Created and maintained by Shaozhong Liu
Last updated April 16, Sunday, 2000

deixis, context, politeness in Chinesewesterner communication, pragmatic failure, and relevance theory in application.

research projects
Project title 1: Guangdong Shehui Yuyong Jianshe Wenti (Societal pragmatics-related issues in Guangdong)
Time: 1996.11~1997.11
Project head: Ziran He
Product: a collection of papers

conferences
Holding conferences has been understood an effective way to organize colleagues in the field for common purposes or exchange academic findings. This is necessary especially sa far China does not have a national organization bearing the title of pragmatics. In that regards, Guangzhou Foreign Language Institute has, over the past 10 years, taken the initiative in setting up a center, contacting the International Pragmatics Association (Antwerp), and coordinating links in China. Since 1996, due to a merger, the job was officially shifted the Pragmatics Group in the Linguistics & Applied Linguistics Research Institute, though the original center is still enthusiastic about the work.

The first National Conference on Pragmatics was successfully convened on the campus of Guangzhou Foreign Language Institute, 1989. Jef Verschueren, the General Secretary of the international Pragmatics Association, rendered great support to the event by personally attending and delivered a speech at the Conference.

It was agreed at the meeting that another national meeting should take place every other two years. Since then, other convened pragmatic conferences include:

The second Conference, held in Linfen, Shanxi, 1991;
The thirdond Conference in Jinan, Shandong, 1993;
The fourth Conference in Kunming, Yunnan, 1995;
The fifth Conference in Changchu, Jilin, 1997.

seminars
National or regional seminars and workshops related to pragmatics have been orgaznied throughout the country. Most talked about ones include:

the seminar on Neo-Gricean theory (June, 1994; South China Normal University, Guangzhou)
the Summer Linguistics Institute (July, 1996; jointly organized by Hong Kong University & Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou)
Dan Sperber's lecture tour in Guilin (November, 1997)
the Relevance Theory workshop (December, 1997, Guangzhou)
the Summer Linguistics Institute (July, 1998, HK Polytecknic & Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou)

other events
While doing my Ph. D under Professor He Ziran, I was asked to prepare materials for the use of founding a national pragmatics association. On January 16, 1996, with the patient and generous help of Li Zhenglan who was a staff at today's International Language & Cultural Research Institute, I had the chance to borrow and review first-hand materials. Below are four documents that I summarized from my accessed materials. I wish these will be helpful materials in understanding pragmatics in China.

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Notes on pragmatics
He Ziran. Lecture-Sheets. Guangdong University of foreign Studies. 1996. 110 pages.
chapter one: pragmatics: an introduction
chapter two: deixis
chapter three: conversational implicature
chapter four: linguistic politeness
chapter five: presupposition
chapter six: performatives and speech acts
chapter seven: hedging in discourse
chapter eight: the structure of information
appendice 1: aspects of pragmatics
appendice 2: recent developments of pragmatic studies in China

