Doing Pragmatics

Doing Pragmatics makes pragmatics accessible to students of linguistics and covers all the major areas of the subject in a lively and engaging way. The author first discusses typical features of pragmatic language use, such as indirectness, indeterminacy, appropriacy and the relationship between language and context. These lay the foundation for a thorough yet accessible examination of indexicality, relevance and intentionality, each of which are approached at two levels, enabling students to progress from an initial understanding of the concept to a more detailed examination of the further issues involved. The author also considers the part these properties of utterances play in extended examples of talk. Doing Pragmatics is written as an interactive coursebook and includes exercises, activities and a detailed key, making it ideal for use in class. It will be an invaluable source for students of linguistics and related disciplines who need to understand the principles of language use.