Pragmatics Essay Samples

Pragmatics is known to be a subfield of linguistics. The context of language is the main subject of this science. It is essential to separate pragmatics with semantics, as the second one deals with word meaning or “coded” in particular language whereas first one studies how the passing of the meaning relies not only on linguistic or structural and linguistic information of participants, however, also on the context of the sentence, past information about the topic and generally all other factors. In this regard, this subfield of linguistics shows how people are capable of overcoming obvious nebulosity, when meaning depends on place, time and manner of the utterance. Therefore, pragmatic competence is the ability of complete understanding of another speaker.
There is little doubt about differences in pragmatics between different cultures. The usage of language in different cultures are completely different, as well as the meaning of the speaking. It is not very uncommon for second language teachers to overlook pragmatics. Due to this fact one may find deplorable results in lacking of pragmatic competence on the part of second language students can lead to pragmatic failure and, more essentially, to a complete communication breakdown. (Freeman & Freeman, 2011)
Thus, because of this lack of pragmatic competence and generally common cultural understanding between people is likely to cause different misunderstandings or misperceptions in cross-cultural communication. (Uysal) I think that good knowledge in pragmatics will make communication much easier and there would not be any misunderstandings and misperceptions. Furthermore, it would be much easier to identify any problems that student could face and with the help of such knowledge solve it without problems.

References

Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2011). Between worlds: access to second language acquisition (3rd ed., p. 110-118).
Uysal, Hacer Hande. 'Cross-Cultural Pragmatics Of Reading: The Case Of American And Turkish Students Reacting To A Turkish Text.'. Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal 12.1 (2012): 12-29. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.