The Handbook of Pragmatics

The Handbook of Pragmatics is a collection of original articles that outline the central themes and challenges for current research in the field of linguistic pragmatics. The 32 articles, written by leading scholars, provide an authoritative and accessible introduction to the field, including an overview of the foundations of pragmatic theory and a detailed examination of the rich and varied theoretical and empirical subdomains of pragmatics. This Handbook is a valuable resource for both students and professional researchers investigating the properties of meaning, reference, and context in natural language. It will be of particular interest to those exploring the interfaces of pragmatics with syntax, semantics, lexicon, philosophy of language, information theory, and cognitive psychology. The extensive bibliography serves as a self–contained research tool for those working in the general area of pragmatics and allied fields in linguistics, philosophy and cognitive science.

List of Contributors. Introduction. Part I: The Domain Of Pragmatics. 1. Implicature. (Laurence R. Horn). 2. Presupposition. (Jay David Atlas). 3. Speech Acts. (Jerrold Sadock). 4. Reference. (Gregory Carlson). 5. Deixis. (Stephen C. Levinson). 6. Definiteness And Indefiniteness. (Barbara Abbott). Part II: Pragmatics And Discourse Structure. 7. Information Structure And Non–canonical Syntax. (Betty Birner and Gregory Ward). 8. Topic And Focus. (Jeanette K. Gundel and Thorstein Fretheim). 9. Context In Dynamic Interpretation. (Craige Roberts). 10. Discourse Markers. (Diane Blakemore). 11. Discourse Coherence. (Andy Kehler). 12. The Pragmatics Of Non–Sentences. (Robert J. Stainton). 13. Anaphora And the Pragmatics–Syntax Interface. (Yan Huang). 14. Empathy And Direct Discourse Perspectives. (Susumu Kuno). 15. The Pragmatics of Deferred Interpretation. (Geoff Nunberg). 16. Pragmatics of Language Performance. (Herbert H. Clark). 17. Constraints on Ellipsis and Event Reference. (Andrew Kehler and Gregory Ward). Part III Pragmatics And Its Interfaces. 18. Some Interactions of Pragmatics And Grammar. (Georgia M. Green). 19. Pragmatics and Argument Structure. (Adele Goldberg). 20. Pragmatics and Semantics. (François Récanati). 21. Pragmatics and the Philosophy of Language. (Kent Bach). 22. Pragmatics and the Lexicon. (Reinhard Blutner). 23. Pragmatics and Intonation. ( Julia Hirschberg). 24. Historical Pragmatics. (Elizabeth Closs Traugott). 25. Pragmatics and Language Acquisition. (Eve V. Clark). 26. Pragmatics and Computational Linguistics. (Daniel Jurafsky). Part IV: Pragmatics And Cognition. 27. Relevance Theory. (Deirdre Wilson and Dan Sperber). 28. Relevance Theory and the Saying/Implicating Distinction. (Robyn Carston). 29. Pragmatics and Cognitive Linguistics. (Gilles Fauconnier). 30. Pragmatic Aspects of Grammatical Constructions. (Paul Kay). 31. The Pragmatics of Polarity. (Michael Israel). 32. Abduction in Natural Language Understanding. (Jerry R. Hobbs). Bibliography. Index

Laurence R. Horn is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Yale University Department of Linguistics. His publications include A Natural History of Negation (1989/2001) and numerous articles addressing the union (if not the intersection) of lexical semantics, negation, and neo–Gricean approaches to meaning in natural language. He is currently working on a new book, Lexical Pragmatics . Gregory Ward is Professor of Linguistics at Northwestern University. His extensive publications in the area of pragmatics and information structure include Information Status and Noncanonical Word Order in English (with Betty Birner, 1998) and The Semantics and Pragmatics of Preposing (1988). He is also editor of a new series on language in the real word and currently serves as Secretary–Treasurer of the Linguistic Society of America.

“This outstanding and far–ranging compendium comprises 32 articles that trace the contours of the field of pragmatics… Overall, this is an invaluable, comprehensive, and accessible volume that covers the broad range of pragmatic study embedded in cognitive, social, and cultural aspects of language and communication. Highly recommended.” Choice “ The Handbook of Pragmatics presents a stunning view of the range of research enterprises and programs of those who have taken linguistic pragmatics ′out of the wastebasket′. Larry Horn and Gregory Ward have demonstrated by their selections and groupings an uncanny understanding of the coherence of this field and their book will stand as a landmark in linguistics for a long time to come.” Ellen F. Prince, University of Pennsylvania "It takes erudition, vision, and good taste to compile a good handbook of any field, even more so in the notoriously unruly field of pragmatics. Larry Horn and Gregory Ward have all of these. The editors have gathered together an excellent array of contributors to give us a handbook that will prove eminently useful to scholars and students within and outside pragmatics. Readers will find in it a reliable guide to the main pragmatic questions of the last three decades, which is insightful, up–to–date, authoritative, and accessible." Mira Ariel, Tel Aviv University "It doesn′t take much reading between the lines to see that this is a stunning collection of essays, written by a cadre of the field′s best. Quality: superb. Quantity: vast. Relation: everything there is that′s relevant to pragmatics. Manner: as clear as it gets!" Ivan A. Sag, Stanford University "All in all, the Handbook of Pragmatics represents a broad spectrum of interests ... The collection′s value is enhanced by an excellent "Introduction" from the joint hands of the editors, Larry Horn and Gregory Ward ... The book has been superbly produced, and the articles read generally very well." Intercultural Pragmatics