160104 VO Introduction to Pragmatics, Text Linguistics and Discourse Analysis (2022W)

This course aims at providing basic knowledge on pragmatic text- and discourse analysis. At the beginning, we will see that pragmatic text- and discourse analysis is based on a linguistics of the utterance. Utterances are conceptualized as context related performative phenomena which systematically combine sign- and action aspects. Based on these preliminary considerations, we will then deal with the most relevant pragmatic theories of signs and actions. In the following, we will deal with the most relevant characteristics of complex signs (cohesion, coherence) and then we will elaborate on the characteristics of complex actions (genres and linguistic politeness theories). Due to its introductory nature, presentations of the lecturer will alternate with in-class exercises based on selected examples.