Critical Pragmatics develops three ideas: language is a way of doing things with words; meanings of phrases and contents of utterances derive ultimately from human intentions; and language combines with other factors to allow humans to achieve communicative goals. In this book, Kepa Korta and John Perry explain why critical pragmatics provides a coherent picture of how parts of language study fit together within the broader picture of human thought and action. They focus on issues about singular reference, that is, talk about particular things, places or people, which have played a central role in the philosophy of language for more than a century. They argue that attention to the 'reflexive' or 'utterance-bound' contents of utterances sheds new light on these old problems. Their important study proposes a new approach to pragmatics and should be of wide interest to philosophers of language and linguists.

The ten volumes of "Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights" focus on the most salient topics in the field of pragmatics, thus dividing its wide interdisciplinary spectrum in a transparent and manageable way. While the other volumes select specific philosophical, cognitive, grammatical, social, cultural, variational, or interactional angles, this 8th volume focuses on theories and phenomena at the level of discourse, but leaving aside conversational interaction. It provides the reader with pragmatics-oriented information on discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis and critical linguistics, as well as text linguistics and appraisal theory, while introducing other specific approaches to discourse through concepts such as polyphony, intertextuality, genre, and "enonciation." Furthermore, topics such as public discourse, narrative, figures of speech, cohesion and coherence, pragmatic markers, manipulation, and humor, are all dealt with in separate chapters. The binding idea, explained in the introduction, is that discursive pragmatics may serve as a platform for a diversity of perspectives on discourse, as they have emerged not only in the language sciences but also in the humanities and social sciences in general."

Unique in its collation of major theorists rarely considered together, Critical Environments incorporates detailed discussions of the work of Richard Rorty, Walter Benn Michaels, Stanley Cavell, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Niklas Luhmann, Donna Haraway, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Fredric Jameson, and others, and ranges across fields from feminist philosophy of science to the theory of ideology. Offering American readers a comprehensive introduction to systems theory and responding to the widespread charge of relativism leveled against it, Wolfe's work will enhance and inspire new kinds of critical thought.

This book explores the problem-oriented interdisciplinary research movement comprised of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) for scholars, teachers, and students from many backgrounds. Beginning with a Preface by renowned CDA/CDS scholar Ruth Wodak, it introduces CDA/CDS through examples of what its research looks like, delineates various precursors to CDA/CDS and important foundational concepts and theories, and traces its development from its early years until it became established. After the relationship between CDA and CDS is discussed, seven commonly cited approaches to CDA/CDS are outlined, including their connections and differences, their origins and development, major and associated scholars, research focus(es), and central concepts and distinguishing features. After a summary of critiques of CDA/CDS and responses by CDA/CDS scholars, the book provides an overview of its salient connections to other interdisciplinary areas of scholarship such as critical applied linguistics, education, anthropology/ ethnography, sociolinguistics, gender studies, queer linguistics, pragmatics and ecolinguistics. The final chapter describes how scholars use their knowledge of CDA/CDS to make a difference in the world.

This monograph is a series of critical pragmatic studies on a variety of public discourse in the contemporary Chinese context, using extensive first-hand data collected from public places, mass media, and the Internet.

This book examines a range of critical concepts that are central to a shift in the social sciences toward "pragmatic inquiry," reflecting a twenty-first century concern with particular problems and themes rather than grand theory. Taking a transnational and transdisciplinary approach, the collection demonstrates a shared commitment to using analytical concepts for empirical exploration and a general orientation to research that favors an attention to objects, techniques, and practices. The chapters draw from broad-based and far-reaching social theory in order to analyze new, specific challenges, from grasping the everyday workings of markets, courtrooms, and clinics, to inscribing the transformations of practice within research disciplines themselves. Each contributor takes a key concept and then explores its genealogies and its circulations across scholarly communities, as well as its proven payoffs for the social sciences and, often, critical reflections on its present and future uses. This carefully crafted volume will significantly expand and improve the analytical repertoires or toolkits available to social scientists, including scholars in sociology or anthropology and those working in science and technology studies, public health, and related fields.

Opening the 9-volume-series Handbooks of Pragmatics, this handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the foundations of pragmatics. It covers the central theories as well as concepts and topics characteristic of mainstream pragmatics, i.e. the most widespread approach to the ways and means of using language in authentic social contexts. The articles provide both state of the art reviews and critical evaluations of research in pragmatics. Topics are thus not only considered within their scholarly context but are also critically evaluated from current perspectives.