Understanding Language in Context: Key Concepts in Pragmatics

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the key concepts in the study of pragmatics, including pragmatic competence, different types of meaning (abstract meaning, contextual meaning, and force of an utterance), the cooperative principle and four conversational maxims, as well as politeness and the concept of face (positive and negative). The chapter gives some examples of cross-cultural differences in pragmatic norms to justify the importance of teaching pragmatics in a language classroom, touching briefly on the development of pragmatic skills in a second or foreign language. It then explores different approaches to pragmatics instruction, including raising awareness about pragmatic norms in the target language through deductive and inductive tasks, presenting grammatical structures jointly with their pragmatic functions, and integrating pragmatics with content-based instruction.