This course offers an introduction to the field of pragmatics— the study of “linguistic acts and the contexts in which they are performed” (Stalnaker, 1972, p. 383). Pragmatics mainly explores “the interrelationship between language form, (communicated) messages and language users” (Schmitt, 2010, p. 70). Students in this course will expand their knowledge about how language meaning is communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader) in various contexts. They will have a chance to collect and analyze discourse data related to pragmatics theories from their reading and daily conversation. They will be further introduced to the techniques of designing Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) and analyzing the related speech acts such as making a request, apology, or declaration.

On completing this course students will 1.understand major pragmatics theories/models related to language communication and interpretation; 2.foster pragmatic competence in designing and analyzing Discourse Completion Tasks; and 3.gain critical insight into both theoretical aspects and practical applications of meaning construction in communication.

Required Textbook:
Yule, G. (2008). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Supplementary reading materials:
1) Overview of pragmatics
Spencer-Oatey, H., & Žegarac, V. (2010). Pragmatics. In N. Schmitt (Ed.), An introduction to
applied linguistics (2nd edition, Chapter 5, pp. 70-88). London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.

Chapman, S. (2011). Pragmatics. New York: Macmillan.

2) Activities of speech acts
Tatsuki, D. H, & Houck, N. R. (Eds.). (2010). Pragmatics: Teaching speech acts. Crofton, Maryland: Capitol Communication Systems, Inc.