Jordan University of Science and Technology

Faculty of Science and Arts

Department of English

First Semester 2008/2009

Course Outline

Course Information
Course Title / Semantics and Pragmatics
Course Code / 817610
Prerequisites / ---
Course Website / ----
Instructor / Dr. Samer Jarbou
Office Location / D1 LEVEL 0
Office Phone # / 23554
Office Hours / 1:15-2:15
E-mail /
Teaching Assistant(s) / -
Course Description
Textbooks
Title / 1- Grundy, P. (2000). Doing pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press.
2- Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics. London: Longman.
3- Huang, Y. (2007). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4- Lyons, J. (1996). Linguistic semantics: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author(s) / See above.
Publisher / See above.
Year / See above.
Edition / See above
Book Website / -
Other references / 1- Levinson C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2-Davis S. (Ed.) (1991). Pragmatics: A reader. New York: Oxford University Press.
3-Leech, G. (1988). Principles of pragmatics. London: Macmillan Press.
4-Austin, J. L. (1962) How to Do Things With Words, New York: Oxford University Press
5-Blakemore, D. (1990) Understanding Utterances: The Pragmatics of Natural Language, Oxford: Blackwell.
6-Blum-Kulka, S., Kasper, G. & House, J. (eds.) (1989) Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologie. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
7-Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1978) 'Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena', in Goody, E. (ed.) Questions and Politeness: Strategies in Social Interaction, pp56~311, Cambridge, England: Cambridge UniversityPress.
Assessment
Assessment / Expected Due Date / Percentage
Midterm Exam / 16/11/2009 / 40 %
Final Exam / To be announced. / 50 %
Assignments / .
Participation/ presentations / Two Presentations / 10%
Attendance / - / -
Course Objectives / Percentage
1.  To provide a detailed introduction to, and give a critical survey of, a wide range of issues of contemporary relevance in the fields of pragmatics and semantics / 20 %
2.  To give students adequate knowledge on how to start a research project in semantics or pragmatics. / 50 %
3.  To ensure that students are aware of the place of semantics and pragmatics within the larger field of Linguistics. / 30 %
Teaching & Learning Methods
Teacher presents topics and discusses them with students. In this course there is emphasis on presenting and analyzing real language examples. These could be from English or Arabic. Students are encouraged to answer activities or exercises in the books or given by the teacher.
Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of this course,
1- Students should have adequate knowledge about the terms and concepts in the the fields of semantics and pragmatics.
2- Students should be able to analyze language in relation to semantics and pragmatics.
Course Content
Week / Topics / Chapter in Textbook (handouts)
1 / (Grundy) Using and Understanding Language. / 1
2-3 / (Grundy) Deixis / 2
4 / (Grundy) Speech Acts. / 3
5-6 / (Grundy) Implicit Meaning: Conversational Implicature / 4
7 / (T Midterm Exam
8-9
/ (Thomas) Pragmatics and Indirectness + The Construction of Meaning. / 5 & 7
10 / (Grundy) Theories of Politeness / 7
11 / (Huang) Pragmatics and semantics. / 7
12 / (Lyons) Chapter One / 1
13 / (Lyons) Chapter Two / 2
14 / (Lyons) Chapter Three / 3
15 / General Discussion / Handouts