
Apply through UCAS
- UCAS course code
- LR21
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Course unit details:
Pragmatics: Meaning, Context, and Interaction
Unit code | LELA20291 |
---|---|
Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 2 |
Teaching period(s) | Semester 1 |
Offered by | Linguistics & English Language |
Available as a free choice unit? | Yes |
Overview
This course covers central topics in pragmatics, studying how meaning is generated by the use of language in specific contexts of communication.
Subtopics covered include conversation analysis, (im)politeness, implicature, presupposition, speech acts, and deixis. Consideration of the interaction between semantics and pragmatics will be a focal point. In addition, some consideration will be given to issues in intercultural communication.
While English will be the main language of study, data from other languages will be included to highlight crosslinguistic variation. (NB! If the module is taken for credit in French, that will be the main language of study in seminars and with respect to the assessment.)
Pre/co-requisites
Unit title | Unit code | Requirement type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
French Language 1 | FREN51011 | Pre-Requisite | Recommended |
Study of Meaning | LELA10332 | Pre-Requisite | Recommended |
Medium of language:
For Linguistics and English Language students: English, with occasional examples from other languages
For French Studies students: English and French, with occasional examples from other languages
Aims
The course aims to address the question of how meaning is created and interpreted by the use of language in specific communicative contexts. More specifically:
- The distribution of labor between the linguistic code and features of the context.
- The typology of contextually generated meanings.
- The specific principles that can be hypothesized to underlie different types of contextually generated meaning.
- The ways in which the structure of verbal interaction itself can create meanings.
Knowledge and understanding
By successfully completing this course students will be able to:
- identify and analyze the empirical phenomena that are central to pragmatics, including recurrent patterns in verbal interaction;
- analyze new data representing language use in context applying appropriate methodologies, as well as a precisely defined metalinguistic and metadiscursive vocabulary;
- understand the main theoretical approaches to the different subfields of pragmatics, and the relations that obtain between those approaches;
- reflect critically on their own communicative practice and that of others.
Intellectual skills
- Analytical skills
- Argumentation skills
- Abstract thinking skills
Practical skills
- Data collection skills
- Data analysis skills
Transferable skills and personal qualities
- Communication skills
- Team-working skills
- Time-management skills
- Enhanced intercultural awareness
Assessment methods
Exam | 80% |
Satisfactory completion of weekly written, group assignments for the seminars
| 10% |
Satisfactory completion of weekly assigned work for the lecturers
| 10% |
Feedback methods
Feedback method | Formative or summative |
Oral and written feedback on exam performance | Formative and summative |
Written feedback on participation-related submissions and seminar assignments | Formative and summative |
Oral feedback on in-class contributions, participation related submissions, and seminar assingments | Formative and summative |
Recommended reading
Bailey, Benjamin. 1997. Communication of respect in interethnic service encounters. Language in Society 26: 327-356. (LEL students ONLY)
Béal, Christine.1992. Did you have a good weekend? Or why there is no such thing as a simple question in cross-cultural encounters. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 15(1): 23-52. (FS students ONLY)
Huang, Yan. 2014. Pragmatics. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (ALL students)
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (ALL students)
Senft, Gunter. 2014. Understanding Pragmatics. Abingdon: Routledge. (ALL students)
Sidnell. Jack. 2010. Conversation Analysis. An Introduction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. (ALL students)
Zhu, Hua. 2014. Exploring Intercultural Communication. Language in Action. Abingdon: Routledge. (ALL students)
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
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Assessment written exam | 3 |
eAssessment | 20 |
Lectures | 16.5 |
Seminars | 16.5 |
Independent study hours | |
---|---|
Independent study | 144 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
---|---|
Maj-Britt Hansen | Unit coordinator |