Pragmatics is the study of how meaning is understood in a social context. It involves the understanding of the intention of a speaker and how that information is communicated to others in order for them to understand the message correctly. Pragmatics is an important part of communication because it enables people to interact and exchange information with one another. Educators and speech pathologists often teach pragmatic skills to children with autism spectrum disorder, because these abilities can have a significant impact on their ability to engage with others.
The term “pragmatic” has several different meanings. In philosophy, it refers to a general philosophical attitude that concepts, hypotheses, and theories are formed and justified by the critical objective of utility in serving humanity’s various purposes. It is also a methodological approach to the molding of knowledge in the form of language and theorizing, and in particular to the ways in which these are used and applied to everyday problems and questions.
In the field of linguistics, pragmatics is the study of the relationship between signs and their users and interpreters. It is a subset of semantics, which addresses the meaning of words and sentences, and grammar, which provides the rules for how these words are put together to make meaningful statements. Pragmatics is distinct from semantics and grammar because it includes consideration of the context in which the statement is made.
Pragmatism emerged from the informal conversations of the Metaphysical Club, a group of a dozen Harvard-educated men who met for casual philosophical discussions in the early 1870s in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The members included proto-positivist Chauncey Wright (1830-1875), future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935), and two then-fledgling philosophers who would become the first self-conscious pragmatists: Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)—a logician, mathematician, and scientist—and William James (1842-1910)—a psychologist and moralist armed with a medical degree.
One of the most important aspects of pragmatism is that there are no universally agreed upon truths and principles that can be applied to all situations. The truth is whatever works to achieve a desired outcome, and this is especially true of human interactions. This means that the interpretation of pragmatic information is often based on the individual’s perceptions of reality, which are shaped by their values, beliefs, and experiences.
There are several ways to incorporate pragmatics into an English language classroom. Teachers may include lessons on pragmatics in their existing curriculum, or they may add new materials and activities as the need arises. For example, students can learn about how to use greetings in different situations and practice introducing themselves with a variety of speakers and locations in role-playing sessions. They can also practice using different forms of apologies, requests, and closing statements in the same manner. This is an effective way to help students understand the pragmatics of communication and how it differs between cultures. In addition, teachers can teach students about the taboos of asking certain types of questions in a given culture.