Pragmatics and Meaning Construction in English Communication

Abstract

A complete picture of meaning in English communication eludes semantic structure because linguistic form rarely carries any fixed meaning independent from use and function. Meaning is made in processes that span encoded meaning, and thus pragmatic processes of meaning constitution and regulation become an important consideration for this study by advancing the thesis that meaning is constructed and consolidated in communicative practice as an affair of pragmatics rather than an afterthought to semantic process when applying an additional interpretative framework to determine meaning from encoded messages in English communication. Rather than subsuming meaning to an additional framework after semantic interpretation, this study will employ pre-existing theories such as speech act theory, conversational implicatures, and presuppositions to provide a systematic framework for meaning as an inferential process for English communication. This paper adopts an argumentative-analytic approach to reassess the classical pragmatic theories and to generalize the theories towards an argumentative concept for an interaction-centered construction of meaning through communication. Instead, communication comes to be viewed as the communication of context cues that activate the inferential reasoning in the communicative recipients, thus making it feasible for them to take an active role within the process of creating meaning through the communication process itself. Natural discourse in English bears the weaknesses incorporated within the literal communication models, thus validating the construction process of meaning as an interactive process rather than a semantic correction process within the context of meaning construction as per the pragmatic theories postulated in the paper. Further, the paper makes significant contributions within the broader context of pragmatics within English as the pragmatic theories are advocated to act as an explanation framework within the context of understanding the communication process within English.