Syllabus Information

5.1. Methodological overview

See "Learning activities " and "Syllabus".

More information will be provided on the first day of class.

5.2. Learning tasks

• Theoretical lectures.
• Practical lectures.
• Individual work.
• Personal study.
• Assessment activities.

5.3. Syllabus

(27846) The Pragmatics of Communication

Topic 1: Introduction: Grammar, pragmatics, and discourse.

Topic 2: Speech acts, the cooperative principle, and Grice's maxims.

Topic 3: The interpersonal function of language: pragmatic politeness and metadiscourse.

Topic 4: Communication in written and spoken discourse/registers in English: pragmatic differences.

Topic 5: The pragmatics of written and spoken genres in English-medium communication.

Compulsory Readings

Mey, J. L. (1993). Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell (2nd ed. 2001). 

Verschueren, J. (1999). Understanding Pragmatics. London, New York: Arnold Publishers. 

Bibliography

Austin, J. L. (1962) How to Do Things With Words. Oxford University Press.

Brown, P., and S. C. Levinson. (1978) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge University Press.

Carston, R. (2002) Thoughts and Utterances: The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication. Oxford: Blackwell.

Cobley, Paul (ed.) 1996.The Communication Theory Reader. London: Routledge.

Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and Discourse: a resource book for student. London. New York: Routledge.

Dijk, T. A. van. (1977) Text and Context. Explorations in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse. London: Longman.

Grice, H. P. (1989) Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.

Grundy, P. (1995). Doing Pragmatics. London: Arnold.

Hyland, K. (2005). Metadiscourse. London: Continuum.

Kecskés, I. (2007). Explorations in pragmatics: linguistic, cognitive, and intercultural aspects. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Laurence R. Horn and G. Ward. (2005). The Handbook of Pragmatics. Maiden: Blackwell.

Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.

Levinson, S. C. (1991) Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.

Palmer, F.R. (1995). Grammar and Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robinson, D. (2006). Introducing Performative Pragmatics. London and New York: Routledge.

Searle, John (1969). Speech Acts: An Essay in The Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (2005). "Pragmatics." In F. Jackson and M. Smith (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy. OUP, Oxford, 468-501.

Verschueren, J., J.Östman, J. Blommaert, eds. (1995) Handbook of Pragmatics. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Wierzbicka, A. (1991). Cross-cultural Pragmatics. The Semantics of Human Interaction. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics (Oxford Introductions to Language Study). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

5.4. Course planning and calendar

See the academic calendar of the University of Zaragoza (http://academico.unizar.es/calendario-academico/calendario) and the website of the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts (Schedule of classes: https://fyl.unizar.es/horario-de-clases#overlay-context=horario-de-clases; Examination schedule: https://fyl.unizar.es/calendario-de-examenes#overlay-context=)

More information will be provided on the first day of class.

5.5. Bibliography and recommended resources