Socio-Pragmatics: Course Description

1- Aims and Objectives

The main objective of the course is to introduce students to the various

theories developed by sociolinguists, language philosophers and pragmaticists. The
sociolinguistics chapter aims to provoke curiosity about the social factors that
influence our use of language in particular and the relations of language to society in
general. It also aims to investigate the influence of one language over another when
these get in contact and probe the various language phenomena that result from
such a contact.

The pragmatics chapter, on the other hand, aims to make students aware of
the various communicative strategies that are used in every-day-life communication.
It also aims to study the influence of these strategies on how messages are
conveyed by speakers and understood by listeners and how a speaker can influence
and dominate his audience.

2- Contents

a- Sociolinguistics:
Varieties of language
Speech Communities
Language, Dialects and Isoglosses
Social Dialects
Idiolects and Registers
Standard Languages
The Wave Theory
Diglossia
Languages in Contact

b- Pragmatics:
Definition of Pragmatics
Speech Acts
Indirect Speech Acts
The Conversational Principle
Presupposition
Mitigation
Modification of Illocutionary Force
Politeness

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3- Text Books

Beatens, B. H. (1982) Bilingualism: Basic Principles

Multilingual Matters: Clevedon.

Fasold, R (1984) The Sociolinguistics of Society

Basil Blackwell: Oxford.

(1990) Sociolinguistics of Language

Basil Blackwell: Oxford.

Hudson, R. A. (1980) Sociolinguistics

Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Giglioli, P. P. (ed.), (1972) Language and social Context

Penguin Books: New York.

Gumperz, J. J. (1982) Language and Social Identity

Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Leech, G. N. (1983) Principles of Pragmatics

Longman: London.

Levinson, S. C. (1983) Pragmatics

Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Lyons, J. (1981) Language, Meaning and Context

Fontana Paperbacks: Bungay.

Trudgill, P. (1974) Sociolinguistics: An Introduction

Penguin Books: New York.

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