Pragmatic is the study of how people understand and use language in real-world situations. It includes things like interpreting nonverbal cues such as facial expressions and body posture, making appropriate requests, and using greetings, farewells, and invitations. Effective communication is essential for all social interactions, and pragmatic skills can help you express yourself clearly and navigate different social situations effectively.
A pragmatist is someone who has a practical approach to life and focuses on what will work in the real world. In this sense, pragmatism is often contrasted with idealism. Pragmatism can be found in many fields, including philosophy, political science, leadership studies, and research methodology.
In the classroom, teachers often incorporate a pragmatic focus into their lessons by teaching students to understand cultural differences and how these impact communication. For example, an ESL teacher might have her students complete a task in which they imagine themselves in different scenarios and then decide what they would say in each situation.
Pragmatics is also found in a number of other disciplines, including computer science, linguistics, psychology, sociology, and education. Pragmatics is particularly relevant in these disciplines because it focuses on the way humans use language in real-life situations, and it emphasizes the connection between thought and action.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines pragmatism as “an interpretive theory of truth that posits that an idea is true only insofar as it works.” While this concept can be applied to all aspects of life, it is especially relevant when discussing the role of religion in society. Pragmatism is not anti-religious, but it does leave open the possibility that some religious ideas may be true only to the extent that they provide a sense of comfort or meaning.
In experimental pragmatics, scholars often strip away the task demands of an experiment when creating theories about how people interpret and understand language in context. But a more comprehensive vision of experimental pragmatics might take into account the fact that people always approach any given language interaction or situation with a set of specific goals in mind.
Some of these goals are linguistic in nature, such as the resolution of ambiguity and vagueness, the reference of proper names, indexicals, and demonstratives. Others are more social, such as the goal of establishing rapport with a new acquaintance or the goal of communicating information effectively. These goals are important to consider because they help shape what is said and how it is said. This broader view of experimental pragmatics might offer more fruitful and convincing theories about the role that pragmatics plays in real-world language use. It might also help us more easily explain why certain experiments appear to show that pragmatics is less important than other parts of a conversation.