Pragmatics

Jacob L. Mey is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense Main Campus. In 1977 he founded, with Hartmut Haberland, the Journal of Pragmatics, of which he is the chief editor. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Zaragoza, Spain in 1992. His latest publications include The Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics (editor, 1998), and When Voices Clash: A Study in Literary Pragmatics (1999).

"Strongly recommended reading for those with an interest in pragmatics, and certainly for those requiring an up-to-date and user-friendly pragmatics textbook." Australian Journal of Linguistics (of the First Edition) "This is a fine and wide-ranging book." Journal of Sociolinguistics "This second edition of Mey's book provides a valuable introduction to pragmatics in general and to some of Mey's theoretical ideas in particular. As such it is an appropriate text for both the undergraduate student of pragmatics and the more advanced reader in the field." Louise Cummings, Nottingham Trent University

• Preface xPart I: Basic Notions 11 Defining Pragmatics 31.1 Preliminaries 31.1.1 A look at history 31.1.2 The importance of being a user 41.2 Pragmatics: Definition and Delimitation 61.2.1 A definition 61.2.2 Component, perspective or function? 8        1.2.2.1 Component vs. perspective 81.2.2.2 Function 101.3 What Use is Pragmatics? 111.3.1 Theory and practice 111.3.2 Uses and aims 121.3.2.1 Why do we need pragmatics? 121.3.2.2 The aims of pragmatics 142 Some Issues in Pragmatics 192.1 The Pragmatic Waste-basket 192.2 Linguists Without Borders 212.3 Philosophers, Ordinary People and Ordinary Language 232.4 Of Cats and Ducks 252.5 Linguistics and Reality: Presupposition 272.6 A World of Users 29  Part II: Micropragmatics 373 Context, Implicature and Reference 393.1 Context 393.1.1 The dynamic context 393.1.2 Context and convention 423.2 Implicature 453.2.1 What is an implicature? 453.2.2 Implications and implicatures 453.2.3 Conversational implicature 463.2.4 Conventional implicature 493.3 Reference and Anaphora 523.3.1 On referring 523.3.2 Reference, indexicals and deictics 533.3.3 From deixis to anaphora 564 Pragmatic Principles 674.1 Principles and Rules 674.2 Some Principles Discussed 684.2.1 The Communicative Principle 684.2.2 The Cooperative Principle 714.2.2.1 Dostoyevski and the rubber ball 724.2.2.2 Cooperation and ‘face’ 734.2.2.3 Cooperation and ‘flouting’ 764.2.3 Politeness and other virtues 794.3 Rethinking Grice 824.3.1 Horn’s two principles 834.3.2 Relevance and ‘conspicuity’ 855 Speech Acts 925.1 History and Introduction 925.1.1 Why speech acts? 925.1.2 Language in use 935.1.3 How speech acts function 955.2 Promises 975.2.1 A speech act’s physiognomy: promising 985.2.1.1 Introduction: the problem 985.2.1.2 Promises: conditions and rules 995.2.1.3 The pragmatics of rules 1015.3 Speech Act Verbs 1055.3.1 The number of speech acts 1055.3.2 Speech acts, speech act verbs and performativity 1065.3.3 Speech acts without SAVs 1095.4 Indirect Speech Acts 1115.4.1 Recognizing indirect speech acts 1115.4.2 The ten steps of Searle 1135.4.3 The pragmatic view 1145.5 Classifying Speech Acts 1175.5.1 The illocutionary verb fallacy 1175.5.2 Searle’s classification of speech acts 1195.5.2.1 Representatives 1205.5.2.2 Directives 1205.5.2.3 Commissives 1205.5.2.4 Expressives 1215.5.2.5 Declarations 1225.5.3 Austin and Searle 1246 Conversation Analysis 1346.1 Conversation and Context 1346.2 From Speech Acts to Conversation 1356.3 What Happens in Conversation? 1366.3.1 How is conversation organized? 1376.3.1.1 The beginnings of CA 1376.3.1.2 Turns and turn-taking 1396.3.1.3 Previewing TRPs 1406.3.2 How does conversation mean? 1436.3.2.1 Pre-sequences 1446.3.2.2 Insertion sequences, ‘smileys’ and repairs 1456.3.2.3 Preference 1496.3.3 From form to content 1536.3.3.1 Cohesion and coherence 1536.3.3.2 Adjacency pairs and content 1576.3.3.3 Types and coherence 1596.3.3.4 Conversation and speech acts 162Part III: Macropragmatics 1717 Metapragmatics 1737.1 Object Language and Metalanguage 1737.2 Pragmatics and Metapragmatics 1757.2.1 Three views of metapragmatics 1767.2.2 I Metatheory 1777.2.2.1 Rules 1787.2.2.2 Principles and maxims: the case for ‘economy’ 1797.2.3 II Constraining Conditions 1827.2.3.1 General constraints 1827.2.3.2 Presuppositions 1847.2.3.3 Speech acts and discourse 1897.2.3.4 Worlds and words 1937.2.4 III Indexing 1967.2.4.1 Reflexivity and simple indexing 1967.2.4.2 Invisible indexing and indexicality 1988 Pragmatic Acts 2068.1 What Are Pragmatic Acts All About? 2068.2 Some Cases 2088.3 Defining a Pragmatic Act 2108.3.1 Co-opting, denying and the CIA 2108.3.2 ‘Setting up’ 2118.3.3 Pragmatic acts and speech acts 2128.3.4 Pragmatic acts and action theory 2148.4 Pragmatic Acts in Context 2178.4.1 The common scene 2178.4.2 Situated speech acts 2198.4.3 Pragmatic acts and body moves 2238.4.4 Pragmatic acts as social empowerment 2279 Literary Pragmatics 2369.1 Introduction: Author and Reader 2369.2 Author and Narrator 2389.3 Textual Mechanisms 2399.3.1 Reference 2409.3.2 Tense 2419.3.3 Discourse 2449.4 Voice and ‘Point of View’ 2479.5 Reading as a Pragmatic Act 25210 Pragmatics Across Cultures 26210.1 Introduction: What Is the Problem? 26210.2 Pragmatic Presuppositions in Culture 26410.3 Ethnocentricity and its Discontents 26610.4 Cases in Point 26810.4.1 Politeness and conversation 26810.4.2 Cooperation and conversation 26910.4.3 Addressivity 27110.4.3.1 Forms of address 27210.4.3.2 Social deixis 27310.4.4 Speech acts across cultures: the voice of silence 27511 Social Aspects of Pragmatics 28911.1 Linguistics and Society 28911.1.1 Introduction 28911.1.2 Language in education 29111.1.2.1 Who’s (not) afraid of the Big Bad Test? 29111.1.2.2 A matter of privilege 29311.1.3 The language of the media 29711.1.4 Medical language 29911.2 Wording the World 30111.2.1 Metaphors and other dangerous objects 30211.2.2 The pragmatics of metaphoring 30511.3 Pragmatics and the Social Struggle 30811.3.1 Language and manipulation 30811.3.2 Emancipatory language 31011.3.3 Language and gender 31311.3.4 Critical pragmatics 31511.3.4.1 What is ‘critical’? 31511.3.4.2 ‘Critical pragmatics’: the Lancaster School 31611.3.4.3 Power and naturalization 31711.4 Conclusion 320Epilogue: Of Silence and Comets 329Notes 333References 348Subject Index 363Name Index 386