How to study

Read. Begin with the printed textbook pages for the chapter. Work through the explanations, examples, and activities.

Watch. Watch the matching lesson, pausing to connect examples with the chapter’s central question and key terms.

Listen and apply. Revisit the ideas through the matching podcast. Write a short explanation in your own words and check it against the textbook’s explained answers.

Chapter 1: Pragmatics and Meaning in Use

Textbook pp. 14–27

The same words can communicate different messages in different situations. Begin by distinguishing linguistic forms from particular uses, then explain an interpretation through wording, context, and evidence.

Watch Chapter 1  ·  Listen to Chapter 1

Five core topics

1.1 Sentences, Utterances, and Propositions — Distinguish a grammatical form, a particular occasion of its use, and the content it expresses.

1.2 Encoded Meaning and Speaker Meaning — Compare what linguistic expressions conventionally contribute with what a speaker intends to communicate on a particular occasion.

1.3 Pragmatics, Semantics, and Discourse Analysis — Locate pragmatic questions alongside the study of linguistic meaning and the organization of discourse.

1.4 Inference, Intention, and Interpretation — Explain how a listener uses evidence to infer a message, while keeping an interpretation separate from certain knowledge of intention.

1.5 Evidence and Explanations in Pragmatic Analysis — Support analytical claims with appropriate examples or data, and state what the available evidence cannot establish.

Chapter 2: Context and Common Ground

Textbook pp. 28–41

An utterance draws on surrounding language, the situation, and what participants treat as shared. Learn to identify relevant contextual evidence, follow changing assumptions, and explain why more than one interpretation may remain possible.

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Five core topics

2.1 Co-text and the Physical Situation — Separate surrounding language from evidence supplied by objects, locations, and other features of the situation.

2.2 Participants, Roles, and Communicative Goals — Consider who is involved, their roles, and the purposes that make a contribution relevant.

2.3 Shared Knowledge and Common Ground — Distinguish information treated as shared from private knowledge and from genuine agreement.

2.4 Contextual Assumptions and Updating — Track how an exchange introduces, confirms, revises, or rejects contextual assumptions.

2.5 Context Selection and Interpretive Uncertainty — Select the contextual facts an interpretation needs, and recognize when missing information leaves uncertainty.

Chapter 3: Deixis and Perspective

Textbook pp. 42–55

Expressions such as I, here, and tomorrow require a perspective. Explore how people, places, times, social relationships, and parts of a text become identifiable through contextual pointing.

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Five core topics

3.1 Deictic Centers and Shifts in Perspective — Identify the reference point for contextual pointing and explain how it can shift across speakers, messages, or perspectives.

3.2 Person Deixis and Participant Roles — Interpret person expressions in relation to the speaker, addressee, and other participants.

3.3 Spatial Deixis and Demonstratives — Use spatial context to interpret expressions such as here, there, this, and that.

3.4 Temporal Deixis and Reference Times — Recover the relevant reference time before interpreting expressions such as now, yesterday, or tomorrow.

3.5 Social and Discourse Deixis — Distinguish expressions that index social relationships from expressions that point to parts of discourse.

Chapter 4: Reference and Inferential Identification

Textbook pp. 56–69

A name, description, or pronoun helps an audience identify someone or something, but successful identification is not automatic. Compare the evidence for possible referents and learn when clarification is needed.

Watch Chapter 4  ·  Listen to Chapter 4

Five core topics

4.1 Referring Expressions and Referents — Distinguish the expression used to identify something from the person, object, or other entity it identifies.

4.2 Definiteness, Indefiniteness, and Identifiability — Examine how definite and indefinite expressions present a target as identifiable or introduce it in another way.

4.3 Anaphora, Cataphora, and Reference Outside the Text — Trace references backward, forward, or to the surrounding situation.

4.4 Bridging Inferences and Associative Reference — Explain how an associated entity can be understood through an inferential link, even without an earlier direct mention.

4.5 Accessibility, Ambiguity, and Reference Resolution — Compare candidate referents using contextual accessibility, and justify either an identification or a request for clarification.

Chapter 5: Presupposition and Background Meaning

Textbook pp. 70–83

An utterance can present information as background while making a claim or asking a question. Distinguish this background from assertion and entailment, and examine how participants accept, accommodate, or challenge it.

Watch Chapter 5  ·  Listen to Chapter 5

Five core topics

5.1 Assertion, Entailment, and Presupposition — Distinguish a presented claim, a truth-guaranteeing meaning relation, and information presented as background.

5.2 Presupposition Triggers and Context — Identify taught presupposition triggers while checking how their contribution depends on context.

5.3 Negation, Questions, and Projection — Use contrasts involving negation and questions to investigate whether background meaning persists, without treating these as infallible tests.

5.4 Accommodation and Challenged Assumptions — Examine how participants accept new background information or explicitly reject an assumption.

5.5 Presupposition in Interaction and Public Messages — Analyze how backgrounded information shapes exchanges and public messages, without assuming that it is true.

