Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics

by Jenny Thomas

Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics is a comprehensive introductory text which discusses the development of pragmatics - its aims and methodology - and also introduces themes that are not generally covered in other texts.

Jenny Thomas focuses on the dynamic nature of speaker meaning, considering the central roles of both speaker and hearer, and takes into account the social and psychological factors involved in the generation and interpretation of utterances. The book includes a detailed examination of the development of Pragmatics as a discipline, drawing attention to problems encountered in earlier work, and brings the reader up to date with recent discussion in the field. The book is written principally for students with no previous knowledge of pragmatics, and the basic concepts are covered in considerable detail. Theoretical and more complicated information is highlighted with examples that have been drawn from the media, fiction and real-life interaction, and makes the study more accessible to newcomers. It is an ideal introductory textbook for students of linguistics and for all who are interested in analysing problems in communication.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Language

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 1995

Reviews

[Rima Muryantina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good introduction to pragmatics. She combines other linguists' theories and tells you in a more understandable way. Not to mention, she also points out a few things that haven't been covered by former linguists.

[Pilar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked/like it. Love pragmatics.

[Ale · Rating 4 out of 5]

this good for my proposal

[Stephen Politzer-Ahles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good and useful introduction to pragmatics. While I have some quibbles with it (below), it effectively conveys a lot of the important distinctions that a person needs to understand to really know what pragmatics is all about. I think a student can learn pragmatics well from this book as long as they read it with a critical mind and are open to disagreeing with or challenging some of the ideas in it (but that's not necessarily a criticism of this book in particular, though, because the same thing can be said of any textbook -- learning requires critical thinking).

One issue I had is that distinctions Thomas highlights don't always seem to be consistently maintained. One example (from near the end of the book, since that's what's fresh in my mind) is the discussion chapter 7 example 15 (top of p. 201), where Thomas explains that the intended force of an utterance is to get someone to move; but elsewhere in the text Thomas repeatedly emphasizes that this is an illocutionary goal, not illocutionary force, and that the same illocutionary goal could be realized (or at least attempted) with many different kinds of illocutionary force.

My other small complaint is that some examples are hard to understand and hard to figure out what they're illustrating. This is something that will vary vastly from reader to reader; this is a book written by a British author in 1995 and I'm a United States reader who was a small child in 1995, so a lot of the context is lost on me, but a different reader may well find these very clear. So, ultimately, this is an issue inherent to any pragmatics textbook (Thomas herself acknowledges this in chapter 7), and not a problem particular to this one. But anyway, somewhat related to this complaint but more serious is that sometimes the examples could benefit from a more thoroughly worked-out explanation of how they demonstrate the phenomenon under discussion. This is not always a problem--many of the examples are accompanied by a step-by-step breakdown of what each speaker and hearer is doing and thinking at each stage of the example. But there are other spots where Thomas pretty much just says "this example illustrates this phenomenon" and leaves it at that; and sometimes I can figure out how it illustrates the phenomenon (and, indeed, leaving the reader to work some things out on their own is probably conducive to learning), but sometimes I couldn't. I don't see any way around this problem (given the large number of examples in the text, if Thomas had tried to do a detailed breakdown of every single one then this would have become a massive tome) but it nevertheless is something I worry about when I consider, e.g., asking students to read this.

Overall it's still a quite useful introduction and holds up remarkably well 25 years later and in a very different context. But I suspect no one textbook can ever successfully work as a standalone introduction to pragmatics.

[Ghada · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent guide to anyone wishing to get to know about it. Clear, easy to understand and enriched with so many vivid examples.

[Pumkinsoop]

Halfway through

[Yuka Syustari]

i think this book so good.

[Pyae Cho · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my MA Thesis

[Laurel Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you don't know anything about pragmatics, this book is the right place to start. Though much of the text is chock full of examples, it takes a lot of work to make a point. Which I think is the point that Thomas attempts to make, which is that pragmatics cannot be limited, it must attempt to take on all aspects of interaction.

[Iain]

That the Leech's "generosity maxim" is particularly important in Mediterranean cultures but this "linguistic generosity" does not mean that members
of one culture are more generous than those of another.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent for those who teach pragmatics!

[Lan]

interesting

[Diana180]

#curriculum #linguistics

[Alaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

good

[Lobna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives a very insightful look on how we use language in real life ... how we produce, what we mean by it and how do we understand it :)

[Lobna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives a very insightful look on how we use language in real life ... how we produce it, what we mean by it and how do we understand it :)