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1. Introduction to Pragmatics
By Lee Flamand, eHow Contributor | updated February 16, 2012 Pragmatics is the field of language concerned with how "context" is involved in producing meaning in linguistic utterances. Pragmatics concerns researchers across a variety of disciplines and covers a variety of topics. Generally speaking, pragmatics moves beyond simply treating language as a purely formal system that asserts propositions that are either confirmed as true or false, and treats language as a dynamic interaction of social circumstances and situations with language. Context Dependency
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Pragmatics anchors linguistic utterances within their larger context. Here, context can assume a variety of meanings depending upon the object of investigation. It can mean the inclusion of information drawn from the environment, the sociological uses of language, or the ways situations alter the ways language functions.

Indexical Reference
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Many words are agreed to make reference to something in the external world. For some words, this reference is not set, but rather changes depending upon use. For example, the word "I" shifts reference every time it is used by a speaker. Likewise, words like "you," "that," and "her" all shift reference depending upon what a speaker is addressing.

Speech Acts
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Speech acts are utterances that perform an action when expressed. Things like promises and threats are speech acts, in that they do what they say. These are called performatives. Oftentimes, they only make sense in certain situations, such as when one speaks the words "I do" in a wedding ceremony.

Sociolinguistics
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Sociolinguistics is the field of sociology that studies how language interacts with social norms, institutions and structures. It is largely concerned with how language use varies between social groups, such as between dialects, social classes, genders and races, or in different institutional settings, such as in the home versus in the workplace.

Conversational Implicatures

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In everyday conversation, it is not uncommon for someone to use language in a way that is not direct, but is nevertheless fully comprehensible to listeners. For example, when someone is asked how her day was and responds "I was sick," it is understood that she means her day was not very good, even though this is not what she said directly. In other words, the speaker implies a meaning and the listener, using the context provided, intuitively infers her intentions.

2. CONTEXT OF PRAGMATICS
What exactly are the factors which are relevant for an account of how people use language? We distinguish several types of contextual information: 1. Physical context This encompasses what is physically present around the speakers/hearers at the time of communication. What objects are visible, where the communication is taking place, what is going on around, etc. Example: a. I want that book. (Accompanied by pointing) b. Be here at 9:00 tonight. (Place/time reference) 2. Linguistic context What has been said before in the conversation. The history" of things said so far. Example: a. I can't believe you said that! b. If my mom heard you talk like that, she'd wash your mouth out with soap! 3. Social context The social relationship of the people involved in communication. Example: a. # Mr. President, stop bugging me and go home. (You can't talk like this to the President.)

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b. # I do hereby humbly request that you might endeavor to telephone me with news of your arrival at your domicile when such arrival occurs. (A bizarre sentence if said to a friend instead of \call me when you get home".) Note: # commonly used to mark a sentence that is inappropriate for a given context. 4. Epistemic Knowledge and beliefs of the speaker/hearer. Summary: Pragmatics is the field of language concerned with how "context" is involved in producing meaning in linguistic utterances. Pragmatics encourages the reader to look at different levels of meaning within sentences; provides a basic understanding of key pragmatic concepts such as sentence and utterance, entailment, presupposition, implicature and direct and indirect speech acts; introduces two highly influential approaches to pragmatics: the co-operative principle and speech act theory; and provides a range of activities, discussion questions, sample answers and further reading. Context of pragmatics consist of: 1. 2. 3. 4. Physical context Linguistics context Social context epistemic