Preface

Summary

Pragmatics and Grammar is neither about pragmatics, nor about grammar. It is about the complex relationship between grammar and pragmatics. Grammar is defined as a set of codes, and pragmatics as a set of nonlogical inferences derived on the basis of these codes. Here are some of the main questions we seek to elucidate.

First, what does pragmatic inference do that grammar cannot? In other words, what aspects of the interpretation of an utterance should be seen as pragmatic rather than semantic? How much of the interpretation should we attribute to pragmatics? Should the role of grammar in this process be minimized or maximized? Given that the concept of pragmatic inference may involve more than one subtype, we have to ask which kind of pragmatic inference best accounts for any given pragmatic interpretation. Some inferences constitute part of the information explicitly conveyed, in that they contribute, along with the coded meanings, to the truth conditions of the proposition expressed. If so, once we've ascertained that a putative interpretation should be analyzed as a pragmatic inference, we must also determine whether the inference is best viewed as a conversational implicature or as part of the proposition expressed. The classification carries cognitive and interactional implications.

We also address a puzzle which is frequently overlooked in discussions of the grammar/pragmatics interface. The fact is that our current grammar is very often our pragmatics (of the past) turned grammatical.