Pragmatic is a term used to describe someone who is practical or sensible. A person who is pragmatic wouldn’t want a unicorn for her birthday, for example. It’s also the name of a philosophy that believes in doing what works best, rather than basing things on ideals or theory.
A philosopher who embraced the pragmatist outlook was John Dewey, whose writings were influential in American intellectual life for half a century. Other prominent pragmatists include William James, Charles Sanders Peirce and G. H. Mead. Pragmatism is not as well known in other parts of the world, although it has nevertheless significantly influenced non-philosophers in fields such as education, law, politics, sociology and psychology.
While semantics looks at words and grammar, pragmatics takes context into account when determining meaning. It’s important for English language teachers to consider the pragmatic implications of their lessons, because misunderstandings and miscommunication can occur if students don’t understand how their language will be understood in different situations.
In addition to the linguistic aspects of pragmatics, it’s also important to understand that culture plays a role in pragmatics. For instance, if a student is learning to communicate with people from another culture, it’s important for her to know that certain phrases or behaviors are taboo in some cultures. A teacher can help her student become more aware of cultural differences by showing her photos from other countries, for example, or by giving her a list of cultural conventions to keep in mind when communicating with people from other nations.
A student who has a strong understanding of the different aspects of pragmatics can use this knowledge to improve her communication in all settings. This can help her to be a more successful student in school, as she will be able to navigate classroom discussions and social interactions with greater ease. It’s also helpful for a student to learn how to be more pragmatic in her personal life, because being a more practical person can lead to better relationships and more positive outcomes.
Pragmatics is used in many different types of academic disciplines, including the social sciences, humanities and computer science. Computational pragmatics, for example, focuses on how to convey intent to computers with as little ambiguity as possible. This is especially important in natural language processing, which involves interpreting a spoken or written word and matching it with an existing database of information. In the future, pragmatics may even be used in medicine to develop artificial intelligence that can diagnose and treat illnesses. This would require the development of computer systems that can identify the context of a particular phrase or sentence in order to determine its intended meaning. In the meantime, pragmatics can be used to create programs that automatically adjust to changing circumstances, such as a car’s navigation system adapting to new road conditions as it drives down the highway. Such a program could help to improve driver safety and reduce traffic congestion. This type of technology is still in the early stages, however, and there are many challenges that must be overcome before it can become a reality.