Abstract:

This paper is a review of the book introduction to pragmatics written by Betty J. Birner. The book includes a discussion of pragmatic concepts such as conversational implicatures, maxims, presuppositions, references, speech acts and given and new information in discourse. Maxims are maxim of quality, quantity, manner and relation. According to Birner one can either obey these maxims or violate them. Presuppositions are examined in relation to the notion of entailment. Basically, a negative utterance tells us what one cannot presuppose. The book talks about three speech acts and their function. These acts are locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary speech acts. The discussion of reference includes deixis Personal deixis and time deixis are examined. The chapter also includes an account of anaphora and cataphora. The discussion of given and new information tells us what information is new and what is old to the hearer. The author provides clear examples for each topic she discusses in the book. It is a recommendable guidebook for students of linguistics because it lays out a useful insight for learners about how pragmatics operates in conveying meaning.