English learning & pragmatics
He Ziran. Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press. 1997.
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Speechology & humanistic network: pragmatics in Chinese culture
Qian Guanlian. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press. 1997. 361 pages.
1. introduction
1.1 pragmatics in Chinese culture
1.2 definition of pragmatics in the braod sense and the narrow sense
1.3 object and methodology
1.4 the development of pragmatics at home
2. the intervention by contexts
2.1 the intervention by contexts
2.2 the limitation of language signs inviting the intervention by contexts
2.3 pragmatics inference operated at context-level
2.4 expansion of information capacity of signs in context
2.5 zero context-sentence and the context-sentence
3. the cluster of signs adhering to speakers taking part in the speech events
3.1 the cluster of signs (adhering to speakers)
3.2 the prerequisites to the participation of the clusters in speech events
3.3 things adhering to speakers and their taking part in speech events
3.4 facial expressions and gestures participating in speech events
3.5 voice and breath participating in the speech events
4. the intervention by intelligence
4.1 the intervention by intelligence: the choice of "appropriate feeling"
4.2 no way to pure formalization of pragmatics inference
4.3 the intervention by intelligence in pragmatics inference
5. pragmatic principles and pragmatic strategies
5.1 goal-intention principle: the CP need not to be principle
5.2 tact and beyond
5.3 a strategy: facial expression and gestures in harmony of speech events
5.4 false information as a strategy
5.5 redundancy as a strategy
5.6 tolerance of pragmatic failure as a strategy
5.7 from the theory of imperfect function to the essence of pragmatics
6. reflections of pragmatics in other disciplines
6.1 the reflection in syntax
6.2 the reflection in literature: Zhuangzi and A-Q's Biography
6.3 the reflection in translation: A Dream of Red Mansions
6.4 the reflection in Dhyana
7. pragmatics in the broad definition: A case study: Conversational analyses
8. pragmatics: Speeechology in humanistic networks--pragmatics as speechology in humanistic networks

Xian Dai Yu Yan Xue Fang Fa Lun
Fang Jingmin. Zhengzhou: Henan People's Press. 1993. 205 pages.
introduction
chapter 1 foundations of contemporary linguistics methodology
1.1 language and langue
1.2 micrilinguistics and macrolinguistics
1.3 synchronic linguistics and diachronic linguistics
1.4 intentionality and extentionality
chapter 2 principles of contemporary linguistics methodology
2.1 form and sense
2.2 Zuhe and Juhe
2.3 rules and principles
2.4 functions and varieties
chapter 3 methods in phonetics study
3.1 phonemic analyses
3.2 distinctive features analyses
3.3 generative phonetics analyses
3.4 new breakthroughs theoretic analyses
chapter 4 methods of semantic study
4.1 semantico-components analyses
4.2 semantic field analyses
4.3 structural analyses of sentential meaning
4.4 inference of sentential meaning
4.5 methods of a few schools
chapter 5 methods of grammatical study
5.1 substitutional analyses
5.2 stratificational analyses
5.3 transformational analyses: Harris approach
5.4 pattern analyses
5.5 phrase structure analyses
5.6 transformational analyses: Chomskyan approach
chapter 6 methods of pragmatic study
6.1 diectic analyses
6.2 presuppositional analyses
6.3 speech acts analyses
6.4 conversational iimplicature analyses
6.5 conversaqtional structure analyses
6.6 information structure analyses
chapter 7 methods of cross-linguistic study
7.1 cross-linguistic comparison
7.2 linguistic typography
7.3 synchronic linguistic analyses

