PRAGMATICS OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION

The course is included among the educational activities of the Bachelor Degree Programme in Philosophy, International and Economic Studies. In the framework of the common goals of the degree programme and, in particular, of the learning area “Philosophy”, the course contributes to studying those aspects that concern the nature of philosophical analysis, its connections to other sciences and disciplines, its potentials and possible applications.
Indeed, the course makes it possible to enhance the course of your studies in relation to the following general goals of the degree programme:
1) to understand the significance of communication for the spread and discussion of ideas, also with respect to territorial contexts: the course focuses precisely on the mechanisms of human communication and the role of the context in the communicative process;
2) to understand the relevance of logical and epistemological tools to the comprehension of inderdisciplinary objects of study and to the analysis of plural forms of knowledge: the course makes wide use of the logical and epistemological tools that belong to the contemporary philosophy of language and communication;
3) to grasp the ability of philosophy to understand otherness and address issues related to gender equality: in particular, the course addresses issues of otherness and gender from the point of view of linguistic and communicative phenomena, which are indeed central aspects of the current debates on these topics;
4) to understand the vocation of philosophy towards interdisciplinarity and intercultural mediation: the course is anchored in the philosophical tradition but also has an interdisciplinary character, as the pragmatics of communication is a research field in which philosophy meets linguistics, the cognitive sciences, and the social sciences;
5) to acquire general knowledge of the fundamental themes and problems of philosophy, in relation to its contemporary developments: through the study of concepts and theories that belong to the philosophy of language and communication, the course contributes to the knowledge of the fundamental themes and problems of contemporary philosophy.
6) to develop a general vision of philosophical issues: in addition to the study of specific issues, the course aims to develop an in-depth philosophical awareness of the nature of language and human communication.

The course offers an introduction to the study of communication from a philosophical point of view – more precisely, from the point of view of contemporary pragmatics of language. Lectures and individual study will provide students with the following knowledge, skills, and competences:

1) Knowledge and understanding:
- Understanding and mastering the technical vocabulary currently used in the philosophy of language and related disciplines.
- Knowing the basic concepts worked out by semantic and pragmatic theories for the analysis of linguistic productions and communicative exchanges: truth-conditions, compositionality, context, speech act, distinction between implicit and explicit, distinction between linguistic meaning and speaker’s meaning.
- Acquaintance with the linguistic phenomena that are most relevant to communication theory: deixis, performative utterance, illocutionary force, entailment, presupposition, accommodation, implicature, cooperation, politeness.
- Knowing the main theories that have been proposed to account for the communicative phenomena listed above, with special attention to Austin, Grice, Stalnaker, Kaplan, Leech.
- Familiarity with a method for analyzing linguistic facts that is based on argumentative rigor and the consideration of examples and counterexamples.
2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- Ability to use the philosophical-linguistic vocabulary in the appropriate way to correctly describe linguistic facts and exposing theories.
- Ability to detect, recognize, and analyze the main semantic and pragmatic phenomena that occur in various kinds of texts having different communicative purposes.
- In particular, students will be able to recognize the presence of implicit messages and make their contents explicit, by providing at the same time a justification of the proposed analysis.
- Ability to apply these theories to the analysis of the communicative exchanges of everyday life, so as to provide convincing explanations of speakers’ behaviour and reactions.

3) Judgment ability:
- Ability to argue in favor or against a certain theoretical hypothesis on the basis of a wide repertoire of examples and counterexamples.
- Ability to evaluate the pros and cons of a certain communicative strategy in terms of rationality, cooperativity, functionality to context, and politeness.
- Grasping the links between the classics considered, by assessing their various responses to the questions at issue.

4) Communicative skills:
- Ability to uses the linguistic and extra-linguistic context as a communicative resource;
- Mastering the various forms of implicit communication.

No specific background is required. However, the course requires intellectual curiosity, willingness to question what seems obvious, and a good deal of aptitude for reasoning and the use of logic in argumentation.

1. Introduction to philosophical pragmatics: definition, origins, development and lines of research.
2. The role of the context between semantics and pragmatics.
3. What do we do with words.
4. Saying and meaning to say: from meaning to the implicit.
5. Pragmatic competence and social relationships.

- J.L. Austin, "How to Do Things with Words"
- P. Grice, "Logic and Conversation"
- R. Stalnaker, "Presuppositions"
- R. Lakoff, "The Logic of Politeness"

Written exam, consisting in answering a list of open questions. The questions are about the contents of the texts in the syllabus (see section “Referral Texts”). The deadline for submitting the paper is 60 minutes. The paper sheets are provided by the teacher. During the exam, it is forbidden to consult information sources of any nature, including electronic devices.
The mandatory readings are the same for all students: no alternative programme is available.
The evaluation of papers mainly considers the following parameters: relevance of the answer to the question; quantity and quality of the information given by the answer; formal features of the answer (clarity, order, etc.).

written

Grading scale:
A. Scores in the range of 18-22 will be assigned for:
- Sufficient knowledge and understanding of the textbooks and related topics
- Limited ability of analysis and criticism
- Sufficient exposition skills.

B. Scores in the range of 23-26 will be assigned for:
- Fair knowledge of the textbooks and related topics
- Fair ability of analysis and criticism
- Fair exposition skills.

C. Scores in the range of 27-30 will be assigned for:
- Good or very good knowledge of the textbooks and related topics
- Good or very good ability of analysis and criticism
- Good or very good exposition skills.

D. The “laude” will be awarded to students with excellent knowledge and understanding of the textbooks and related topics.

Traditional lectures.
Use of power point.
Analysis of texts and argumentative structures.
Students' interventions and questions are strongly encouraged.