Author Description

Product Description This is a succinct introduction to the burgeoning field of pragmatics, the study of language from the point of view of its users, of the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction, and the effects their use of language has on other participants in an act of communication. Pragmatics reviews the work of Austin, Grice, Searle, Sacks and others and examines the implicit meaning of the irregularities of everyday conversation; and the social importance and the societal determination of even the least consciously proffered "act of language". Review "Strongly recommended reading for those with an interest in pragmatics, and certainly for those requiring an up-to-date and user-friendly pragmatics textbook." Australian Journal of Linguistics From the Back Cover This is a succinct introduction to the burgeoning field of pragmatics, the study of language from the point of view of its users, of the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction, and the effects their use of language has on other participants in an act of communication. Pragmatics reviews the work of Austin, Grice, Searle, Sacks and others and examines the implicit meaning of the irregularities of everyday conversation; and the social importance and the societal determination of even the least consciously proffered "act of language". About the Author Jacob L. Mey is Professor of Comparative Linguistics at Odense University, Denmark. He has taught previously at the University of Oslo, Georgetown University and the University of Texas, Austin. In 1977 he founded (with Hartmut Haberland) the Journal of Pragmatics, of which he is the chief editor. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Zaragoza, Spain in 1992.