Pragmatic is a word that means “focused on what works in real-life situations rather than on what might be ideal in theory.” People who are pragmatic tend to be practical, down-to-earth, efficient and hardheaded. They may also be realistic, sober, and sensible. The word pragmatic was first recorded in the English language around 1580-90, and is ultimately derived from the Greek word pragma (“deed; state business”).
A pragmatic philosophy focuses on how things work in a particular situation, not what might be ideal in theory. For example, a person who is pragmatic would be more interested in learning how to drive in traffic, than what theory might tell them about the best way to navigate a car.
The word pragmatic is often used in the context of linguistics. Pragmatics is the study of how language is used in specific situations. It focuses on how speakers convey meaning by what they say and how they say it. It also examines what the consequences of a speaker’s utterance are and how a listener interprets an utterance.
For example, if you were to tell your friend that you’re meeting them for coffee and they ask what time you expect to arrive, the answer could depend on how your boss responds. If your boss is a “high” pragmatist, they might respond that you should be there at 8:30. This is because high pragmatists value consistency and practicality. If your boss is a “low” pragmatist, they might not think it’s practical to be punctual and may prefer to go with the flow of events.
Another important aspect of pragmatics is what’s called “implicature.” In simple terms, it’s the idea that an utterance suggests something that is not explicit in the words themselves. For example, if you’re going on a date and you say that you love McDonalds but don’t mean it literally, you might be using an indirect form of affection (or sarcasm) to show your true feelings.
Implicature is an important part of pragmatics because it allows us to communicate more effectively in a variety of situations. In addition, a listener can infer something from the tone of voice and the situational context in which an utterance is made.
As a philosophical movement, pragmatism lost ground in the late 19th and early 20th century. Dewey had many followers and imitators, but by the 1940s, with the rise of analytic philosophy, pragmatism was on the decline.
However, a number of academic fields continue to investigate pragmatics, including sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and functionalist semantics. Sociolinguistics, for instance, looks at how different groups of native speakers use a language differently than others do. It considers both the immediate social and cultural context, as well as the group’s underlying values and beliefs. Discourse analysis, on the other hand, examines a single utterance or speech act in relation to its function. Functionalist semantics, on the other hand, takes a more traditional approach by considering an entire sentence or phrase in relation to its referential content and grammatical structure.