Defining Pragmatics

by Mira Ariel

• ISBN13: 9780521517836
• ISBN10: 0521517834
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-08-16
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Although there is no shortage of definitions for pragmatics the received wisdom is that 'pragmatics' simply cannot be coherently defined. In this groundbreaking book Mira Ariel challenges the prominent definitions of pragmatics, as well as the widely-held assumption that specific topics - implicatures, deixis, speech acts, politeness - naturally and uniformly belong on the pragmatics turf. She reconstitutes the field, defining grammar as a set of conventional codes, and pragmatics as a set of inferences, rationally derived. The book applies this division of labor between codes and inferences to many classical pragmatic phenomena, and even to phenomena considered 'beyond pragmatics'. Surprisingly, although some of these turn out pragmatic, others actually turn out grammatical. Additional intriguing questions addressed in the book include: why is it sometimes difficult to distinguish grammar from pragmatics? Why is there no grand design behind grammar nor behind pragmatics? Are all extragrammatical phenomena pragmatic?

Author Biography

Mira Ariel is a professor in the Linguistics Department at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Her recent publications include pragmatics and Grammar (Cambridge, 2008).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Transcription conventions	p. xvii
What's under the big-tent pragmatics?	p. 1
A taste of big-tent pragmatics	p. 1
How big-tent pragmatics was born	p. 4
Where Defining Pragmatics should take us	p. 16
Deconstructing pragmatics
Surveying multiple-criterion definitions for pragmatics	p. 23
Meaning Criteria	p. 24
Context dependence	p. 24
Nontruth conditionality	p. 28
Implicit and secondary	p. 31
Analytic criteria	p. 34
Discourse unit	p. 34
Extragrammatical accounts	p. 37
Acceptability judgments	p. 42
Naturalness	p. 43
Cognitive criteria	p. 45
Performance	p. 45
Right-hemisphere specialization	p. 47
Inference	p. 49
On the convergence between the different criteria	p. 53
Problematizing the criteria	p. 56
Meaning criteria	p. 57
Context dependence	p. 57
Nontruth conditionality	p. 60
Implicit and Secondary	p. 64
Analytic criteria	p. 67
Discourse unit	p. 68
Extragrammatical accounts	p. 73
Acceptability judgments	p. 75
Naturalness	p. 77
Congnitive criteria	p. 80
Performance	p. 80
Right-hemisphere specialization	p. 83
Inference	p. 86
Reconstituting pragmatics
Grammer as code, pragmatics as inference	p. 93
A definition of convenience: pragmatics as a list of canonized topics	p. 93
Grammar as code, pragmatics in inference	p. 97
What's behind grammar versus pragmatics?	p. 104
A Procrustean Bed: minimalistic 'what is said's	p. 104
The functions of the code/inference distinction	p. 111
Inferential pragmatic theories	p. 120
Gricean principles	p. 120
Neo-Gricean principles	p. 128
Relevance Theory	p. 135
Mapping the big tent
The canon	p. 149
Deixis and reference	p. 149
Speech acts	p. 152
Meaning determination	p. 154
Presupposition	p. 156
Intonation	p. 158
Topicality and discourse structure	p. 159
Implicatures and explicated inferences	p. 163
Functional syntax	p. 169
The added value of constructions	p. 172
Extragrammatical functions associated with constructions	p. 174
Encoded construction meanings	p. 182
Code, and inference too	p. 193
Complex form-function correlations	p. 202
What's the relevant construction?	p. 202
Code or inference?	p. 205
Beyond pragmatics	p. 212
Politeness	p. 213
Stance	p. 216
Nonliteral references	p. 219
International Patterns	p. 219
Discourse styles	p. 221
Sociolinguistic variation	p. 221
Psycholinguistic phenomena	p. 224
Many questions, some resolutions	p. 230
Recapitulating the main argument	p. 230
Why is it sometimes difficult to distinguish grammar from pragmatics, and what's the problem with Occam's Razor?	p. 235
Why is there no grand design behind grammar and behind pragmatics?	p. 242
Do we now have more grammar or more pragmatics?	p. 247
Are all extragrammatical phenomena pragmatic?	p. 248
What's the status of grammatical pragmatics?	p. 256
An argument for a separate grammatical pragmatic status	p. 261
An argument against a separate grammatical pragmatic status	p. 264
Summary	p. 271
Notes	p. 275
References	p. 293
Index of names	p. 323
Index of subjects	p. 329
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