- June 10, 2021
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue V, May 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186
The Meaning and Scope of Pragmatics
Chean Bint Abdulghani1, Muhammad Abubakar Abdullahi2
1Faculty: Modern Languages And Communication University Putra Malaysia (Upm)
2College Of General Studies (English Unit) Umaru Ali Shinkafi Polytechnic Sokoto, Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
Traditional criticism has been made, that pragmatics does not have a clear-cut focus and in early studies, there was the tendency to assort those topics without a clear status in linguistics pragmatics. Some complained why that pragmatics is not eligible as an independent field of learning since meaning is already dealt with semantics.
However, there is consensus that pragmatics as a separate study is more than necessary because it handles those meanings that semantics overlook.
This paper, therefore, attempts to highlight the meaning and scope of pragmatics. The paper is generally sub-divided into the following sections: introduction, the meaning of Pragmatics, Scope of Pragmatics, and Conclusion.
INTRODUCTION
Pragmatics is a relatively new branch of linguistics. Research on it can be dated back to Ancient Greece and Rome where the term “Pragmatics” was found in late 70s. The term “Pragmatics” in Latin and Greek both mean ‘Practical’. Modern use and correct practice of pragmatics is credited to the influence of the American Philosophical Doctrine of Pragmatism.
Moreover, Pragmatics as a branch of linguistics has its origin in Philosophy especially the philosophy of language.
The history of the term pragmatics in modern usage is attributed to Charles Morris (1938), who at the initial stage of the discipline was concerned with signs of semiotics. Within semiotic. Morris distinguished three distinct branches of inquiry: syntactic; The study of formal relations of signs to one another, semantics; the study of signs in relation to the object to which they are applied (designate), and pragmatics: the study of signs in relation to the interpreter’s Morris (1988).
