1 Background and definitions 1
1.1 Background of pragmatics 1
1.2 Definitions of pragmatics 2
1.3 Component vs.perspective 4
1.4 Uses of pragmatics 6
1.5 Aims of pragmatics 8
1.6 Summary and further reading 9
Questions for discussion 10
2 Deixis and reference 11
2.1 Definition of deixis 11
2.2 Types of deixis 14
2.2.1 Person deixis 14
2.2.2 Spatial deixis 16
2.2.3 Temporal deixis 18
2.2.4 Discourse deixis 19
2.2.5 Social deixis 21
2.3 Definition of reference 22
2.4 Referential and attributive usages of referring expressions 23
2.5 The role of context in identifying referents 24
2.6 The role of co-text in identifying referents 24
2.7 The role of anaphora,cataphora and zero anaphora in maintaining reference 25
2.8 Summary and further reading 27
Questions for discussion 27
3 Presupposition 29
3.1 Definition of presupposition 30
3.2 Distinguishing presupposition from entailment 31
3.3 Types of presupposition 34
3.3.1 Existential presupposition 34
3.3.2 Lexical presupposition 34
3.3.3 Structural presupposition 35
3.3.4 Factive presupposition 35
3.3.5 Non-factive presupposition 36
3.3.6 Counter-factual presupposition 37
3.4 Problematic properties 37
3.4.1 Defeasibility 37
3.4.2 Projection problem 39
3.5 Summary and further reading 41
Questions for discussion 42
4 Conversational implicature(Ⅰ) 43
4.1 Definition of implicature 43
4.2 The cooperative principle 44
4.3 The four conversational maxims 45
4.3.1 Observing the maxims 45
4.3.2 Non-observance of the maxims 46
4.4 Types of implicature 54
4.4.1 Conventional implicature 54
4.4.2 Conversational implicature 55
4.5 Properties of conversational implicature 57
4.5.1 Cancelability 57
4.5.2 Non-detachability 58
4.5.3 Calculability 59
4.5.4 Non-conventionality 60
4.6 Summary and further reading 61
Questions for discussion 61
5 Conversational implicature(Ⅱ) 63
5.1 The politeness principle 63
5.2 The six main maxims 65
5.2.1 The tact maxim 65
5.2.2 The generosity maxim 67
5.2.3 The approbation maxim 68
5.2.4 The modesty maxim 69
5.2.5 The agreement maxim 70
5.2.6 The sympathy maxim 71
5.3 The relationship between the politeness principle and the cooperative principle 71
5.4 Problems with Leech's politeness principle 74
5.5 Summary and further reading 74
Questions for discussion 75
6 The relevance-theoretic framework 76
6.1 The origin of relevance theory 76
6.2 The principle of relevance 78
6.2.1 The notion of relevance 78
6.2.2 The cognitive and the communicative principles of relevance 80
6.3 The notion of context 83
6.3.1 Cognitive environment 83
6.3.2 Context selection 84
6.4 Relevance-guided comprehension 85
6.4.1 A comprehension heuristic 85
6.4.2 Implicature vs.explicature 86
6.5 Constraints on relevance 88
6.5.1 Conceptual and procedural encoding 88
6.5.2 Types of contextual effects 90
6.6 Summary and further reading 94
Questions for discussion 95
7 Speech act theory 96
7.1 Definition of speech act 96
7.2 Composition of a speech act 98
7.3 Recognition of illocutionary force 99
7.3.1 Definition of illocutionary force 99
7.3.2 Illocutionary force indicating devices 100
7.3.3 Felicity conditions 101
7.4 Classification of speech acts 102
7.4.1 Approaching the functions of speech acts 102
7.4.2 Approaching the performance of speech acts 106
7.5 Beyond speech act theory:speech events 109
7.6 Summary and further reading 110
Questions for discussion 111
8 Conversation analysis 112
8.1 Introduction 112
8.2 Theoretical preliminaries 113
8.3 Turn-taking organization 115
8.3.1 Turn constructional unit 116
8.3.2 Turn-allocation component 117
8.3.3 Turn-taking rules 118
8.4 Adjacency pairs 121
8.4.1 Insertion sequence 122
8.4.2 Conditional relevance 124
8.5 Preference organization 126
8.5.1 Preferred vs.dispreferred second 126
8.5.2 Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments 129
8.5.3 Repair 133
8.6 Pre-sequence 136
8.6.1 Pre-announcements 138
8.6.2 Pre-requests 139
8.6.3 Summons-answer 140
8.7 Summary and further reading 142
Questions for discussion 143
9 Conclusions 145
9.1 Approaches to pragmatics 145
9.2 The multidisciplinary nature of pragmatics 146
9.2.1 Pragmatics and branches of micro-linguistics 147
9.2.2 Pragmatics and interdisciplinary fields 149
9.3 The dynamic perspective of pragmatics 150
9.3.1 The dynamics of communication 151
9.3.2 The construction of meaning 153
9.4 The application of pragmatics 155
9.5 Summary and further reading 157
Questions for discussion 158
References 159