Specialisation seminar in linguistics: Pragmatics in discourse analysis

Interest in communication in various aspects of social and cultural domains.

5 ECTS (125h)

30 contact hours

25h – individualized instruction

25h – filling out the work-sheet

25h – preparation for the test

25h – self-study in the library

5 ECTS (125h)

30 contact hours

25h – individualized instruction

25h – filling out the work-sheet

25h – preparation for the test

25h – self-study in the library

K_U01 The graduate is able to search for, analyze, evaluate, select, and apply information using various sources and to formulate critical opinions based thereon.

K_U05 The graduate is able to use various communication channels and techniques to communicate with experts in various disciplines of Humanities in their mother tongue and in a foreign language and to promote the knowledge of the discipline they study.

K_U06 The graduate is able to integrate knowledge from various disciplines within Humanities and apply it in an entire range of situations.

K_U19 The graduate understands longer utterances and lectures on topics related to their field of study. The graduate understands speakers communicating in the language/ languages of a given cultural area (for example, during national and international meetings and classes taught as a part of international exchange programmes).

K_K01, The graduate is aware of the level of their knowledge and skills and understands the need for constant learning and development of their skills. The graduate is able to inspire and coordinate the learning process of other persons.

Tutorial, discussion, analytic tasks, filling out work-sheets

The Seminar under the label of Explorations in Linguistic Pragmatics: Issues of Meaning Construction in Semiotic/Textual Spaces is designed to integrate the students’ knowledge in functional realms of language use (that are dealt with by text linguistics, cognitive linguistics discourse analysis, linguistic pragmatics) and practical implementation of these phenomena: (a) analytical skills in identifying them in the interpersonal space, including public space (e.g. in advertising and commercials, political and legal discourse, journalism etc., (b) creative experimentation in the process of message creation

• Language as a semiotic system

• The relations between structure vs. function in language.

• Structural levels of linguistic organization.

• The semantics v. pragmatics distinction.

• Language Variation: regional, social, stylistic, etc.

• Design features of language.

• Functions of language in various typologies.

• Textual criteria (constitutive principles).

• Conversation structure

• Cognitive Grammar: imagery, construals

• Cognitive Semantics: categorization, mappings selective projections

• Inferential processes: entailments, presuppositions, conversational implicatures.

• The Speech Act Theory (typology and felicity conditions).

• The Co-operation Principle and Conversational Maxims.

• The Relevance Theory.

Theories regarding directness and politeness.

• Besemeres, Mary and Anna Wierzbicka (eds.). 2007. Translating Lives: Living with Two languages and Cultures. University of Queensland Press.

• Chandler, Daniel. 2002. Semiotics: The Basics. Routledge. London.

• Muecke, Stephen. 2005 [1992]. Textual Spaces. API Network. Sydney.

• Skrzypczak, Waldemar. 2006. “On Text Linguistics: some terminological distinctions.” NKJO w Toruniu, Silva Rerum. Nr 6/7, 63-71.

• Stilwell - Peccei, Jean. 1999. Pragmatics. Routledge. London and New York.

Thomas, Jenny. 1995. Meaning in Interaction. Longman. London and New York.

Active involvement (30%)

Analytic tasks, essays and work-sheets (30%)

Final test (40%)

Very good – 91-100% (5.0)

Good plus – 86-90% (4+)

Good – 76-85% (4.0)

Satisfactory plus – 70-75% (3+)

Satisfactory – 60-69% (3.0)

Fail – 0-59% (2)

N/A