Philosophy Department

1200 Academy St. Kalamazoo, MI 49006
 
 

 SENIOR SEMINAR: THE PRAGMATICS OF SPEECH GENRE

 FALL 1998

 KALAMAZOO COLLEGE

PROFESSOR: Chris Latiolais
Philosophy Department
Kalamazoo College
Humphrey House #202
Telephone # 337-7076
Offices Hours:
 1) Mon. 2:00 - 3:00
 2) Tues. 10:30 - 12:30
 3) By Appointment.
 

Texts:

 1.  Mikhail Bakhtin, "The Problem of Speech Genres" in Speech Genre and Other Late Essays, ed. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, trans. Vern W McGee (Austin: University of Texas Press), 60-103.

 2.  John Searle, "What is a Speech Act?," in Pragmatics: A Reader, ed. Steven Davis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 254-265.

 3.  Chris Latiolais, The Pragmatics of Speech Genres (Manuscript).

 4.  Bach & Harnish 1979, "Linguistic Communication: A Schema for Speech Acts", in Pragmatics: A Reader, ed. Steven Davis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 231-242.

 5.  Juergen Habermas 1989, "Toward a Critique of a Theory of Meaning", in Postmetaphysical Thinking: Philosophical Essays, trans. Mark Hohengarten (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1992), 1:57-88.

 6.  Juergen Habermas 1981, "Intermediate Reflections: Social Action, Purposive Activity, and Communication", in The Theory of Communicative Action: Reason and the Rationalization of Society, trans. Thomas McCarthy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1984), 1:273-339.
 
 

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION:

    This seminar introduces students to a fundamental question of philosophical pragmatics or "speech-act theory": namely, What is the logical structure of everyday acts of communication?  We will first examine the traditional answer given to this question by John Searle in his various works.  We will then turn to a recent, far-reaching development of pragmatics by Juergen Habermas, who has argued against the basic tenets of Searle's, classical approach to speech act theory.  These debates between classical and contemporary pragmaticians sets the stage for examining the potential contribution to the philosophy of language contained in the later works of Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian literary theorists.  In this tract of the course, the basic question we address in the seminar -- What is the basic logical structure of everyday communication -- takes the more specific of whether Bakhtin's concept of speech genre identifies essential dimensions of this act neglected in contemporary research in pragmatics.
 
 

WEEK 1: THE CLASSICAL ACCOUNT
 John Searle, "What is a Speech Act?," in Pragmatics: A Reader, ed. Steven Davis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 254-265.

WEEK 2: THE SPEECH-ACT SCHEMA: LINGUISTIC COMPREHENSION AS A COGNITIVE- INFERENTIAL LABOR:
 Bach & Harnish 1979, "Linguistic Communication: A Schema for Speech Acts", in Pragmatics: A Reader, ed. Steven Davis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 231-242.
 

WEEK 3: THE VALIDITY BASIS OF SPEECH: PRAGMATICS AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONSCIOUSNESS:
 Juergen Habermas 1981, "Intermediate Reflections: Social Action, Purposive Activity, and Communication", in The Theory of Communicative Action: Reason and the Rationalization of Society,trans. Thomas McCarthy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1984), 1:273-339.
 

WEEK 4: THE THEORY OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTION: THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE IN THE SERVICE OF A CONTEMPORARY CRITIQUE OF REASON:
 Juergen Habermas 1989, "Toward a Critique of a Theory of Meaning", in Postmetaphysical Thinking: Philosophical Essays, trans. Mark Hohengarten (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1992), 1:57- 88.

WEEK 5: RETRACING THE METHODOLOGICAL ABSTRACTIONS OF FORMAL PRAGMATICS:
 Mikhail Bakhtin, "The Problem of Speech Genres" in Speech Genre and Other Late Essays, ed. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, trans. Vern W McGee (Austin: University of Texas Press), 60-103.

WEEK 6: BAKHTIN'S PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE: SPEECH ACTS AND SPEECH GENRES:
 Chris Latiolais, The Pragmatics of Speech Genres.

WEEK 7: BAKHTIN'S PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE: SPEECH ACTS AND SPEECH GENRES:
 Chris Latiolais, The Pragmatics of Speech Genres.

WEEK 8: BAKHTIN'S PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE: SPEECH ACTS AND SPEECH GENRES:
 Chris Latiolais, The Pragmatics of Speech Genres.

WEEK 9: BAKHTIN'S PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE: SPEECH ACTS AND SPEECH GENRES:
 Chris Latiolais, The Pragmatics of Speech Genres.

WEEK 10: BAKHTIN'S PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE: SPEECH ACTS AND SPEECH GENRES:
 Chris Latiolais, The Pragmatics of Speech Genres.

FINALS WEEK: