.
•Describe person, place, and time deixis.
•Analyze how context determines deictic references.

Week

6

Module 2: Concepts in Pragmatics

2h

Unit 3: Deixis Cont'd

2 study hours

•Relate deixis to meaning and describe the concept of the deictic center.
•Analyze how deixis operates in real-world situations.
•Identify shifts in deictic center.

Week

7

Module 2: Concepts in Pragmatics

2h

Unit 4: Reference and Inference

2 study hours

•Differentiate between semantic and pragmatic reference.
•Explain the importance of intention to communication.
•Distinguish between reference and inference.

Week

8

Module 2: Concepts in Pragmatics

2h

Unit 5: Presupposition

2 study hours

•Define presupposition and identify clauses that trigger presuppositions.
•Differentiate between pragmatic and semantic presupposition.
•Analyze presuppositions in everyday speech.

Week

9

Module 2: Concepts in Pragmatics

2h

Unit 6: Conversational Principle

2 study hours

•Explain conversational maxims and differentiate them.
•Define entailment and implicature and distinguish between them.
•Analyze the importance of entailment and implicature in encoding meaning.

Week

10

Module 2: Concepts in Pragmatics

2h

Unit 7: Politeness Principle

2 study hours

•Discuss the roles of politeness phenomena in communication.
•Describe forms of politeness strategies.
•Explain politeness as face-saving.

Week

11

Module 2: Concepts in Pragmatics

4h

Unit 8: Speech Acts

2 study hours

•Explain how interactants do things with words.
•Describe locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts.
•Distinguish between direct and indirect speech acts.

Unit 9: Speech Events

2 study hours

•Explain the role of utterances in speech events.
•Describe formal properties of speech events.
•Discuss the relationship between pragmatics and conversation analysis.

Week

12

Module 3: Theories of Pragmatics

4h

Unit 1: Austin's Theory of Pragmatics

2 study hours

•Discuss Austin's theory of pragmatics.
•Explain performative and constative sentences.
•Describe Austin's infelicities condition.
•Summarize Searle's contribution to speech act theory.

Unit 2: Grice's Theory of Conversational Implicature

2 study hours

•Explain types of conversational implicature.
•Describe non-conversational implicature.
•Distinguish between implicature and explicature.

Week

13

Module 4: Pragmatics and Its Interfaces

4h

Unit 3: Other Theoretical Contributions

2 study hours

•Explain Bach's and Harnish's intention and inference theory.
•Summarize Levinson's tri-heuristic theory.
•Distinguish between Levinson's theory and Adegbija's balanced and unified theory.

Unit 1: Pragmatics and Discourse Structure

2 study hours

•Describe the nature and functions of discourse markers.
•Explain non-sentence speech acts.
•Identify the pragmatics of figurative statements.
•Discuss the pragmatics of language performance.

This study schedule is in beta and may not be accurate. Please use it as a guide and consult the course outline for the most accurate information.

Course PDF Material

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Study Tips & Exam Preparation

Expert tips to help you succeed in this course

1

Create concept maps linking key pragmatic theories (Austin, Grice, Searle) to their core concepts.

2

Practice identifying speech acts (direct/indirect) in various conversational contexts (Units 8-9).

3

Analyze newspaper articles and advertisements for examples of implicature and presupposition (Units 5-6).

4

Review the different types of contexts (linguistic, physical, interpersonal, socio-cultural) and their influence on meaning (Unit 3).

5

Study examples of deictic expressions (person, place, time) and how their interpretation depends on context (Units 5-6).

6

Focus on understanding the conversational maxims and how they are violated to create implicatures (Unit 9).

7

Practice applying the performative formula to identify performative utterances (Unit 13).

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