This is an introduction to pragmatics, the study of how people make sense of each other linguistically. The author explains, and illustrates, basic concepts such as the co-operative principle, deixis, and speech acts, providing a clear, concise foundation for further study.
1 Definitions and background
2 Deixis and distance
3 Reference and inference
4 Presupposition and entailment
5 Cooperation and implicature
6 Speech acts and events
7 Politeness and interaction
8 Conversation and preference structure
9 Discourse and culture