The World in the Lens of Linguistics: Communication in Contexts 3301-2ST-J-KON001
The objective of the course is to familiarize students with the relevance of linguistic research for understanding communication across different disciplines and discourses. The course focuses on the role of context in communication, participatory roles, linguistic politeness, and translation problems, covering such topics as the speaker’s intentions, inferences, context, linguistic conventions, politeness, communicative styles, degrees of understanding and misunderstanding, and changing norms and expectations in various forms of translation.
The course will be divided into three thematic sections, each of which will comprise presentation and discussion of selected theoretical notions, followed by an analysis of written and audiovisual materials drawn from the press, movies, political discourse, etc.
List of topics:
1. Jakobson's code model of communication - participants and functions
2. Participation model by Goffman/Levinson and its applications in various discourses
3. Speech Act Theory and functions of communication
4. Cognitive pragmatics as a model combining code and inference
5. Implications of the cognitive-pragmatic model for communication in various discourses
6. The pragmatics of linguistic politeness
7. Key concepts of linguistic politeness - indirectness and conventionalization
8. Linguistic politeness - case studies (L2, internet communication)
9. Translation as interlingual communication - implications of the inferential model
10. AI as a translator's help or threat.
Course coordinators
Type of course
Mode
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
The graduate has the in-depth familarity of
K_W01 advanced terminology, theory and research methods corresponding to the state of the art in the discipline of linguistics, in accordance with their chosen specialization (and educational path). This pertains to communication, politeness and translation problems.
Abilities
The graduate is able to
K_U01 apply advanced terminology, theory and research methods corresponding to the state of the art in the discipline of linguistics, in accordance with their chosen specialization (and educational path) within the domain of English Studies.. This pertains to communication, politeness and translation problems.
Social competences
The graduate is ready to
K_K01 critically appraise their knowledge and content obtained from various sources
Assessment criteria
Assignments and assessment criteria
- making two small projects (each scores 40% of the final grade, two score 80%)
(verification of outcomes W, U, K);
- doing short home assignments (20%) verification of outcomes W, U, K);
Bibliography
Archer, Dawn, Karin Aijmer, and Anne Wichmann. 2012. Pragmatics. An Advanced Resource Book for Students. Routlege.
Clark, Billy. 2013. Relevance Theory. Cambridge University Press
Haugh, Michael. 2015. Im/Politeness Implicatures. De Gruyter.
Piskorska, Ag. 2021. Being ambivalent by exploiting indeterminacy in the explicit import of an utterance. Pragmatics & Cognition 28/2, 376-393.
Terkourafi, Marina. 2015. Conventionalization: A new agenda for
im/politeness research. Journal of Pragmatics 86: 11--18.
Wilson, Deirdre. 1994. Relevance and Understanding. In G. Brown, K. Malmkjaer, A. Pollitt & J. Williams (eds) Language and understanding.. Oxford University Press, Oxford: 35-58.
Sun, Sanjun Kanglong Liu, Riccardo Moratto. 2025. Translation Studies in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Routlege.
Yus, Francisco. 2021. Smartphone Communication. Interactions in the App Ecosystem. Routlege.
Notes
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Term 2026Z:
Attendance is obligatory. 2 absences are allowed. |