Introducing Performative Pragmatics

A student-friendly introduction to pragmatics, the study of language in context, with a "performative" approach. This approach involves looking at people "doing things with words," with the emphasis on "doing"; it sees language essentially as drama. Robinson here brings together all the action-oriented approaches to the study of language, including the "pragmatics proper" of Austin and Grice, the sociology and anthropology of communication (Goffman, Gumperz, Brown and Levinson) and critical language study (Fairclough et al) under the umbrella of pragmatics. No other introductory book on pragmatics draws on so many diverse approaches and integrates them into a new performative paradigm. The textbook features will include key points sections, discussions questions and exercises and an on-line teachers' guide.

This user-friendly introduction to a new ‘performative’ methodology in linguistic pragmatics breaks away from the traditional approach which understands language as a machine. Drawing on a wide spectrum of research and theory from the past thirty years in particular, Douglas Robinson presents a combination of ‘action-oriented approaches’ from sources such as J.L. Austin, H. Paul Grice, Harold Garfinkel and Erving Goffman. Paying particular attention to language as drama, the group regulation of language use, individual resistance to these regulatory pressures and nonverbal communication, the work also explains groundbreaking concepts and analytical models. With a key points section, discussion questions and exercises in every chapter, this book will be aninvaluable resource to students and teachers on a variety of courses, including linguistic pragmatics, sociolinguistics and interpersonal communication.

Preface. The Structure of the Book. Acknowledgments. List of Tables Part 1: Introduction 1. Metaphors of Language 2. Histories of Linguistics Part2: Speech Acts 3. Performatives: Words That Transform Reality 4. Types of Speech Act 5. Creating Context 6. Taking Turns Part 3: Implicatures 7. Manipulating Maxims 8. Divergent Maxims 9. Conversational Invocature. Works Cited. Index

Douglas Robinson is professor of English at the University of Mississippi. His previous publications include Performative Linguistics (Routledge, 2003) and Becoming a Translator (Routledge, 1997, rev. ed. 2003).