Pragmatic refers to an approach or attitude that takes into account a person’s goals, needs and abilities. People who are pragmatic are able to find solutions that work for them. They also take a balanced approach to problems and are willing to compromise. Pragmatism is a philosophy that originated in the latter half of the nineteenth century and has influenced non-philosophers as well, including law, education, politics, sociology and psychology. Its ideas are often found in the work of a number of famous authors and in a wide variety of popular culture works.
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that claims that ideologies or propositions are true if they serve the individual’s purposes and that those that don’t have practical consequences should be rejected. This idea is related to utilitarianism, which was a prominent school of thought in the early twentieth century.
It is also a theory of language that defines the meaning and truth of utterances in terms of their ability to achieve certain effects. In the context of linguistics, it means that a speaker’s purpose in communicating is the primary factor in determining how the meaning of an expression will be understood by an addressee.
A key concept in pragmatics is contextualism, which states that the meaning of an utterance depends on the context in which it is spoken. This concept is especially important in cross-cultural communication, because what might be considered polite and appropriate in one culture may be perceived as rude or bizarre in another. It is important for language teachers to be familiar with the pragmatic rules specific to each cultural context in which students will be speaking and listening.
The word pragmatic is derived from the Greek root pragmatikos, which means “to do” or “to act.” It is related to the Latin term praxis, which means “practical action.” People who are pragmatic tend to be results-oriented and have a focus on practical outcomes. They are able to see the value of an activity or decision and are able to determine how it will affect their lives in the long run. People who are pragmatic are also able to recognize when they have to give something up in order to get what they want, and are able to do so without feeling bad about it.
The field of pragmatics is broad and includes formal and computational pragmatics; theoretical and applied; game-theoretic and clinical pragmatics; neuropragmatics and intercultural pragmatics. The field is growing, but researchers should keep in mind that there is no neutral point of view from which to observe pragmatic language use or create theories about it. For example, there is no task-free environment from which utterance interpretation can begin, and all research must be performed within such an environment. In addition, the particular individuals involved in experimental pragmatic studies are not neutral and will have a direct effect on what is observed. This is one of the main reasons that so many experimental pragmatics findings are conflicting.