Language use
Subtitle: a philosophical investigation into the basic notions of pragmatics
By: Pär Segerdahl.
Series: Swansea studies in philosophy
Publisher: Macmillan Press; St. Martin's Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
Subjects: Pragmatics.; Semantics.; Language and languages -- Philosophy.; Linguistics.
Description: What is the relationship between the meaning of a sentence, our abilities of inference, and the practical use of the sentence in everyday circumstances? The answer from pragmatics, which is scrutinized in this work, is that meaning and inference guide our practical use of language.

Drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's approach to philosophical problems, Language Use offers a detailed examination of the conceptual framework of central pragmatic fields of research such as deixis, implicatures, speech acts and presuppositions, and contrasts this framework with investigations into numerous examples of everyday practices of language use. The originality of the book lies in its treatment of general theoretical issues in terms of descriptions of examples and particular cases.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-230) and index.