Experimental pragmatics: a Gricean turn in the study of language.

Full Abstract

Discerning the meaning of an utterance requires not only mastering grammar and knowing the meanings of words but also understanding the communicative (i.e., pragmatic) features of language. Although it has been an ever present aspect of linguistic analyses and discussions, it is only over the last ten years or so that cognitive scientists have been investigating--in a concerted fashion--the pragmatic features of language experimentally. We begin by highlighting Paul Grice's contributions to ordinary language philosophy and show how it has led to this active area of experimental investigation. We then focus on two exemplary phenomena--'scalar inference' and 'reference resolution'--before considering other topics that fit into the paradigm known as 'experimental pragmatics'.

Author information

Author/s: Noveck, Ira A (IA); Reboul, Anne (A);

Affiliation: Laboratoire sur le Langage, le Cerveau et la Cognition (L2C2), Institut des Sciences Cognitives, UMR5230 CNRS-Universite de Lyon 1, 67 Boulevard Pinel, 69675 Bron, France. noveck(-atsign-)isc.cnrs.fr

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Review

Journal: Trends in cognitive sciences (Trends Cogn Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Nov; vol 12 (issue 11) : pp 425-31

Dates: Created 2009/03/09; Completed 2009/04/01;

PMID: 18805727, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 4/1/2009, IMS Date: 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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