Linguistics & Language · Semantics & Pragmatics
A topic within Semantics & Pragmatics, itself one of 9 topics in that field and part of Linguistics & Language.
2 works
Steven Pinker (TED)
Argues that indirect speech is a rational solution to social uncertainty: an unstated request preserves plausible deniability and so protects the relationship if it is refused.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Paul R. Kroeger
Introduces semantics and pragmatics as a single toolkit — truth conditions, reference, implicature and speech acts — for working out what a sentence means and what a speaker means by it.
link checked 17 Sept 2026