Pragmatic is the study of the use and meaning of language, in particular speech acts and their contexts. It is distinct from semantics, which studies sentences and their truth values, and focuses on the ways in which they can express propositions. This is a field that has grown rapidly in the last few decades. There are now a number of different pragmatic theories, including: formal and computational pragmatics; theoretical and experimental pragmatics; game-theoretic, clinical and neuropragmatics; intercultural and cross-cultural pragmatics; and even historical pragmatics.
Pragmatists tend to emphasize practical considerations. They believe that knowledge is only valid when it serves some purpose in inquiry and action. It is only through the struggle of intelligent organisms with their environment that beliefs acquire value and are validated. Pragmatism is often considered a form of empiricism, but it differs from ordinary empiricism in that it aims to explain everything that is given in experience including the links and meaning rather than reducing everything to sense data. It is sometimes called radical empiricism in reference to the work of Dewey and James who were advocates of this type of pragmatic philosophy.
The philosophical roots of pragmatics lie in the works of Frege and Wittgenstein. Frege’s theory of referring expressions dealt with the issue of how word meanings can be influenced by the linguistic and cultural context in which they are used. Wittgenstein’s work on the pragmatic analysis of ambiguity and vagueness was also influential. These ideas were developed further by John Austin, Richard Rorty and others. The development of pragmatism in the twentieth century has been driven by advances in computer science and social sciences, as well as linguistics.
There is a lot of debate about the division between semantics and pragmatics, as some topics that are traditionally part of semantics are now seen as falling within the purview of pragmatics. For example, the attribution of a particular meaning to a word or phrase is normally seen as belonging to semantics, but there are many pragmatic issues that depend on this, such as the resolution of ambiguity and vagueness, the reference of proper names, indexicals and demonstratives and anaphora. These issues are known as near-side pragmatics, and there is some disagreement about whether they should be treated as being part of the semantics or pragmatics of the language.
A further issue is that of the relationship between far-side and near-side pragmatics. Far-side pragmatics concerns the way that utterances are understood in their contexts, including inferences to be drawn about speakers’ intentions and the social situations they are referring to. This is an area that encompasses a range of issues such as politeness, irony, humour, and humor. There is a growing interest in this area of pragmatics and a range of new applications are being developed in the areas of business and industry, medicine, and social policy. This is partly due to the recognition that pragmatic issues can have real and significant consequences in the functioning of organisations.