1,533 research outputs found
Pragmatics, Modularity and Mind-reading Pragmatics, Modularity and Mind-reading
No full textAbstract The central problem for pragmatics is that sentence meaning vastly underdetermines speaker's meaning. The goal of pragmatics is to explain how the gap between sentence meaning and speaker's meaning is bridged. This paper defends the broadly Gricean view that pragmatic interpretation is ultimately an exercise in mind-reading, involving the inferential attribution of intentions. We argue, however, that the interpretation process does not simply consist in applying general mind-reading abilities to a particular (communicative) domain. Rather, it involves a dedicated comprehension module, with its own special principles and mechanisms. We show how such a metacommunicative module might have evolved, and what principles and mechanisms it might contain
Corpus Analysis and Lexical Pragmatics: An Overview
Get PDFLexical pragmatics studies the processes by which lexically encoded meanings are modified in use; well-studied examples include lexical narrowing, approximation and metaphorical extension. Relevance theorists have been trying to develop a unitary account on which narrowing, approximation and metaphorical extension are all explained in the same way. While there have been several corpus-based studies of metaphor and a few of hyperbole or approximation, there has been no attempt so far to test the unitary account using corpus data. This paper reports the results of a corpus-based investigation of lexical-pragmatic processes, and discusses the theoretical issues and challenges it raises
Theory of mind in utterance interpretation: the case from clinical pragmatics
No full textThe cognitive basis of utterance interpretation is an area that continues to provoke intense theoretical debate among pragmatists. That utterance interpretation involves some type of mind-reading or theory of mind (ToM) is indisputable. However, theorists are divided on the exact nature of this ToM-based mechanism. In this paper, it is argued that the only type of ToM-based mechanism that can adequately represent the cognitive basis of utterance interpretation is one which reflects the rational, intentional, holistic character of interpretation. Such a ToM-based mechanism is supported on conceptual and empirical grounds. Empirical support for this view derives from the study of children and adults with pragmatic disorders. Specifically, three types of clinical case are considered. In the first case, evidence is advanced which indicates that individuals with pragmatic disorders exhibit deficits in reasoning and the use of inferences. These deficits compromise the ability of children and adults with pragmatic disorders to comply with the rational dimension of utterance interpretation
Principles of corporeal pragmatics
Get PDFIn response to recent findings in cognitive linguistics, the paper sums up the principles of ‘corporeal pragmatics’ as they have been developed so far. At the centre of the author’s perceptually oriented investigation of natural language stands the relation between natural language and perception. The paper charges the philosophy of language and linguistics with having for too long committed the sin of Wahrnehmungsvergessenheit, the forgetting of taking for ‘true’ what our senses tell us. The author proposes to redress this imbalance by an argument that linguistic meaning events rely essentially on the activation of empty linguistic schemata by conceptually regulated, iconic sign materials. Such a claim requires a redefinition of the Saussurean signified, the concept, reference and deixis and other terms in the vocabulary of the study of language. The paper concludes by suggesting that corporeal pragmatics has serious implications for disciplines well beyond philosophy, semiotics, and linguistics
L2 pragmatics as 'intercultural pragmatics' : probing sociopragmatic aspects of pragmatic awareness
Get PDFOne of the important ‘current issues in intercultural pragmatics’ is how conceptual, theoretical, and empirical developments in this field can be used to help reconstitute the teaching and learning of second languages as an intercultural endeavor. The field of intercultural pragmatics raises important questions and presents challenges to prevailing perspectives within language teaching on what it means to know and use languages for intercultural communication, particularly how notions such as pragmatic awareness should be understood. This paper links recent views of pragmatics as social and moral practice (E.g. Kádár & Haugh, 2013; Spencer-Oatey & Kádár, 2016) with sociocognitive perspectives on pragmatic interpretation (Kecskes, 2014; Author 1 2013; Author 2 2018) to offer a reconceptualization of pragmatic awareness for second language learning. The paper draws on data from an English language classroom in Japan to illustrate some of the ways in which collaborative meta-pragmatic reflection in the classroom opens up possibilities for exploring various cultural assumptions drawn from the L1 and L2 that come into play when interpreting aspects of L2 pragmatics. This will be used to suggest a conceptualisation of pragmatic awareness as a layered phenomenon that is inherently multilingual and intercultural
Toward a Motivation Model of Pragmatics/ Rong Chen.
No full textIn English.With the "discursive turn" has come a distrust - a complete rejection by some - of theories that seek deeper reasons for surface phenomena. Rong Chen argues that this distrust, with its accompanying overemphasis on specificity and fluidity of linguistic meaning and social values, is unwarranted and unhelpful. Drawing on insights from social theories and various strands of pragmatics, he proposes a motivation model of pragmatics (MMP), contending that language use can be adequately, coherently, and elegantly studied via the motivation behind it in its varied and dynamic contexts. The model, with its well-laid out components, is then applied to (im)politeness research, cross-cultural pragmatics, diachronic pragmatics, discourse and genre analysis, conversation analysis, identity construction, and the study of metaphor, sarcasm, parody, and lying. MMP is thus a framework aimed at accounting for fluidity with stable notions, specificity with general principles, and differences with similar underlying factors. As such, the book should appeal to students of pragmatics, (im)politeness, conversation analysis, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, communication, sociology, and psychology.Frontmatter -- Foreword -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Chapter 1 Pragmatics then and now -- Chapter 2 A motivation model of pragmatics (MMP) -- Chapter 3 MMP and (im)politeness -- Chapter 4 MMP and cross-/intercultural variation -- Chapter 5 MMP and diachronic pragmatics -- Chapter 6 MMP and discourse -- Chapter 7 MMP and metaphor -- Chapter 8 MMP and the non-literal -- Afterword -- References -- Appendix -- Subject index -- Author index1 online resource (XIII, 333 p.)
Where Prosody Meets Pragmatics
No full textIntro -- Where Prosody Meets Pragmatics -- Copyright -- Table o f Contents -- List of Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Where Prosody Meets Pragmatics: Research at the Interface -- Part I: Referential and Discourse/Textual Meaning -- 2. Prosodic Person Reference in Murriny Patha Reported Interaction -- 3. What Makes a Word Contrastive? Prosodic, Semantic and Pragmatic Perspectives -- 4. Mapping Prosody and Syntax as Discourse Strategies: How Basic Discourse Units Vary Across Genres -- 5. What a Difference the Prosody Makes: The Role of Prosody in the Study of Discourse Particles -- Part II Organizing and Maintaining Interaction -- 6. Prosody and Context Selection: A Procedural Approach -- 7. When to say Something - Some Observations on Prosodic-Phonetic Cues to the Placement and Types of Responses in Multi-Unit Turns -- 8. Fundamental Frequency Height as a Resource for the Management of Overlap in Talk-in-Interaction -- 9. FIRST or SECOND: Establishing Sequential Roles in Radio Phone-In Programmes Through Prosody -- Part III: Style, Stance and Interpersonal Meaning -- 10. On Tempo in Dispreferred Turns: A Recurrent Pattern in a Dutch Corpus -- 11. Relatedness and Timing in Talk-in-Interaction -- 12. Creaky Fillers and Speaker Attitude: Data from Swedish -- Author Index -- Subject IndexDescription based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
Pragmatics and its discontents
No full textThis paper deals with a number of epistemological ambiguities in pragmatica theories. A great amount of idealization is in fact still presupposed by pragmatics. The author claims that it is necessary to develop alternatuve theoretical models in which the uses of language and the discourses are the places where the meaning and the subjects are constituted
Pragmatics
No full textRoutledge never paid me for this contribution to their encyclopedia. Shame on them!1 Pragmatics and ordinary language philosophy 2 Speech acts 3 Contextual implications 4 Non-truth-conditional aspects of meaning 5 Indexicals 6 Levels of meaning 7 Open texture 8 The semantics/pragmatics distinction 9 Context and propositional attitudes 10 Presupposition 11 Interpretation and context-change 12 The strategic importance of conversational implicatures 13 Communicative intentions 14 The intentional-inferential model 15 Pragmatics and modularity 16 Cognitive science and contextualis
Argumentation meets adapted cognition: manipulation in media discourse on immigration
Get PDFCritical discourse analysis has focussed extensively on argumentation in anti-immigration discourse where a specific suite of argumentation strategies has been identified as constitutive of the discourse. The successful perlocutionary effects of these arguments are analysed as products of pragmatic processes based on ‘common-sense’ reasoning schemes known as topoi. In this paper, I offer an alternative explanation grounded in cognitive-evolutionary psychology. Specifically, it is shown that a number of argumentation schemes identified as recurrent in anti-immigration discourse relate to two cognitive mechanisms proposed in evolutionary psychology: the cheater detection and avoidance mechanism (Cosmides 1989) and epistemic vigilance (Sperber et al. 2010). It is further suggested that the potential perlocutionary effects of argument acts in anti-immigration discourse, in achieving sanction for discriminatory practices, may arise not as the product of intentional-inferential processes but as a function of cognitive heuristics and biases provided by these mechanisms. The impact of such arguments may therefore be best characterised in terms of manipulation rather than persuasion
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