Pragmatics
Code: 100189 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500245 English Studies | OT | 3 | 0 |
| 2500245 English Studies | OT | 4 | 0 |
Contact
- Name:
- Maria Rosa Garrido Sarda
- Email:
- mariarosa.garrido@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
Prerequisites
To be able to complete this course successfully, students must have level C2 of the CEFR.
This course is only open to local students in the OLD study plan and mobility students.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This course is an introduction to the vast field of linguistic and discursive pragmatics. A few key theoretical frameworks and concepts will be examined. They will provide the tools for students to analyse both oral and written texts from a socio-interactional and discursive perspective. Talk is viewed as a situated object and as a tool to accomplish goals in specific interpersonal, historical, socio-ideological and cultural contexts.
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
-Define the main concepts in pragmatic analysis, situate them in their theoretical framework and establish connections.
-Apply the concepts learned to the description and comprehension of language use.
-Reflect on one's own and others' communicative practice.
-Analyse oral interactions and texts from a gender perspective.
Competences
- English Studies
- Critically assessing the scientific, literary and cultural production in the English language.
- Describe synchronously the main grammar units, constructions and phenomena of the English language.
- Distinguish and contrast the various theoretical and methodological models applied to the study of the English language, its literature and its culture.
- Generate innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activities.
- Respect the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Utilising new technologies in order to capture and organise information in English and other languages, and applying it to the personal continued training and to the problem-solving in the professional or research activity.
- Working in an autonomous and responsible way in a professional or research environment in English or other languages, in order to accomplish the previously set objectives.
Learning Outcomes
- Analysing the English language from a semantic and pragmatic point of view, and critically commenting the implementation of the studied models and theories to the analysis of a concrete problem or question.
- Apply the acquired knowledge in order to improve the general knowledge of linguistic and cultural diversity.
- Apply the acquired knowledge to the generation of innovative and competitive research on a basic level.
- Applying the acquired knowledge and competences to professional and academic activities related to linguistics.
- Applying the acquired methodologies of work planning to work in an environment in the English language.
- Applying the acquired scientific and work planning methodologies to the research in English.
- Applying the information in English that is available on the Internet, in databases, etc. to the work and/or research environments.
- Communicating in the studied language in oral and written form, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
- Demonstrate a master of the specific methods of individual academic work that prepare the student for a postgraduate specialised education in the same or a different field of study.
- Demonstrate sound knowledge of the topics within the study of Linguistics.
- Describing and identifying the differences and main possible explanations of the theoretical and methodological models that can be applied to the study of grammar and pragmatics.
- Describing the field of study of pragmatics and knowing the main analysis topics.
- Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
- Explaining the combinatory morphological objects and principles of the word formation.
- Generate strategies to facilitate the increase and improvement of mutual respect in multicultural environments.
- Interpreting the pragmatic contextual meanings and developing the ability to grasp implicit meanings.
- Issue appropriate critical assessments based on the comprehension of relevant information about social, scientific or ethical issues related to linguistics.
- Locating and organising relevant information in English that is available on the Internet, in databases, etc.
Content
Unit 1: Pragmatics as a discipline: Aims, definitions and core concepts
Unit 2: Language as social action: Speech Act Theory
Unit 3: The interpersonal dimension of language use: Politeness Theory
Unit 4: The pragmatics of interaction: Conversation Analysis
Unit 5: Power, social inequality and ideology: Critical Discourse Analysis
Unit 6: Discursive constrution of identity: Language and Gender
Please note that this subject is part of the teaching innovation project "Towards a transdisciplinary collaboration between English literature and linguistics on the discursive construction of gender" (2023-2024).
Methodology
The course engages students actively and combines theoretical lecturing with applied exercises.
Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Critical analysis and discussion of assigned readings | 17 | 0.68 | 1, 5, 11, 17, 13, 8, 15 |
| Critical discussion and correction of practical exercises | 10 | 0.4 | 1, 5, 2, 10, 11, 12, 17, 14, 8, 15 |
| Presentation of theoretical concepts | 23 | 0.92 | 1, 4, 10, 11, 12, 14 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Individual consultation sessions | 20 | 0.8 | 9, 11, 17, 8 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Completion of exercises | 15 | 0.6 | 1, 2, 10, 9, 12, 17, 8 |
| Completion of individual and group assignments | 15 | 0.6 | 6, 17, 13 |
| Personal study | 15 | 0.6 | 5, 6, 2, 7, 18 |
Assessment
Notes
Exact dates for all evaluation activities will be confirmed at the start of the course through a course calendar published on the class Moodle.
