Course Schedule

SPAN 587A – Introduction to Pragmatics

The topic of the seminar is pragmatics. Pragmatics is the study of language use in different social contexts, and it raises many important questions about language use in different cultures, such as "How can I speak appropriately in a new language?", "How can I be polite (or impolite) when interacting with other speakers?", among many others. Speakers have a variety of ways of communicating their ideas in social interaction. Among many expressions and structures at their disposal, speakers choose particular ones based on the identity they want to project, the identity of their interlocutor(s), and the situation in which the interaction is taking place. Quite often, speakers also convey meaning in indirect ways. In this seminar, we will examine five broad domains: (1) pragmatic constructs and foundational theories, (2) common research methodologies and methods, (3) cross-cultural pragmatics, (4) pragmatics and technology, and (5) pragmatics in specific discourse domains (e.g., legal and medical discourse). Through critical examination of the literature in these three areas, we will refine your understanding of the role of pragmatics in (applied) linguistics research, and some of the common methods of data collection and analysis in this field.