122048 PS Proseminar Linguistics 2 (2018S)

In this course, we will explore concepts and areas in the study of pragmatics such as reference and deixis, the Cooperative Principle, Speech Act Theory, politeness as well as principles of spoken interaction and conversation analysis. This will be done with a special emphasis on how people use language in all kinds of professional contexts, such as company websites, corporate social media channels, business meetings and other institutional settings.
In class, different areas of pragmatics and professional communication will be discussed on the basis of required readings and examples of naturally-occurring language use. For term papers, students will carry out individual research projects in which they analyze a particular topic in pragmatics in a data set from one of the professional contexts specified at the beginning of term.
Important: The semester schedule for this course includes a mini-conference on Fri, June 15 (16.00-20.00) & Sat, June 16 (9.00-13.00). Attendance during the entire mini-conference is mandatory for course completion! In exchange for time spent at the mini-conference, a number of regular sessions in May and June will not be held.

AIMS:
After this course, you should have a good overview of central concepts in the study of pragmatics. You should be able to identify these concepts in samples of language from a range of (professional) contexts, and you should be able to discuss how interpretations are derived on the basis of general pragmatic principles. You should be able to investigate a topic of pragmatics in more detail independently by analyzing it in a particular professional context of language use.