Discursive pragmatics: a platform for the interdisciplinary study of language use

Zienkowski, Jan [UCL]

Most introductions to the interdisciplinary fields of discourse analysis and linguistic pragmatics begin by emphasizing that there is no consensus with respect to what either of these terms means. Neither discourse nor pragmatics are straightforward concepts and it may be correct to suggest that only the most vague and the most general definitions are able to unite the variety of disciplines, researchers, research programmes, heuristics, methodologies, objects of investigation, and terminologies lumped together under these headings. A book title such as ‘discursive pragmatics’ might therefore be interpreted as an oxymoron consisting of two signifiers whose referents are diverse in both quantitative and qualitative senses of the term. In this sense, the usefulness – i.e. the pragmatic value – of the label discursive pragmatics may be called into question. Yet, I will argue that this notion holds great potential as an instrument for establishing a platform for inter-disciplinary and inter-theoretical cross-fertilization. In this sense, the usefulness of the term resides in its communicative potential for researchers who tend to view their activities as either pragmatic or discursive ways of approaching empirical language use.