English Philology
Pragmatics
Faculty of Philology, Department of English Philology
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daiva Verikaitė
Room 209, Department of English Philology, Lithuanian
University of Educational Sciences, 39 Studentų St., Vilnius
LT-08106, Lithuania, tel. +370 5 2757258, e-mail:
daiva.verikaitė@leu.lt
English
Language of Instruction
BA in English Philology
Required Prerequisites
Suggested Academic Cycle MA studies (from 1st year of studies)
or Year of Studies
Spring
Semester
5
ECTS Credits
2
Contact Hours per Week
Compulsory
Compulsory/ Elective
Lectures, seminars and individual consultations
Methods of Teaching
Accumulative mark
Form of Assessment
Title of the Study Program
Title of the Module
Faculty, Department
Instructor
Address
Course Description
The course examines the language use in the situation, introduces the key
concepts of Pragmatics – deixis, presupposition, implicature, speech acts. By the end of the
course, a student should be able to: understand and use terminology of Pragmatics;
demonstrate understanding of the main theoretical assumptions and methodologies employed
in Pragmatics; demonstrate an ability to critically evaluate different approaches to language;
undertake independent research studies using Pragmatic approaches.
Topics of the course:
1. The Origins and Definitions of Pragmatics. Tasks and Functions of Pragmatics.
2. Deixis. Person deixis, Spatial deixis, Temporal deixis. Social deixis and Discourse
deixis.
3. Reference and inference.
4. Speech acts: language as representation of intention. Felicity conditions. Direct and
indirect speech acts.
5. Implicit meaning: Grice’s theory of conversational implicature. Entailment and
implicature. Types and tokens.
6. Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory. Relevance theory and degrees of
understanding.
7. Presupposition: features and types of presuppositions. Presupposition triggers.
8. Politeness: politeness phenomenon and effects of politeness.
9. Conversation. Conversations as speech events. Conversational style.
10. The place of pragmatics in a theory of language. The nature of pragmatic
investigation.
Readings
1. Cruse, D. A. (2011). Meaning in language: an introduction to semantics and
pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Huang, Y. (2011). Pragmatics. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
3. Grundy, P. (2000). Doing Pragmatics. London: Arnold.
4. Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Valeika, L., Verikaitė D. (2010). An Introductory Course in Linguistic Pragmatics.
Vilnius: Vilniaus pedagoginio universiteto leidykla.