Pragmatics (Oxford Introductions to Language Study) [Paperback]

George Yule (Author), H. G. Widdowson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0194372073 | ISBN-13: 978-0194372077 | Publication Date: June 6, 1996

This book outlines pragmatics, the study of how people make sense of each other linguistically. Basic concepts such as the cooperative principle, deixis, and speech acts are explained and illustrated, providing readers with an ideal foundation for further study.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The strength of this book lies in the conciseness of the description of each separate area.' - ELT Journal

About the Author

Professor Henry Widdowson is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of London, and has also been Professor of Applied Linguistics at Essex University and Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Vienna.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 6, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0194372073
• ISBN-13: 978-0194372077
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Introduction to an... Introduction, March 30, 2001

By 

Stefano Cotrozzi (Bergheim) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pragmatics (Oxford Introductions to Language Study) (Paperback)

The series in which appeared this book is designed to give a large-scale view of different areas of language. It should be used as an introduction to more specific ... introductions. The titles in the series are all divided into four sections: Survey, Readings, References and Glossary.

The Survey of Pragmatics contains nine chapters, each of roughly 10 pages: 1) Definitions and background; 2) Deixis and Reference; 3) Reference and inference; 4) Presupposition and entailment; 5)Cooperation and implicature; 6) Speech acts and events; 7)Politeness and interaction; 8) Conversation and preference structure; 9) Discourse and culture.

The Readings are one-page texts extracted from the specialized literature and are followed by a couple of questions. The References help the reader providing him with a selection of titles for every chapter of the Survey. The proposed books are classified in terms of difficulty, from introductory to advanced level. Technical terms are in bold and are explained once more in the Glossary at the back of the book.

I think the author has succeeded in giving a bird's view of several fields of pragmatics. Of course, the discussion is somewhat condensed and could, at least at some points, be clearer or give some more details. But one should be aware of the difficulty of explaining a lot of stuff to people with no assumed prior knowledge of the subject and having only 90 pages at one's disposal! Nonetheless, I missed formal definitions of technical terms in the Survey. The author often gives them only indirectly, and the reader must extract them himself from the text. Sincerely, I did not find the Readings useful at all and I would have wished to find more titles and more details in the comments under each of them in the References.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short and Swift, March 17, 2007

By 

Bu-Chan (Aotearoa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pragmatics (Oxford Introductions to Language Study) (Paperback)

George Yule's "Pragmatics" is a great little introduction on the topic of English pragmatics, but that is all it is. It is a brief insight into some of the key concepts of the field and one that I found very useful. For this reason, I would recommend it.

However, it is a very short book, and those with more experience, (or any experience at all, for that matter), would probably prefer something more substantial. It is really a whirlwind tour of pragmatics and nothing more.

That said, I found it very readable and easily understood. It was certainly not all that taxing on the reading skills, and the main concepts and definitions were well explained.

This is a good book to start with, and I recommend it for a launching point to further reading.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Introduction to Pragmatics, June 22, 2008

By 

Nick (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pragmatics (Oxford Introductions to Language Study) (Paperback)

This book is all you could ask for in terms of an easy introduction to pragmatics. It is concise, simple, well-planned, clear, and full of useful examples.

Slightly over a hundred pages, this is an ideal read if you're looking for basic knowledge on pragmatics in general. I know no better book for that.

Highly recommended. In addition, this was the reference book in one my classes on pragmatics, so if university teachers consider it good enough for their classes, you can consider it good enough for yourself. And good enough, it sure is.