What is Pragmatics Pragmatics is a systematic way of explaining language use in context It seeks to explain aspects of meaning which cannot be found in the plain sense of words or structures, as explained by semantics As a field of language study pragmatics is fairly new. Its origins lie in philosophy of language and the american philosophical school of pragmatism. As a discipline within language science, its roots lie in the work of (Herbert)Paul Grice on conversational implicature and the cooperative principle, and on the work of Stephen Levinson, Penelope Brown and geoff Leech on politenessWhat is Pragmatics • Pragmatics is a systematic way of explaining language use in context. • It seeks to explain aspects of meaning which cannot be found in the plain sense of words or structures, as explained by semantics. • As a field of language study, pragmatics is fairly new. Its origins lie in philosophy of language and the American philosophical school of pragmatism. As a discipline within language science, its roots lie in the work of (Herbert) Paul Grice on conversational implicature and the cooperative principle, and on the work of Stephen Levinson, Penelope Brown and Geoff Leech on politeness