What's Involved in Communication?

Pragmatics

In this course, Dr Billy Clark (Northumbria University) explores the field of pragmatics. We begin with an introduction to pragmatics by looking at an example of an utterance that must be understood in context from the film Nativity! (2009). In the second module, we think about the work of Paul Grice, and the benefits and limitations of a 'Gricean' approach to language analysis. In the third, we look at developments in pragmatics analysis, especially relevance theory. In the fourth, we outline factors in communication to consider. In the fifth, we use pragmatics to analyse the work of Raymond Carver. Finally, we conclude with some developments in the field of pragmatics.

What's Involved in Communication?

In this module, we start to think about pragmatics as the contextual aspects of communication, focusing especially on: (i) an example from the movie Nativity! (2009) of an utterance whose understanding is possible through context, (ii) what aspects of communication besides literal words help create meaning, and (iii) what an utterance can tell us besides its literal meaning.