Pragmatics

'Pragmatics is a field of linguistics that has developed and diversified so immensely over the past thirty years, that it can easily make the student feel confused as well as fascinated. Pragmatics: An advanced resource bookfor students is an excellent answer to this problem – a rich tapestry of discussion, textual materials, and thought-provoking tasks, rendering pragmatic concepts and methods accessible both to the beginner and the advanced student. It is highly readable yet deeply informative, containing discussion of a wealth of stimulating and well-chosen textual examples. It introduces a wide range of approaches and key contributions to pragmatics with admirable clarity and even-handedness. It will undoubtedly prove a resource of lasting value and can be unreservedly recommended.'Geoffrey Leech, University of Lancaster, UK

'This is an unusually rich textbook, which provides a wealth of resources for the study of the vast field of pragmatics. It includes some of the classics in the field as well as recent cutting-edge research in the various new subfields of pragmatics, such as politeness research, cross-cultural and intercultural research, and the pragmatics of prosody and non-verbal communication, and it accompanies these with student-friendly introductions and contextualizations as well as eminently doable exercises and research projects.'Andreas H. Jucker, University of Zurich, Switzerland

'This book covers a wide range of topics, including the history and development of pragmatics, from issues which interested the speech act philosophers to an empirical area of study—how language is used in communication—with data from large corpora and experimental methods. The editors have managed to achieve a pedagogic structure of the book which makes it an ideal student text.'Jan Svartvik, Lund University, Sweden

'If a colleague, still active in teaching would ask me, as an emeritus, what I most regretted to have missed in my long teaching career, a serious candidate for an answer would be: Not to have had access to this eminent, and indeed practical, new textbook of pragmatics.

The book’s concept of having a tripartite division into Introduction, Extension, Exploration works very well in this case, where first, the thematic articles expound the theory in 'bite-size', accessible format; then, the relevant corresponding literature is grouped along the same dimensions as are the introductory pieces; the texts (often hard to locate) are gathered and commented on, analyzed, and finally offered up as a springboard for ulterior, independent work.

I would recommend anybody with an interest in pragmatics (even if he or she may currently not be teaching) to take this ‘walking tour’ of the field, under the savvy guidance of the three authors: Archer, Aijmer and Wichmann, who deserve to be commended for their success in bringing pragmatics to where it actually can be taught, without having to hew to particular or particularized opinions or ‘schools’. More generally, I found that the clear exposition, combined with a very practical approach (such as by devising features like ‘Summaries’ and ‘Looking Ahead’, added to each of the subsections), the clear and comprehensive, yet succinct coverage of many difficult subjects (such as ‘implicature’—easily among the best I’ve come across at this level), and its up-to-date coverage make this an ideal acquisition by any university library (and, who knows, nary a professor wanting to bone up on his or her pragmatics – or even that private bookworm still hiding out somewhere in the deeper reaches of the pragmatic universe). In a more general way, the work is eminently suited, in my judgment, as a textbook for university courses at the senior undergraduate or early graduate level.

The editors must be praised and thanked for putting together this true treasure trove of well-cross-referenced and intelligently selected contributions, along with a near-flawless bibliography.' Jacob L. Mey, University of Southern Denmark

'This is a very laudable and timely initiative to present pragmatics in all its richness and to bring out its multi-disciplinary potential... It is a very rich and inspiring source for the student and the course instructor alike.' - LINGUIST

'Pragmatics is a field of linguistics that has developed and diversified so immensely over the past thirty years, that it can easily make the student feel confused as well as fascinated. Pragmatics: An advanced resource bookfor students is an excellent answer to this problem – a rich tapestry of discussion, textual materials, and thought-provoking tasks, rendering pragmatic concepts and methods accessible both to the beginner and the advanced student. It is highly readable yet deeply informative, containing discussion of a wealth of stimulating and well-chosen textual examples. It introduces a wide range of approaches and key contributions to pragmatics with admirable clarity and even-handedness. It will undoubtedly prove a resource of lasting value and can be unreservedly recommended.' – Geoffrey Leech, University of Lancaster, UK

'This is an unusually rich textbook, which provides a wealth of resources for the study of the vast field of pragmatics. It includes some of the classics in the field as well as recent cutting-edge research in the various new subfields of pragmatics, such as politeness research, cross-cultural and intercultural research, and the pragmatics of prosody and non-verbal communication, and it accompanies these with student-friendly introductions and contextualizations as well as eminently doable exercises and research projects.' – Andreas H. Jucker, University of Zurich, Switzerland

'This book covers a wide range of topics, including the history and development of pragmatics, from issues which interested the speech act philosophers to an empirical area of study—how language is used in communication—with data from large corpora and experimental methods. The editors have managed to achieve a pedagogic structure of the book which makes it an ideal student text.' – Jan Svartvik, Lund University, Sweden

'If a colleague, still active in teaching would ask me, as an emeritus, what I most regretted to have missed in my long teaching career, a serious candidate for an answer would be: Not to have had access to this eminent, and indeed practical, new textbook of pragmatics.

The book’s concept of having a tripartite division into Introduction, Extension, Exploration works very well in this case, where first, the thematic articles expound the theory in 'bite-size', accessible format; then, the relevant corresponding literature is grouped along the same dimensions as are the introductory pieces; the texts (often hard to locate) are gathered and commented on, analyzed, and finally offered up as a springboard for ulterior, independent work.

I would recommend anybody with an interest in pragmatics (even if he or she may currently not be teaching) to take this ‘walking tour’ of the field, under the savvy guidance of the three authors: Archer, Aijmer and Wichmann, who deserve to be commended for their success in bringing pragmatics to where it actually can be taught, without having to hew to particular or particularized opinions or ‘schools’. More generally, I found that the clear exposition, combined with a very practical approach (such as by devising features like ‘Summaries’ and ‘Looking Ahead’, added to each of the subsections), the clear and comprehensive, yet succinct coverage of many difficult subjects (such as ‘implicature’—easily among the best I’ve come across at this level), and its up-to-date coverage make this an ideal acquisition by any university library (and, who knows, nary a professor wanting to bone up on his or her pragmatics – or even that private bookworm still hiding out somewhere in the deeper reaches of the pragmatic universe). In a more general way, the work is eminently suited, in my judgment, as a textbook for university courses at the senior undergraduate or early graduate level.

The editors must be praised and thanked for putting together this true treasure trove of well-cross-referenced and intelligently selected contributions, along with a near-flawless bibliography.' – Jacob L. Mey, University of Southern Denmark

"This book helps us to broaden our understanding of the use of language in context and is thus essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students of language as well as for teachers. Those who ignore it will do so at their own peril." -- Vahid Parvaresh, University of Isfahan, Discourse Studies