Explorations in Pragmatics: Linguistic, Cognitive and Intercultural Aspects

by Istvan Kecskes (Editor), Laurence R. Horn (Editor)

Overview

The papers in this volume reflect current trends in international research in pragmatics over recent years. The unique feature of the book is that the authors coming from ten different countries represent all aspects of pragmatics and address issues that have emerged as the result of recent research in pragmatics proper and neighboring fields such as cognitive psychology, philosophy, and communication.

Recent theoretical work on the semantics/pragmatics interface, empirical work within cognitive and developmental psychology, intercultural communication and bilingual pragmatics have directed attention to issues that warrant reexamination and revision of some of the central tenets and claims of the field of pragmatics. In addition, cultural changes originating from globalization have affected the relation of language to the wider world. In particular, the spread of English as a global language has led to the emergence of issues of usage, power, and control that must be dealt with in a comprehensive pragmatics of language.

Pragmatic theories have traditionally emphasized the importance of intention, rationality, cooperation, common ground, mutual knowledge, relevance, and commitment in the formation and execution of communicative acts. The new approaches to pragmatic research reflected in this volume, while not questioning the central role of these factors, extend the purview of the discipline to allow for a more comprehensive picture of their functioning and interrelationship within the dynamics of communication.

The papers address these issues from a variety of directions. In Part I, Searle and Horn examine language use and pragmatics from a philosophical perspective. In Part II, the cognitive aspect of pragmatics is represented in the papers of Moeschler, Ruiz de Mendoza & Baicchi, and Giora. They focus on well-known domains such as illocutionary constructions, the pragmatics of negation, and the relevance-theoretic concept of explicature. However, each paper sheds new light on the familiar concepts. The papers in Part III by Mey, Kecskes and Grundy discuss the intercultural aspects of pragmatics while Terkourafi explores the explanatory potential of an interpretation of Grice's Cooperative Principle. Margerie's and Geeraert & Kristiansen's articles focus on the application of usage-based methodology in different ways within pragmatics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110193664
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	06/18/2007
Series:	Mouton Series in Pragmatics [MSP] , #1
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Istvan Kecskes, State University of New York, Albany, USA;Laurence R. Horn , Yale University, New Haven, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction Istvan Kecskes Laurence R. Horn 1

Part I Philosophical and Linguistic Aspects

What is language: Some preliminary remarks John R. Searle 7

Toward a Fregean pragmatics: Voraussetzung, Nebengedanke, Andeutung Laurence R. Horn 39

Part II Cognitive Aspects

The role of explicature in communication and in intercultural communication Jacques Moeschler 73

Illocutionary constructions: Cognitive motivation and linguistic realization Francisco Jose Ruiz de Mendoza Annalisa Baicchi 95

"A good Arab is not a dead Arab - a racist incitement": On the accessibility of negated concepts Rachel Giora 129

Part III Intercultural Aspects

Developing pragmatics interculturally Jacob L. Mey 165

Formulaic language in English Lingua Franca Istvan Kecskes 191

Language evolution, pragmatic inference, and the use of English as a lingua franca Peter Grundy 219

On non-reductionalist intercultural pragmatics and methodological procedure Gitte Kristiansen Dirk Geeraerts 257

From downgrading to (over) intensifying: a pragmatic study in English and French Helene Margerie 287

Toward a universal notion of face for a universal notion of cooperation Marina Terkourafi 313

Index 345

Editorial Reviews

"The editors of this volume should be credited for presenting a high-quality collection of papers contributed by scholars active in pragmatics studies. The value of this volume lies in inviting the reader to rethink some of the key aspects of pragmatics that are so essential to human interaction and mutual understanding. This volume should be of great value to anyone interested in pragmatics."
Chaoqun Xie and Juliane House in: Pragmatics & Cognition 17:2/2009

"All in all, the ‘explorations’ live up to the promise in the title: they offer not a specialist morsel but a wide horizon, depicted in most contributions in a precise and principled way – a welcome venture in the times of the compartmentalization of pragmatic research. The papers are thought provoking to various degrees and contentious to various degrees but all are worth reading. The book is also the first volume in a new Mouton Series in Pragmatics edited by Istvan Kecskes and a successful springboard for what is to come."
Katarzyna M. Jaszczolt in: Multilingua 2/2008

From the Publisher