Pragmatics: An Introduction

This is a succinct introduction to the rapidly developing field of pragmatics – the study of language from the point of view of its users, of the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction, and the effects their use of language has on other participants in communication. The book reviews the work of Austin, Grice, Searle, Levinson and others, examining the implicit meaning of everyday conversation, as well as the social importance and determination of our individually performed ′pragmatic acts′. In this updated and thoroughly revised edition, Mey extends the treatment of metapragmatic phenomena to what is often referred to, in the US anthropological–pragmatic tradition, by the term ′indexing′. He has also given full–fledged treatment to his theory of Pragmatic Acts (including ′embodiment′), and has included new chapters on literary pragmatics and pragmatics across cultures. The final chapter on social aspects of pragmatics covers extensive recent research in what has come to be named the ′critical′ orientation of the discipline.

Preface. Part I: Basic Notions: . 1. Defining Pragmatics. 2. Some Issues In Pragmatics. Part II: Micropragmatics: . 3. Context, Implicature And Reference. 4. Pragmatic Principles. 5. Speech Acts. 6. Conversation Analysis. Part III: Macropragmatics: . 7. Metapragmatics. 8. Pragmatic Acts. 9. Literary Pragmatics. 10. Pragmatics Across Cultures. 11. Social Aspects Of Pragmatics. Discussion & Review Questions. Epilogue: Of Silence and Comets. Notes. References. Subject Index. Name Index.

Jacob L. Mey is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense Main Campus. In 1977 he founded, with Hartmut Haberland, the Journal of Pragmatics, of which he is the chief editor. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Zaragoza, Spain in 1992. His latest publications include The Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics (editor, 1998), and When Voices Clash: A Study in Literary Pragmatics (1999).

"Strongly recommended reading for those with an interest in pragmatics, and certainly for those requiring an up–to–date and user–friendly pragmatics textbook." Australian Journal of Linguistics (of the First Edition) "This is a fine and wide–ranging book." Journal of Sociolinguistics "This second edition of Mey′s book provides a valuable introduction to pragmatics in general and to some of Mey′s theoretical ideas in particular. As such it is an appropriate text for both the undergraduate student of pragmatics and the more advanced reader in the field." Louise Cummings, Nottingham Trent University