Collected Papers on Societal Pragmatics
Edited by Ziran He; 1998; pp.131.
Preface
Ziran He (pp.1~12): She hui yu yong wen ti (Remarks on societal pragmatics); Yihong Gao, Xinchun Su, & Zhou Lei (pp.13~22): Hui gui qian xi Xianggang, Beijing, Guangzhou de yu yan tai du (Linguistic attitude in Hong Kong, Beijing & Guangzhou on the eve of Hong Kong's return); Guanlian Qian (pp.23~25): Fang yan te quan bu ke gu li (There should not be any liberty in dialect); Jun Li (pp.26~30): Tan yu yong xing wei de she hui xiao guo (The social effect of pragmatic behavior); Yongping Ran (pp.31~36): She hui liu xing yong yu ji qi yu yong pian wu (Voguish social usage & pragmatic error); Changtian Ying (pp.37~40): Guang bo tan hua jie mu de yu yan yun yong wen ti (Language use in a radio talk); Jimei Xia & Shang Yuanyuan (pp.41~43): Gu shi ping lun yu jing ji xing wei de yu yong fen xi (A pragmatic analysis of stock market reviews & economic behaviors); Shaozhong Liu (pp.44~50): Zhao pin guang gao de yu yong xin li qu xiang (A psycho-pragmatic analysis of recruitment advertisements); Xinren Chen (pp.51~54): Lun guang gao yong yu zhong de yu yong yu she (Pragmatic presupposition in advertisement language); Ping Yang (pp.55~57): Gong yi guang gao he shang ye guang gao de ren zhi yu yong fen xi (A cognitive pragmatic analysis of public & commercial advertisements); Yiming Zeng (pp.58~60): Cong yu yong jiao du tan chao chang gui guang gao yu yan (A pragmatic perspective of non-conventional advertisement language); Shihai Zong (pp.61~68): De ti ixng: ming ming yu guang gao xing wei de yu yong fen xi (Appropriateness & the naming in advertisement behavior); Caixiu Kiu & Liang Daojie (pp.69~71): Zou chu guang gao yan ci de wu qu (Out of the error zone of advertisement speech); Weichang Yu (pp.72~74): Guangzhou she hui biao zhi yu han yi ying de yu yong shi wu (Pragmatic failure & the translating of sign language in Guangzhou); Xinhong Zhang (pp. 75~83): Guangdong di qu she hui yong yu ying yi yu yong shi wu fen xi (Pragmatic failure & the translating of social language in Guangdong); Yantao Zeng (pp. 84~88): Guangdong she hui yu yong ixng wei cu yi (An initial analysis of some pragmatic behaviors in Guangdong); Xinchun Su (pp. 89~91): Zen yang kan dai yue yu di wei de bian hua (My personal views on the change in the role of Cantonese); Daojie Liang & Jianlun Wang (pp.92~93): Yue yu xin shu yu de yu yong fen xi (A pragmatic analysis of some neologisms in Cantonese); Jun Li (pp. 94~97): Guangdong she hui yong yu qing xiang fen xi (An analysis on the social pragmatic tendency in Guangdong); Yantao Zeng (pp. 98~101): Lun Guangdong she jiao yu yan "Ma sai ke" xian xiang ji qu yue wen hua jia zhi qu xiang (The Mosaic phenomenon in social language & the tendency of regional cultural values); Zhengwen Liu (pp. 102~104): Guangzhou di qu yu yan shi yong de ruo gan wen ti (Some issues in Guangzhou area's language use); Ke Wang (pp. 105~109): Dang qian she hui yu yong jian she gou xiang: yu yan chun jie yu duo yuan hua (A framework of nowadays' social language use: Linguistic puritanism & multivariation); Shenghuan Xu (pp.110~112): Yu yong jian she yu jing shen wen ming (Language use spiritual civilization); Yiping Zeng (pp. 113~116): Zuo wei tou zi huan jing de yu yan huan jing jian she (On the construction of linguistic environment as investment environment);  Qiguang Yang (pp. 117~120): Yu yan wen zi ying yong gui fan zhi bian zheng: Guangdong she hui yong yu jian she si kao (The didactics of language normalization & Guangdong's social language use); Yuanke Tao (pp. 121~122): Zhong wen ru he bei ying wen xiang ru cai suan he li (On the rationality degree of Chinese element incorporated into English); Xiaoyan Fang (pp. 123~124): Shi tan "bei yu nan xia" xian zhuang he yu yan guan nian de diao cha (The phenomenon of southwarding of the north language & survey of linguistic notion); Xiang Guan (pp. 125~126): Da du shi yu yan yun yong te zheng yu dao xiang qian tan (Features & directivity in metropolitan language use); Nianming Cao (pp. 127~128): Guangdong she hui yong yu zhi wo jian (My personal views on Guangdong's social language use); Ke Wang (pp. 129): Ben di xue jie cu tan "Guangdong she hui yu yong jian she" (Local scholars airing views on Guangdong's social language use) (a news report); Yu yong xue ke ti zu (The Prject Team) (pp. 131): Guangdong she hui yu yong jian she yan tao hui ji yao (A memorendum of the Seminar on Guangdong' Social Language Use).