Pragmatic is the area of language study that explores the contextual meaning of our words, sentences and phrases. The term pragmatic is sometimes confused with semantics – the study of word meanings in a literal sense – but it has an additional dimension. Pragmatics looks at what speakers mean by the words they say, in particular the circumstances in which they say them, their intentions and what they manage to communicate. It also examines what kind of linguistic skills are needed for effective communication.
Unlike analytic philosophers, pragmatists do not see the ‘truth’ of any proposition as an objectively fixed and unchanging ‘logical law’ but instead hold that truth is relative to context. They take this view to be a fundamental tenet of their epistemology and ethics. This approach is not without its critics, who point out that it is possible to make a truth claim that is not genuinely meaningful or that does not meet the criteria of practical relevance. Moreover, the pragmatists’ insistence that all knowledge is tentative and provisional can seem close to philosophical skepticism, although this has been distinguished from it by the pragmatists’ insistence on self-controlled inquiry as the only way to return to a settled state of belief about something.
The pragmatist tradition was founded in the US around 1870, and arose as a third alternative to both analytic and ‘Continental’ philosophical traditions. Its founders include Charles Sanders Peirce, who first articulated the pragmatist perspective, and his colleague William James, who was a prominent proponent of the pragmatic ‘cynicism’ that is at the heart of the philosophy. Peirce’s Harvard friend Josiah Royce, although officially allied with absolute idealism, was another influential proponent of pragmaticism.
Since 1977 the Journal of Pragmatics has provided a forum for the development and publication of innovative pragmatic scholarship. It encourages work that develops theories of how people produce and interpret language in different contexts, and draws on attested linguistic data from many languages/cultures in the world. It also seeks to foster connections between pragmatics and neighbouring research areas such as cognitive semantics, corpus linguistics, experimental pragmatics, interpersonal pragmatics, multimodal pragmatics, sociopragmatics and theoretical pragmatics.
The ability to understand and effectively communicate in different social situations is an essential skill in our day-to-day lives. Pragmatic language enables us to connect with others, express ourselves clearly and navigate social situations with ease. This is especially important in cross-cultural communication, where the directness valued in some Western cultures can be perceived as abrasive in many Asian cultures, and where subtlety and indirectness are preferred. Ultimately, understanding the rules of pragmatic communication is an invaluable skill that helps us live harmoniously in our globalised society. – By: Danielle L. Colombie, PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia