pragmatics
noun1
Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences, Translation studies The study of the use of language, especially meaning, in a social context; it includes extratextual aspects of language including exophoric reference, phatic utterances, and nonverbal channels.
- Holonym: linguistics
- […] in the clause, only the adjective may be fronted; but if both a past participle and a verbal particle are present, either may be fronted. Topicalization, in which maximal projections are fronted to express pragmatics such as contrast, emphasis, […]2001, Arthur J. Holmer, Jan-Olof Svantesson, Åke Viberg, Proceedings of the 18th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics:
1 more example
- The conversational tone is almost uncanny. But it’s not a sign that large language models are becoming human; it’s a sign that they have mastered pragmatics. […] When a computational linguist told me several years ago about the advances artificial intelligence was making in simulating human language, the first thing I thought was: The hot next step will be getting to pragmatics.2025 August 28, John McWhorter, “The Single Word That Explains Why Chatbots Sound So Human”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
- Derived terms
- cyberpragmatics, metapragmatics, neuropragmatics, psychopragmatics, sociopragmatics, zoopragmatics
- Related terms
- pragmatician