Chapter 6: Cooperation and Conversational Implicature

Textbook pp. 84–96

A reply can communicate a message without stating it directly. Reconstruct conversational implicatures from wording and context, compare different kinds of implicature, and test how strongly an inference is supported.

Watch Chapter 6  ·  Listen to Chapter 6

Five core topics

6.1 The Cooperative Principle and Conversational Expectations — Explain how expectations about an exchange’s accepted purpose help listeners interpret a contribution.

6.2 Quantity, Quality, Relation, and Manner — Distinguish expectations concerning information, truthfulness, relevance, and clarity.

6.3 Observing, Flouting, Violating, and Opting Out — Compare different ways a contribution can relate to conversational expectations, including conspicuous departures and covert failures.

6.4 Generalized, Particularized, and Scalar Implicatures — Distinguish more generally available inferences, context-dependent inferences, and inferences involving ordered alternatives.

6.5 Testing Implicatures and Distinguishing Meaning Types — Use cancellation and controlled contrasts to distinguish implicated meaning from other meaning contributions.

Chapter 7: Explicit Meaning and Pragmatic Enrichment

Textbook pp. 97–110

Context helps determine more than an extra implied message: it can help specify what an utterance explicitly communicates. Examine completion and enrichment, then compare explanations of where explicit meaning ends and implicature begins.

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Five core topics

7.1 Underdetermined Meaning and Contextual Completion — Identify content that wording leaves unspecified and explain how context helps complete an interpretation.

7.2 Disambiguation, Reference Assignment, and Enrichment — Separate choosing a word sense, identifying a referent, and enriching a communicated message.

7.3 Relevance, Cognitive Effects, and Processing Effort — Explain relevance through the relationship between worthwhile cognitive effects and the effort of interpretation.

7.4 Neo-Gricean and Relevance-Based Explanations — Compare neo-Gricean and relevance-based explanations without treating their analytical terms as interchangeable.

7.5 Explicature, Implicature, and Contested Boundaries — Distinguish explicature and implicature while recognizing that the boundary is analyzed differently across theories.

Chapter 8: Speech Acts and Indirectness

Textbook pp. 111–123

People use utterances to request, promise, assert, and perform other actions. Connect linguistic form with communicative function, the conditions of an action, and the responses through which participants show their understanding.

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Five core topics

8.1 Locution, Illocution, and Perlocution — Distinguish producing meaningful wording, performing a communicative act, and bringing about effects.

8.2 Speech-Act Categories and Communicative Functions — Use speech-act categories to analyze clear examples while attending to their communicative function.

8.3 Performatives and Felicity Conditions — Examine how performative expressions work and which contextual conditions make the action appropriate.

8.4 Direct and Indirect Speech Acts — Explain how a linguistic form can perform a direct or indirect action in a particular situation.

8.5 Speech-Act Sequences, Uptake, and Context — Use neighboring actions and recipient responses to analyze how a speech act is recognized and develops in an exchange.

Chapter 9: Nonliteral Meaning and Interpretation

Textbook pp. 124–137

Metaphor, exaggeration, irony, and humor depend on connections between wording and context. Compare possible readings, identify the evidence for a speaker’s displayed attitude, and explain why a nonliteral interpretation can be misunderstood.

Watch Chapter 9  ·  Listen to Chapter 9

Five core topics

9.1 Literal and Nonliteral Interpretations — Compare literal and nonliteral readings and identify the contextual evidence supporting each.

9.2 Metaphor, Metonymy, and Contextual Meaning — Distinguish metaphorical comparison from association-based metonymy in context.

9.3 Hyperbole, Understatement, and Approximation — Compare exaggeration, understatement, and approximate expression without assuming the wording is intended as an exact report.

9.4 Irony, Sarcasm, and Speaker Attitude — Analyze irony and sarcasm through expectations, contrast, and displayed attitude.

9.5 Humor, Ambiguity, and Interpretive Risk — Explain how ambiguity and differing assumptions can support humor or create interpretive risk.

Chapter 10: Conversation and Interaction

Textbook pp. 138–152

An utterance gains meaning from what comes before it and what follows. Study turn-taking, paired actions, response formats, and repair to explain how participants coordinate an exchange and negotiate understanding.

Watch Chapter 10  ·  Listen to Chapter 10

Five core topics

10.1 Turns, Participation, and Listener Responses — Examine how participants coordinate contributions and how listener responses display understanding.

10.2 Adjacency Pairs and Sequential Expectations — Identify paired actions and the kinds of responses a first action makes relevant.

10.3 Preferred and Dispreferred Response Formats — Distinguish interactional response formats from a person’s private wishes or a simple judgment of politeness.

10.4 Repair and Negotiating Understanding — Analyze how participants locate and resolve problems of speaking, hearing, or understanding.

10.5 Sequence Expansion and Implicit Social Action — Explain how additional turns come before, occur within, or follow a basic pair and contribute to its social action.

Chapter 11: Information Structure and Discourse Inference

Textbook pp. 153–165

Speakers organize information to fit a question, a contrast, or what an audience already knows. Explore how wording, word order, stress, and inferred connections guide the interpretation of a message.

