Pragmatica cognitiva

by Bruno G. Bara

In Cognitive Pragmatics, Bruno Bara offers a theory of humancommunication that is both formalized through logic and empirically validatedthrough experimental data and clinical studies. Bara argues that communication is acooperative activity in which two or more agents together consciously andintentionally construct the meaning of their interaction. In true communication(which Bara distinguishes from the mere transmission of information), all the actorsmust share a set of mental states. Bara takes a cognitive perspective, investigatingcommunication not from the viewpoint of an external observer (as is the practice inlinguistics and the philosophy of language) but from within the mind of theindividual. Bara examines communicative interaction through the notion of behaviorand dialogue games, which structure both the generation and the comprehension of thecommunication act (either language or gesture). He describes both standardcommunication and nonstandard communication (which includes deception, irony, and"as-if" statements). Failures are analyzed in detail, with possiblesolutions explained. Bara investigates communicative competence in both evolutionaryand developmental terms, tracing its emergence from hominids to homo sapiens anddefining the stages of its development in humans from birth to adulthood. Hecorrelates his theory with the neurosciences, and explains the decay ofcommunication that occurs both with different types of brain injury and withAlzheimer's disease. Throughout, Bara offers supporting data from the literature andhis own research. The innovative theoretical framework outlined by Bara will be ofinterest not only to cognitive scientists and neuroscientists but also toanthropologists, linguists, and developmental psychologists.

Genres: Linguistics

Pocket Book

First published May 28, 2010