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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2023/2024

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Language Sciences

Postgraduate Course: Pragmatics (MSc) (LASC11097)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThe study of Pragmatics focuses on language meaning in context. In this course we discuss a range of pragmatic phenomena from both theoretical and experimental perspectives.
Course description The course is about how language acquires meaning in context. In many situations, what speakers mean goes beyond what they explicitly say. This course discusses formal models which have been proposed for explaining how these meanings are conveyed between cooperative interlocutors. Specific topics include presuppositions and implicatures, which often arise within the sentence, as well as higher level discourse phenomena such as coreference and coherence. We examine these using both naturally occurring data and the results of experimental investigation.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Students MUST NOT also be taking Pragmatics (LASC10067) AND Pragmatics (10 Credits) (LASC11169)
Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2023/24, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 27, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 169 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Homework: 50%, 1,500 words

Final assignment: 50%, 2,000 words
Feedback Feedback will be provided on an exercise involving the application of course concepts to linguistic data, around the middle of term.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. understand and discuss important concepts in pragmatics
  2. engage critically with recent theoretical and experimental literature
  3. identify theory-critical naturally occurring data and explain their importance to pragmatics
Reading List
None
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Engage critically with primary research literature
Compose an argument supported by experimental evidence
Keywordspragmatics,meaning,context
Contacts
Course organiserDr Christopher Cummins
Tel: (0131 6)50 6858
Email: ccummins@exseed.ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Sasha Wood
Tel:
Email: swood310@ed.ac.uk
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