Pragmatics I

Students are introduced to classical and modern achievements in pragmatic theories regarding language use.
The course allows students to appreciate the division of labor between semantics and pragmatics and acquire a formal tool to analyze pragmatic meaning.

The subject is related to the rest of the linguistic classes in this program.

This course discusses the main types of pragmatic phenomena and outlines the domain of theorizing in current Pragmatic theory. It introduces students into the classical Gricean theory of language use and leads them into the modern neo-Gricean developments of formal pragmatics while juxtaposing these to the advances in Relevance theory.

Students are acquinted with and can critically evaluate classical and current theories on the following pragmatic topics:

− Gricean theory of language use;
− conversational implicatures;
− Relevance theory;
− scalar implicatures and neo-Gricean developments;
− conventional implicatures;
− implicature projection;
− advances in experimental pragmatics.

• Kadmon, Nirit. 2001. Formal Pragmatics: Semantics, Pragmatics, Presupposition, and Focus. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Catalogue E-version
• Levinson, S. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Catalogue E-version
• Levinson, S. 2000. Presumptive meanings: The theory of generalizedconversational implicature. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Catalogue
• Sperber, D. in D. Wilson. (2004) "Relevance Theory" v G. Ward and L. Horn (ur.) Handbook of Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell, 607-632. Catalogue E-version
• Potts, Christopher. 2005. The Logic of Conventional Implicatures: Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Catalogue
• Članki iz relevantnih znanstvenih revij, ki obravnavajo pragmatično področje.

attendance and active class participation 10 %;
two homework assignments 20 %;
final written exam 70 %.

Associate professor of Linguistics at the University of Nova Gorica.