Pragmatics (11-Mar-2004)

Semantics refers to the meaning of words and sentences independently of any context. Pragmatics refers to the meaning intended or conveyed by a speaker given a specific context. For example, "It's over there" has a semantic meaning, but not a very specific one; its pragmatic meaning will depend on the situation and context.

Deictic words (from Greek to show) are ones which rely on context for their meaning - for example, I, he, this, there, yesterday.

Certain sentences may have a semantic meaning which is different from their pragmatic meaning. For example "You left the door open" is likely to have a pragmatic meaning of "shut the door".

more to come...

Useful book readings for this lecture:

Sounds, Grammar and Meaning page