LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

The teaching of stylistics
Stylistics is the study of linguistic style, whereas (theoretical) Linguistics is the study of linguistic form. The term 'style' is used in linguistics to describe the choices which language makes available to a user, above and beyond the choices necessary for the simple expression of a meaning. Linguistic form can be interpreted as a set of possibilities for the production of texts, and thereby linguistic form makes possible linguistic style.

Semantics and pragmatics
This contribution sets out how the study of linguistic meaning and interpretation (Semantics) and the study of language use and communication (Pragmatics) are inter-dependent. Three areas are covered: (i) Methodology (ii) Context and Content and (iii) Content and Inference. As well as sketching key ideas, the contribution also points to ongoing debates. Classic texts and recent contributions are mentioned in relation to both.

Pragmatics for undergraduates
Some thoughts on teaching pragmatics to undergraduate linguistics students. Suggesting a model based initially on interpretation processes.

Completion of the Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication project
A team of researchers based at Lancaster and Cambridge responsible for the ESRC-funded project 'Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication' (2003-2006), have announced the end of the project's funding period and to wish draw colleagues' attention to its findings so far. They would welcome any critical comments or feedback on any aspect of the project which continues to generate research papers from members of the team and colleagues at other universities in the UK. The wide-ranging corpus of data is in the public domain and may be used for learning purposes by students or teachers or as a basis for further research by individuals.

Pragmatics and intercultural communication (27 Mar 06)
Event date: 27 March, 2006
Location: The British Council, London

Linguistics: Linguistic description: Above the sentence - weekly task sheets
At the University of Portsmouth, first year modern languages students have a course in Linguistic Description. The materials here are a complementary set to those we use in phonetics/phonology/prosody, morphology, semantics and syntax, and cover above the sentence phenomena, such as text, discourse and conversation analysis, as well as stylistics and pragmatics. The lectures are built on the analysis of English and in the tutorials students carry out comparative analyses of other languages. The assessment for the unit consists of a portfolio of weekly tasks. Students are required to find out about a language of their choice from a native speaker informant. Students have traditionally investigated their chosen language of study (French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian), but some students have done their projects on more exotic languages such as Thai, Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Finnish, Swedish, Malay, Korean or Greek. We have found that the project encourages initiative, a strong sense of involvement, an attitude of enquiry, and a scholarly approach to linguistic analysis in the students. It prepares them for independent and systematic study of languages in the knowledge of the principles of organisation and use underlying them.