Pragmatics / Edition 1

by Stephen C. Levinson

Overview

Those aspects of language use that are crucial to an understanding of language as a system, and especially to an understanding of meaning, are the acknowledged concern of linguistic pragmatics. This textbook provides a lucid and integrative analysis of the central topics in pragmatics - deixis, implicature, presupposition, speech acts, and conversational structure. A central concern of the book is the relation between pragmatics and semantics, and Dr Levinson shows clearly how a pragmatic approach can resolve some of the problems semantics have been confronting and simplifying semantic analyses. The exposition is always clear and supported by helpful exemplification. The detailed analyses of selected topics give the student a clear view of the empirical rigour demanded by the study of linguistic pragmatics, but Dr Levinson never loses sight of the rich diversity of the subject. An introduction and conclusion relate pragmatics to other fields in linguistics and other disciplines concerned with language usage - psychology, philosophy, anthropology and literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521294140
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/09/1983
Series:	Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	438
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.98(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; Notation conventions; 1. The scope of pragmatics; 2. Deixis; 3. Conversational implicature; 4. Presupposition; 5. Speech acts; 6. Conversational structure; 7. Conclusions; Bibliography; Subject index; Index of names.