Undergraduate Course: Pragmatics (LASC10067)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The study of Pragmatics focuses on language meaning in context. In this course we discuss a range of pragmatic phenomena from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. |
| Course description |
The course is about how language acquires meaning in context. In many situations, what speakers mean goes beyond what they explicitly say. This course discusses formal models which have been proposed for explaining how these meanings are conveyed between cooperative interlocutors. Specific topics include presuppositions and implicatures, which often arise within the sentence, as well as higher level discourse phenomena such as coreference and coherence. We examine these using both naturally occurring data and the results of experimental investigation.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 27,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
169 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Homework: 30% (1 x 1000 word essay)
Final assignment: 70% (2 x 1000 word essay)
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| Feedback |
Feedback will be provided on an exercise involving the application of course concepts to linguistic data, around the middle of term. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand and discuss important concepts in pragmatics
- Analyse naturally occurring linguistic data for both structure and function
- Evaluate different kinds of explanation in the field of pragmatics
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course definitely is one that asks a lot of students problem-solving / critical thinking, since the assignments are less like standard essays (where one might review positions/findings in the literature) and more about applying the kinds of concepts and mechanisms from class to explain patterns of production (why a speaker would select a particular form to disambiguate a meaning or balance competing pressures of efficiency-vs-redundancy) and interpretation (how meaning is computed in context, particularly when the intended meaning goes beyond what has been explicitly said). The written assignments challenge students to convey key arguments briefly and compellingly. A primary skill in this course is the use of data to test theories.
Core skills gained or developed on this course:
Critical thinking; Critical analysis and evaluation; Preparation, planning and organisation; Problem solving; Academic reading skills; Time management; Workload management; Written communication; Writing clearly and concisely |
| Keywords | pragmatics,meaning,context |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Hannah Rohde
Tel: (0131 6)50 6802
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Kayla Johnson-McCraw
Tel: (0131 6)50 3440
Email: |
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