Theme of the Semester: Pragmatics

Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics which has been developed in the late 1970's. The term "pragmatics' was invented by C.W. Morris in the 1938. Pragmatics can be define as the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker or writer and later interpreted by a listener or reader. It is a study of the meanings that a sentence has in a particular context in which it is uttered. Body postures and gestures are also important in understanding meaning. Pragmatics require people to make sense of people and what they have in their mind. Some of the aspects of language studied in pragmatics are deixis, presupposition, implicature and politeness. In this, blog, we are focusing on politeness. Politeness is an interaction that can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person's face. In this sense, politeness can be accomplished in situations of social distance or closeness. Politeness is important in order to gain trust and respect from others. There are two types of politeness which are positive politeness and negative politeness.