Explorations in Semantics and Pragmatics

Download or read book Explorations in Semantics and Pragmatics written by Geoffrey N. Leech and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1980-01-01 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to show the way forward to a coherent view of language in which the achievement of the formalist paradigm is strengthened to the extent that its claims are weakened. A formal theory such as generative grammar is a special theory which is to be subsumed in a general theory of linguistic communication that also includes pragmatics. The tension between the psycho-formalist and the socio-functional views could be resolved in a synthesis whereby both the psychological and social natures of language are fully acknowledged. Semantics and pragmatics, representing these two natures in the study of meaning, have distinct goals, which can be defined more clearly and pursued more effectively to the extent that both their distinctness and their interdependence are recognized.