Handbook of Pragmatics: Manual Book

This encyclopaedia of one of the major fields of language studies is a continuously updated source of state-of-the-art information for anyone interested in language use. It provides easy access — for scholars with widely divergent backgrounds but with convergent interests in the use and functioning of language — to the different topics, traditions and methods which together make up the field of Pragmatics, broadly conceived as “the cognitive, social and cultural study of language and communication”.
The Handbook of Pragmatics is a unique reference work for researchers: the main body of the Handbook is produced in loose-leaf format in 3-ring binders and is accompanied by the bound Manual which contains all necessary background information and user guidelines. The loose-leaf Handbook forms the basis of the Handbook proper giving an overview of the subfields, traditions, methodologies and concepts of Pragmatics.
The Handbook is used as a basis for the online version: the Handbook of Pragmatics Online is being expanded and revised annually as of 2003. Future versions will add further records and will include updates, rewritings and extensive revisions of already existing records. The Handbook of Pragmatics Online is available from www.benjamins.com/online as well as a free 30-day trial. The Handbook is also available in combination with the Bibliography of Pragmatics Online at a discounted rate.

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Defining pragmatics as "the cognitive, social, and cultural study of language and communication," the overall purpose of the Handbook of Pragmatics (prepared under the auspices of the International Pragmatics Association) is to function as a tool in the search for coherence--at least in the sense of cross-disciplinary intelligibility--in this necessarily interdisciplinary field of scholarship. Within this general context, the Manual provides as much as possible of the necessary background information on traditions and methods of research and notational systems. The other parts of the Handbook of Pragmatics are the Handbook proper, and the User's Guide. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)