Pragmatics: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introduction to the study of the meaning of language in context. This book includes nine chapters on the history of pragmatics, current theories, the application of pragmatics, and possible future developments in the field.

Billy Clark is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Northumbria University, UK.

List of figures and tables; Acknowledgments; Conventions; Preface; 1. Introduction: the very basics; 2. Meaning more than we say: Grice's suggestion; 3. Adjusting the maxims: neo-Gricean pragmatics; 4. Principles and heuristics: relevance theory; 5. Managing interaction: (im)politeness; 6. What words can do: speech acts; 7. Beyond words: prosody; 8. Beyond words: nonverbal and multimodal communication; 9. The future: developing pragmatic theories; Glossary; References; Bibliography