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Reference, deixis and the delimitation of text worlds in Lewis Carroll¡Çs Alice books

The International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) is an international scientific organization devoted to the study of language use. Established in 1986, it now has over 1,000 members in over 60 countries world-wide. It is listed in The World of Learning, and it is a recognized member of the Consortium of Affiliates for International Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Pragmatics is the study of language use in context. When we look at how language is used, we look at how conversants do things with words.

Pragmatics is the study of the relation between the structure of a semiotic system (notably language) and its usage in context, and, along with semantics (see Semantics), forms part of the general theory of the meaning. Within the theory of meaning, pragmatics is especially concerned with implicit meaning, with inference and the unsaid, and the way in which language structure trades on this background of the presumed and the inferred.

Speech acts are intentional acts and as such lend themselves to philosophical analysis in terms of ends, means and the rules that govern them. Rationality involves norms of appropriateness of means for ends. Rationality considerations are, therefore, applicable to acts of language use. Some major linguistic phenomena are explained by such considerations.

The distinction between semantics and pragmatics is easier to apply than to explain. This might suggest that there is no one way of drawing the distinction and that how to draw it is merely a terminological question, a matter of arbitrary stipulation. In my view, though, these diverse formulations, despite their conflicts, all shed light on the distinction as it is commonly applied, in both linguistics and philosophy.