• Maillat Didier

• Maillat Didier

In this introductory course for 1^st-year students, we will look at how meaning is constructed in English.  Conveying meaning is arguably the most important function of language, yet it is in many ways quite mysterious. In this course, students will become acquainted with the theories and tools that will allow them to analyse the construction of meaning. This will include phenomena such as indirect speech acts (Can you pass the dumplings please?), politeness (why is it that adding a word like please changes the meaning of a sentence?), or deixis (how come that the same words, I and you, can be used interchangeably by two interlocutors?). In the second half of the course, we will look into the complex mechanisms which allow us to pack more meaning into a sentence than the one conveyed by the words. This will include an analysis of fascinating uses of language such as irony, and metaphors.

• Knowledge of the main concepts and theoretical models
• Knowledge of the current debates
• Ability to understand critically stateof-the-art papers in pragmatics
• Ability to illustrate a theoretical discussion with appropriate examples

A bibliography and a list of assigned readings will be made available in the first week of the semester. Yule (1996, OUP) is a short very basic introduction to the field.