Linguistics University of Göteborg AN ACTIVITY BASED APPROACH TO PRAGMATICS

AN ACTIVITY BASED APPROACH TO PRAGMATICS 1. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline an approach to communication and pragmatics which under the names of "Activity based Communication Analysis" or "Communicative Activity Analysis" has been under development since the mid 70´s (cf. Allwood, 1976). To do this I start by giving a critical review of some of the main theoretical contributions in relation to which the approach has been articulated as a response. I then go on to present some of the main ideas and concepts while giving references to papers in which a more detailed argumentation can be found. I do not claim that the ideas presented below are necessarily always unique. There have also been other approaches which, even if not always explicitly concerned with pragmatics, show an affinity with the ideas presented below, see, for example, Hymes 1971, Levinson 1979 and Goldkühl 1982. This is reassuring, since it indicates that perhaps something of what is really going on in language and communication is contained in the ideas presented below. 2 I will, howwever, not attempt to treat this background in detail. Rather I will place my approach in relation to some of the contributions mentioned above through a combination of a critical discussion and an attempt to briefly indicate what conclusions I want to draw. In the sections following this, I will then slightly expand on these conclusions. 2.1 Wittgenstein In the philosophical investigations (1953), Ludwig Wittgenstein formulated many deep and provoking ideas concerning our conception of language and thought. Of relevance here are perhaps primarily his ideas about meaning. Wittgenstein claims that meaning is determined by use and that use is determined by language games which together make up a form of life. He, thus, explicitly acknowledges the role of a community and of interaction for the analysis of meaning and language and his approach is therefore not as individualistic and atomistic as that of, for instance, speech act theory (see section 2.2). The problem, however, is that Wittgenstein´s text, although inspiring, is vague and suggestive rather than precise and specific. Activity based communication analysis is an attempt to build on Wittgenstein´s insights by making some of his concepts more precise and specific. The idea that "meaning is determined by use" is retained and analyzed as: meaning is determined by use in three types of context: (i) perceptual context, (ii) social activity and (iii) …