Until recently, pragmatics--the study of language in relation to the users of language--has been the neglected member of the traditional three-part division of the study of signs; syntax, semantics, pragmatics. This volume--the first of its kind--brings together the most important literature in this rapidly expanding field, including both classic papers and the work of the best-known contemporary theorists. Extremely broad-based, the book draws on the work of philosophers, linguists, and psychologists, and includes seminal papers by some of the most important writers on pragmatics over the...