10.05.2023, 12:30-The socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics and communication

Laboratory activity

In person lesson
Room 10, building D3

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Abstract
The socio-cognitive approach (SCA) to pragmatics initiated by Kecskes (2010, 2014) integrates the pragmatic view of cooperation and the cognitive view of egocentrism and emphasizes that both cooperation and egocentrism are manifested in all phases of communication, albeit to varying extents. While cooperation is an intention-directed practice that is governed by relevance, egocentrism is an attention- oriented trait dominated by salience which is a semiotic notion that refers to the relative importance or prominence of signs. In the SCA communication is characterized by the interplay of two sets of traits that are inseparable, mutually supportive, and interactive: Individual traits: Social traits: prior experience actual situational experience salience relevance egocentrism cooperation attention intention In the SCA interlocutors are considered as social beings searching for meaning with individual minds embedded in a socio-cultural collectivity. Individual traits (prior experience > salience > egocentrism > attention) interact with societal traits (actual situational experience > relevance > cooperation > intention). Each trait is the consequence of the other. Prior experience results in salience which leads to egocentrism that drives attention. Intention is a cooperation-directed practice that is governed by relevance which (partly) depends on actual situational experience.

Speaker
Istvan Kecskes
State University of New York, USA

Coordinator
Siria Guzzo
University of Salerno