An introductory course in linguistic pragmatics

Abstract

Pragmatics, or, to be more exact, linguistic pragmatics, is a branch of linguistics concerned with the use of language in the situation. Many a work has been written on general and specifc problems of pragmatics since the time of C. W. Morris, the father of modern pragmatics. Te same can be said about textbooks: they seem to be in abundance. However, the textbooks available are, as a rule, designed for students whose frst language is English; no attention is paid to those whose frst language is not English. In this textbook, where relevant, an attempt is made to contrast the linguistic means of realization of the speaker’s meaning in English and Lithuanian. Such an approach, though relatively sporadic, is two-way useful: it enhances the understanding of the problems being examined and contributes to the optimization of the learning of English as a second language. Tis textbook makes no claim of completeness: it focuses on the major topics in pragmatics: deixis, reference, presupposition, implicature, speech acts, politeness, conversation structure, and the informational structure of the sentence.