Pragmatic is a word that’s often contrasted with idealistic, meaning that people who are pragmatic are concerned more with real-world application of ideas than with abstract notions. A four-year-old who wants a unicorn for her birthday wouldn’t be considered very pragmatic — she probably should settle for something more realistic, like a doll or a pony.
The term pragmatic is also used to describe language use, and it’s a branch of linguistics that studies how context influences the semiotics of verbal expressions. Its study is more than just looking at what’s being said or written, though; it focuses on how the meaning of an utterance changes based on who it is addressed to and where they are in relation to each other.
This approach to language use is what pragmatics aims to do, and it’s an area that’s becoming more and more popular in the world of linguistics. In fact, the field of linguistic pragmatics has grown so large that it’s not just a sub-discipline of linguistics; it’s now seen as a separate area of inquiry all its own. It’s also an area that draws on other disciplines, such as psychology, philosophy, sociology, history and law to make its points.
One of the most common uses of the word pragmatic is to talk about someone who is practical or reasonable in their choices and actions. The term is often associated with a balanced approach to life, where people who are pragmatic try to take both the good and the bad into account when making decisions.
When applied to language, the idea behind pragmatics is that how people use words reflects their cultural and social beliefs and values. This is why many pragmatics scholars are interested in studying the way that different cultures use language and what impact this has on the speakers themselves.
There are a number of different approaches to pragmatics, but all of them include the consideration of contextual influences on meaning. The most well-known approach is Grice’s theory of implicature, which suggests that every utterance contains some level of relevant information. This information may be explicit, as in the example of “I have two sons,” or implicit, as in the case of a gesture that indicates a speaker is greeting a colleague rather than a friend.
Another major strand of pragmatics is the work of Charles Sanders Peirce and his followers, who presented the pragmatic view as a third alternative to the traditional analytic and continental philosophical traditions. It was largely through this group that pragmatism gained momentum in the United States and abroad, and it’s an idea that continues to influence philosophy today. In addition to its contribution to epistemology, pragmatism has given rise to a rich literature in ethics, political philosophy and social philosophy. Collections of papers by classic and contemporary pragmatists are available in numerous libraries. These collections cover topics ranging from the philosophy of science to philosophy of religion and include contributions by women philosophers.