Watch Chapter 11  ·  Listen to Chapter 11

Five core topics

11.1 Given and New Information — Distinguish earlier mention from assumed listener knowledge when identifying familiar and new information.

11.2 Topic, Focus, and Contrast — Use context and the relevant question to identify what a message is about, what it contributes, and what it contrasts.

11.3 Word Order, Stress, and Information Packaging — Compare how ordering and spoken emphasis package a similar basic message for different contexts.

11.4 Questions Under Discussion and Relevant Answers — Identify the question an exchange is addressing and explain why a contribution counts as a relevant answer.

11.5 Coherence Relations and Inferred Connections — Infer connections between utterances while considering other relations that the available evidence could support.

Chapter 12: Pragmatic Markers and Stance

Textbook pp. 166–178

Small expressions can organize an exchange, qualify a claim, or show a speaker’s position. Interpret markers and stance through their wording, placement, and surrounding interaction rather than assigning each expression a single fixed function.

Watch Chapter 12  ·  Listen to Chapter 12

Five core topics

12.1 Pragmatic Markers and Discourse Connectives — Examine how short expressions guide interaction or signal relations between parts of discourse.

12.2 Managing Topics, Turns, and Reformulation — Analyze expressions used to shift a topic, organize a turn, or reformulate a message.

12.3 Hedging, Vague Language, and Degree of Commitment — Distinguish lower commitment to a claim, reduced precision, and interpersonal softening.

12.4 Evaluation, Evidence, and Speaker Stance — Connect evaluations and claims about evidence with the position a speaker displays.

12.5 Metapragmatic Comments and Context-Sensitive Functions — Analyze comments about language use and explain how the same expression can perform different contextual functions.

Chapter 13: Politeness, Impoliteness, and Interpersonal Meaning

Textbook pp. 179–191

Language helps people manage relationships as well as practical tasks. Compare accounts of face and relational expectations, examine power and imposition in context, and separate intended actions from perceived offense and observable outcomes.

Watch Chapter 13  ·  Listen to Chapter 13

Five core topics

13.1 Face, Social Relations, and Interactional Expectations — Explain face and relationship-related expectations, keeping technical positive and negative face separate from moral judgments.

13.2 Power, Distance, and Imposition — Analyze locally relevant differences in authority, familiarity, and the demands of an action.

13.3 Politeness Strategies and Indirectness — Examine strategies and indirectness in context without assuming that a form is always polite or impolite.

13.4 Relational and Discursive Perspectives — Compare face-based explanations with accounts that emphasize participants’ relationships and evaluations.

13.5 Impoliteness, Offense, and Contested Evaluations — Distinguish intentions, perceived offense, and interactional outcomes when evaluations are disputed.

Chapter 14: Pragmatic Variation and Multilingual Understanding

Textbook pp. 192–205

A familiar expression can serve a different function or receive a different evaluation across settings. Compare specific language practices, recognize variation within communities, and examine clarification and speaker choices as resources for multilingual understanding.

Watch Chapter 14  ·  Listen to Chapter 14

Five core topics

14.1 Cross-Linguistic Form–Function Differences — Compare how specified languages or varieties connect linguistic forms with communicative functions.

14.2 Cross-Cultural Comparison and Intercultural Interaction — Distinguish a comparison across cultural settings from an actual encounter among participants with different experiences.

14.3 Within-Community Variation and Contextual Norms — Recognize variation within communities and identify the expectations relevant to the local activity.

14.4 Pragmatic Competence and Cross-Linguistic Influence — Explain pragmatic competence and possible influence from other languages without treating every difference as a deficiency.

14.5 Misunderstanding, Clarification, and Speaker Agency — Analyze how clarification, negotiation, and speaker choices help participants establish understanding.

Chapter 15: Pragmatics Across Communication Modes

Textbook pp. 206–219

Speech, writing, images, and digital exchanges make different kinds of contextual evidence available. Bring the book’s analytical tools together to examine timing, embodied cues, audiences, and the limits of interpreting AI-generated language.

Watch Chapter 15  ·  Listen to Chapter 15

Five core topics

15.1 Spoken and Written Contexts — Compare timing, persistence, and opportunities for clarification rather than assuming all speech or all writing works alike.

15.2 Prosody, Gesture, and Gaze — Use voice, gesture, and gaze as context-sensitive evidence instead of fixed codes for meaning.

15.3 Digital Audiences and Shared Context — Examine how audience changes, delayed reading, and quotation affect access to shared context.

15.4 Online Stance and Multimodal Meaning — Analyze how wording, images, and other resources work together to convey stance and meaning online.

15.5 Human–AI Interaction and Interpretive Limits — Evaluate interpretations produced in human–AI interaction while distinguishing textual performance from human communicative intention.

About the textbook

Foundations of Pragmatics: For EFL University Students
Project Director: Prof. Munassir Alhamami
First Edition | Version 1 | 2026

Suggested citation
Alhamami, M. (2026). Foundations of pragmatics: For EFL university students (First edition, Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23098252

Except where otherwise stated, the original textbook content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Material credited to other sources remains subject to its stated terms.

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