"Active participation" also includes participation formats such as forum posts and wiki contributions.
Assessment criteria:
1) ALL assessment tasks are compulsory.
2) If a student submits ONLY ONE assessment task, s/he will be considered "no avaluable". If a students submits MORE THAN ONE assessment task, s/he will either PASS or FAIL the course.
3) The grade for those items awarded 4 or higher will be included in the calculation of the global average grade for the subject.
4) The student's command of English will be taken into account when marking all exercises and for the final mark. If a student's level of English is lower than C2, up to 40% of the final grade can be taken off.
5) Plagiarism/copy: In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject. Irregularities refer, for instance, to copying in an exam, copying from sources without indiacting authorship, or a misuse of AI such as presenting work as original that has been generated by an AI tool or programme.These evaluation activities will not be re-assessed.
6) Students are required to employ non-sexist language in their written and oral productions. For guidelines on how to do this, they are advised to check the website of the LinguisticSociety of America (LSA): https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/lsa-guidelines-nonsexist-usage. Appropriate use of language will bepart of the assessment criteria.
Re-assessment conditions:
Re-assessment for this subject will be undertaken on an item-by-item basis, for which the following conditions are applicable:
- The student must previously have obtained a grade equal to or higher than 3.5 to be able to re-assess a specific item.
- The student must have passed items weighing 60% of the subject's mark.
- The maximum grade for re-assesseditems is 6/10.
- If the student fails the re-assessed item or items in question, the subject may still be passed provided that their average overall grade is equal to or higher than 5.
It is not possible to re-assess the following activities:
-Active participation
-Assignment 1
-Assignment 2
Procedure for Reviewing Grades Awarded:
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturer swill inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
Single-assessment option:
The exact date for the single assessment will be published at the start of the course on the class Moodle.
Activities:
1) Exam (30%)
2) Final project (40%)
3) Assignment portfolio (30%)
The same re-assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active participation | 15% | 5 | 0.2 | 4, 9, 17, 13, 8 |
| Assignment 2 (in pairs) | 15% | 5 | 0.2 | 1, 5, 6, 3, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 17, 13, 8, 16, 18 |
| Exam | 25% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 2, 10, 9, 11, 12, 17, 14, 13, 8 |
| Final project (in pairs) | 35% | 20 | 0.8 | 2, 10, 11, 12 |
| Individual assignment 1 | 10% | 3.5 | 0.14 | 1, 5, 6, 2, 4, 10, 9, 11, 12, 17, 13, 8, 15, 16 |
Bibliography
Alba-Juez, Laura & J. Lachlan Mackenzie (2015) Pragmatics: Cognition, Context and Culture. Madrid: McGraw-Hill/UNED.
Angouri, Jo and Baxter, Judith (eds) (2021)The Routledge HandbookofLanguage, Gender, and Sexuality. London: Routledge.
Archer, Dawn, Karin Aijmer & Anne Wichmann (2012) Pragmatics: An Advanced Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge.
Blommaert, Jan (2005). Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brown, Penelope & Stephen Levinson (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth & Margret Selting (2018) Interactional Linguistics: Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cutting, Joan and Fordyce, Kenneth (2021). Pragmatics: A Resource Book for Students (4th Edition). London: Routledge.
Cutting, Joan (2008). Pragmatics and Discourse. London: Routledge.
Hall, Kira Hall and Barrett, Rusty(2018). The Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Huang, Yan (2014) Pragmatics (2nd ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Huang, Yan (2017) The Oxford Handbook of Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.
Hutchby, Ian & Robin Wooffitt (1998) Conversation Analysis: Principles, practices and applications. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kiesling, Scott F. (2019). Language, Gender, and Sexuality: An Introduction. London: Routledge
Martínez-Flor, Alicia & Esther Usó-Juan (2010). Speech Act Performance: Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Issues. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Mey, Jacob L. (1993) Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell
Thomas, Jenny (1995) Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. London: Longman.
Verschueren, Jef (1999) Understanding Pragmatics. London: Arnold.
Software
Not applicable