Linguistics

DEBORA VACCARI

Students will know the scientific literature on the topics dealt with and will be able to comment on it critically;
They will be able to formulate hypotheses pertaining to Spanish linguistics on the basis of the acquired analytical concepts and tools;
They will be able to integrate their new knowledge with the previous ones in order to face the theoretical and practical complexity of acquired concepts;
They will also manage to communicate knowledge entering in discussion with specialists of Spanish linguistics and with non-specialists.
They will lastly be able to study self-managed or autonomous topics proposed during the course and will be encouraged to cultivate their own scientific interests independently.

At the end of the course, the student will have acquired the fundamental knowledge about the different approaches of linguistic pragmatics and will be able to use them in the analysis of the Spanish language. Adequate tools will be provided to the student for the analysis of communicative interactions.

Prior knowledge of the Spanish language is recommended but not mandatory.

Introduction to Spanish Pragmatics: the use of language as interaction. The place of pragmatics within linguistic disciplines. Linguistic meaning and pragmatic interpretation. Implicit meanings and relationships between propositions: implication, presupposition, and implicature. Bases of communicative interaction: speech acts, conversational maxims, and the principle of relevance. Grammar and pragmatics: speech acts and sentence modalities; expression of speaker attitude: sentence adverbs; mechanisms of reference in Spanish; speech acts and inter-sentential relations; informative structure: the concepts of topic, comment, and focus in Spanish. The social aspect of Pragmatics: theories of linguistic politeness. Pragmatic approaches to metaphor and irony.

ANDORNO Cecilia, Che cos'è la pragmatica linguistica, Roma, Carocci, 2005.
ESCANDELL VIDAL M. Victoria, Introducción a la Pragmática, Barcelona, Ariel, 1992.
PORTOLÉS José, Pragmática para hispanistas, Madrid, Síntesis, 2004.

Further bibliographical information will be provided during class.

Frontal lectures.

Recommended but not mandatory.

The exam will be oral and it cill be aimed at evaluating the theoretical knowledge acquired by the student during the course, as well as his ability to contextualize specific topics and analyze concrete case studies.

- What is meant by "actos de habla"?
- Explain J. Searle's classification of "actos de habla".