The study of how people use language is called Pragmatics. It is a broad and rich field, with contributions from philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and even politics and ethics. It studies the context-dependent meanings of utterances, and is concerned with how a speaker’s behavior and cultural background might impact the interpretation of those utterances. It also tries to explain why one word or phrase might mean something different to a listener in different situations.
In a simple way, Pragmatics is “meaning minus semantics,” says Frank Brisard in his essay, “Introduction: Meaning and Use in Grammar.” Semantics deals with the literal meaning of an utterance, while grammar looks at the rules defining how the words are put together to form phrases and sentences. Pragmatics is the part of linguistics that takes contextual factors into account to complement the contribution that semantics and grammar make to meaning.
Pragmatics is closely related to Speech Act Theory, which attempts to describe the underlying actions that lead to an utterance having a particular meaning in a specific situation. Pragmatics also includes some concepts that are not necessarily linked to specific utterances, such as the theories of ambiguity, indexicals, and conversational implicatures.
The classroom is an ideal place for children to learn pragmatics, as it offers a safe environment where they can experiment with a variety of ways to communicate in different situations and cultures. Teachers can also incorporate lessons on pragmatics into other units, such as when discussing how to give advice or make a request. For example, the Forum article “Pragmatic Activities for the Speaking Classroom” suggests incorporating an activity based on requests where students come up with scenarios of how they might make a request. Students can then decide what response is most appropriate for each scenario, and talk about why some responses work better in some situations than others do.
In the same vein, many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with pragmatics, due to their difficulty in recognizing the intentions of other speakers and predicting how those intentions might influence a speaker’s subsequent actions. However, recent research by Eve Clark, Alan Bale, and David Barner suggest that high-functioning adolescents with ASD can compute pragmatic meaning to an extent that is comparable to that of neurotypical adolescents.
Educators, speech pathologists, and parents can teach social pragmatics to their children with ASD through explicit communication training. This teaches children how to use specific social cues, such as eye contact, facial expressions, and body posture, when communicating with peers. It can also teach them how to make appropriate greetings, respond to a greeting, offer help, express regret, and apologize. In fact, teaching social pragmatics to ASD children is so important that many schools have established dedicated programs designed to improve the overall communicative skills of this vulnerable population.