Pragmatic is a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of understanding how language and meaning work in the context of real-life communication. It is often applied to linguistics, but can also be found in sociology, cognitive science, and other social sciences. In addition to focusing on how people use language, pragmatics is concerned with the consequences of those uses.
The pragmatic stance is based on the idea that knowledge is created from experience and that all knowledge is social knowledge (Rorty 1980). In pragmatism, language usage can be understood as an incremental process that takes into account the existing beliefs of speakers and the socially constructed world in which they live.
As a research philosophy, pragmatism offers an alternative to the more dogmatic approaches of structuralism and positivism. By embracing an ethic of action and by pursuing democracy, equality, and justice for all people, pragmatism is considered a more politically neutral and democratic approach to the study of human society and culture (Goldkuhl 2012).
Pragmatics is a broad field of inquiry, and many different subfields exist within it. For example, computational pragmatics focuses on the ways humans can convey information to computers so that they can understand ambiguity and other features of natural language. Another subfield of pragmatics is social pragmatics, which focuses on how people’s beliefs and values affect their interactions with others. Finally, intercultural pragmatics examines how cultural differences can affect the interpretation of language.
One problem with experimental research in pragmatics is that the results of experiments vary widely, partly because of how the researchers construct their studies. One way to address this issue is to incorporate the concept of pragmatic constraints in designing experiments. Another is to make sure that scholars understand the varying task demands that participants must face in each experiment.
These constraints and tasks can influence the outcomes of an experiment, but they are rarely acknowledged in linguistic pragmatic theories. This is unfortunate because it makes a lot of sense to include pragmatic factors in theoretical explanations for people’s behavior and understanding of language use.
The classroom is an ideal place to teach pragmatics, as it is a place where learners can experiment with how they might communicate in different situations. For example, a teacher might include lesson plans that teach students how to apologize in different cultures or how to talk about money with their parents.
Pragmatics is a fascinating and complex topic that can be taught at all levels of education. In a college course, pragmatics might be used to explore the effects of gender on discourse. In an elementary school, teachers might teach students how to ask permission in a variety of situations. And, in a university, pragmatics can be used to help students become more skilled communicators across cultures and languages. The goal of a pragmatics course is to enable students to use language and meaning in the most productive and efficient manner possible. In doing so, students will be able to build strong relationships with their peers and the community at large.