Understanding Pragmatics

Jef Verschueren
University of Antwerp

© Jef Verschueren
The book is now out of print. This pdf version may be distributed free of charge. However, no
part of the book may be reproduced in any other form without written permission from the author.
References should use the following original publication details:

1999
London: Edward Arnold / New York: Oxford University Press

Also available in Chinese (2003, Yu yong xue quan shi. Beijing: Qing Hua University Press),
Japanese (2010, Ninchi to shakai no goyooron: Tougouteki apuroochi o motomete. Tokyo:
Hitsuji-shobo), Slovenian (2000, Razumeti pragmatiko. Ljubljana: *cf), and Spanish (2002, Para
entender la pragmática. Madrid: Gredos).
No changes, not even minor, have been made since 1999. The book remains usable as a coherent
theoretical framework for the discussion of linguistic pragmatics in its widest sense as the
interdisciplinary (cognitive, social, and cultural) science of language use. This framework has
served as a point of departure for Jef Verschueren, 2012, Ideology in Language Use: Pragmatic
Guidelines for Empirical Research (Cambridge University Press), and a new book on pragmatics
by the author will continue to build on it.

Of course, there are a number of things that would no longer be formulated in the same way. E.g.,
the distinction introduced in chapters 7 and 8 between ‘micropragmatic’ and ‘macropragmatic’
issues is too artificial to maintain; but abandoning it would not further affect the content of these
chapters. Naturally, chapter 9 (The pragmatic landscape) would benefit from a serious update.
For more recent developments, the reader may consult the continuously updated Handbook of
Pragmatics (now available online at http://www.benjamins.com/online) and the programmes and
abstracts of the biannual International Pragmatics Conferences (at http://ipra.ua.ac.be).

Some errata:

[p. 21, l. 8] titles of address replace with: terms of address

[p. 36, l. 7] Illustration 2 replace with: Plate 1.2

[p. 163, l. 15] (the coffee shop having coffee) replace with: (the coffee shop having coffee
to go)

[p. 179, l. 10 from bottom] vversus replace with: versus

[p. 186, l. 20] or replace with: of

[p. 204, l. 2 from bottom] 3. Professor replace with: 4. Professor

[p. 279, l. 19] ---- (1979) replace with: ---- (1989)

and put in the correct chronological order after ---- (1981). .... (1981: 183-98).

[p. 280, l. 18-19 from bottom] J.-O.H. Östman replace with: J.-O. Östman

[p. 284, lines 12-17] Östman ... Berkeley, CA. put in the correct alphabetical order after
Ortony ... Press