Pragmatics: the contextual aspects of language use

The idea

Pragmatics studies how context shapes meaning beyond literal wording. It examines deixis, where words such as 'here', 'now', 'you' and 'that' depend on the situation of utterance; speech acts, where an utterance performs an action such as promising, requesting or warning; and implicature, where speakers imply more than they state. Grice's cooperative principle and its maxims of quantity, quality, relation and manner help explain how hearers infer intended meaning when a maxim is flouted, as when someone answers 'It's raining' to a suggestion of a picnic. Politeness, face and power relations also influence choices such as indirect requests. Analysing pragmatics means reconstructing the assumed context, identifying the intended act or inference, and explaining how participants recognise it.

What earns the marks

• Identification of deictic expressions and explanation of how their reference depends on speaker, time and place.
• Recognition of direct and indirect speech acts, with the intended action distinguished from the surface form, as when 'Can you pass the salt?' functions as a request.
• Explanation of conversational implicature arising from flouting or observing Gricean maxims, supported by textual evidence.
• Discussion of politeness strategies and face needs, showing how indirectness can soften a potentially imposing act.
• Analysis of how context, including relationship, setting and shared knowledge, constrains interpretation of an utterance.
• Use of pragmatic terminology accurately and consistently when interpreting spoken or written interaction.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Reading utterances only literally.

  Put it right: Infer intended meaning from context and tone.

• Confusing semantics with pragmatics.

  Put it right: Ask what the speaker intends, not only what the words denote.

• Assuming a flouted maxim always signals deception.

  Put it right: Distinguish deliberate exploitation for inferred meaning from violation that misleads.

• Ignoring power and distance when judging politeness.

  Put it right: Relate strategy choice to relative status and social distance.

Exam tips

• Establish the context explicitly before interpreting an extract, noting participants, relationship, setting and purpose.
• Use the maxims as analytical tools rather than a checklist, explaining which maxim is relevant and what inference follows.
• Support every pragmatic claim with a short quotation and a clear statement of the implied meaning.
• Practise converting literal readings into contextual readings, then justify the inference with evidence from the surrounding discourse.