Pragmatics

Description

This book offers a concise but comprehensive entry-level guide to the study of meaning in context. Betty Birner explores how we understand the difference between the literal meaning of what is said and what was intended by the speaker, using a wide range of real-life examples.

• A clear and accessible approach to pragmatics
• Summarizes the most important and foundational theories in the field
• Provides real-life examples that show how language is used in its natural context
• Contains a glossary of key terms

About the Author(s)

Betty J. Birner, Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, Northern Illinois University

Betty J. Birner is a Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science in the Department of English at Northern Illinois University. Her previous books include Information Status and Noncanonical Word Order in English (with Gregory Ward; Benjamins 1998), Introduction to Pragmatics (Wiley-Blackwell 2013), and Language and Meaning (Routledge 2018). Her research focuses on pragmatics and information structure.

Table of Contents

1:Introduction
2:Literal vs. non-literal meaning
3:Implicature
4:Speech acts
5:Reference
6:Definiteness and anaphora
7:Presupposition
8:Information structure
9:New directions
10:Conclusion
Glossary

Reviews

"Summing up, Pragmatics: A slim guide is a valuable tool for anyone interested in the study of pragmatics." - Nicolas Ruytenbeek, Ghent University, Linguist List

"Just what a slim guide should be: brisk, authoritative, even-handed, accessible, entertaining. Birner deftly traverses the theoretical and empirical landscape of contemporary pragmatics from (non-)literality to speech acts, from presupposition to implicature, from reference to information structure, enlivened at each stop with illustrative data from Poe's tales to political innuendo." - Laurence R. Horn, Yale University

"Combining elegant exposition and well-chosen examples, this book serves not only to introduce the study of pragmatics to a new audience, but also to shed new light on several widely-discussed topics." - Chris Cummins, University of Edinburgh