Introducing Pragmatics

Louise Cummings is Professor in the Department of English and Communication at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. She is author or editor of many books, including Pragmatic Disorders, Clinical Linguistics, Clinical Pragmatics, The Cambridge Handbook of Communication Disorders, Pragmatics: A Multidisciplinary Perspective and The Routledge Pragmatics Encyclopedia. She is also Editor of the Routledge Research in Speech-Language Pathology book series.

Comprehensive, innovative, and easy-to-use, Introducing Pragmatics is an indispensable resource for scientists and students interested in how real-life pragmatic language failures shape our understanding of effective communication. Not only does the textbook contain a wealth of material on theory and experimental studies, but also wide-ranging topics from a multi-disciplinary perspective.Professor Elly Ifantidou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, GreeceIntroducing Pragmatics: A Clinical Approach is an introductory popularization of pragmatics and clinical pragmatics, and its publication will undoubtedly help to further arouse the interest and attention of the linguistic community, especially of scholars in pragmatics, to devote their intellectual effort to pragmatic impairment. In addition, this book can steer linguists to enhance their interdisciplinary awareness and gain insights from cognitive science, speech pathology, clinical science, etc., and to seek interdisciplinary cooperation for better solutions to pragmatic disorders.Jiegen Zhang, Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (August 2024)By presenting a novel clinical perspective on pragmatics, this insightful volume enhances our grasp of key pragmatic concepts and principles. The in-depth analysis ofthe different ways in which pragmatics can break down in children and adults makes for compelling reading.Yulan Gong, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China for Discourse Studies 2025, Vol. 27(2)

• AcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroductionChapter 1: Speech acts1.1 Introduction1.2 How to realise a speech act1.3 A new approach to meaning1.4 Happy and unhappy performatives1.5 Explicit and implicit performatives1.6 Saying and doing1.7 Searle on speech acts1.8 Indirect speech actsSuggestions for further readingQuestionsChapter 2: Implicatures2.1 Introduction2.2 Grice and the cooperative principle2.3 The cooperative principle and implicatures2.4 Types of implicature2.5 Properties of implicatures2.6 Relevance theorySuggestions for further readingQuestionsChapter 3: Presuppositions3.1 Introduction3.2 The economic rationale for presupposition3.3 Presupposition triggers3.4 Properties of presuppositions3.5 Presuppositions in the real worldSuggestions for further readingQuestionsChapter 4: Deixis4.1 Introduction4.2 Person and social deixis4.3 Place deixis4.4 Time deixis4.5 Discourse deixis4.6 AnaphoraSuggestions for further readingQuestionsChapter 5: Figurative language5.1 Introduction5.2 Idioms5.3 Metaphors5.4 Irony5.5 Hyperbole5.6 ProverbsSuggestions for further readingQuestionsChapter 6: Politeness6.1 Introduction6.2 Brown and Levinson on politeness6.3 Politeness and face in clinical settings6.4 Criticisms of Brown and LevinsonSuggestions for further readingQuestionsChapter 7: Topic management7.1 Introduction7.2 Topic management in clinical settings7.2.1 Topic selection7.2.2 Topic introduction7.2.3 Topic development7.2.4 Topic termination7.3 Analysing topic management in conversation7.4 Analysing topic management in narrationSuggestions for further readingQuestionsChapter 8: Clinical pragmatics 8.1 Introduction8.2 The communication cycle8.3 Cognition and the communication cycle8.4 Theory of mind8.5 Executive functionSuggestions for further readingQuestionsAnswersGlossaryBibliographyIndexAppendix