Journal of Northeastern University(Social Science) ›› 2015, Vol. 17 ›› Issue (1): 99-104.DOI: 10.15936/j.cnki.10083758.2015.01.017

• Linguistics and Literature • Previous Articles     Next Articles

A Clarification of the Difficultieson Pragmatics Research from an Evolutionary Perspective

MAO Yan-sheng   

  1. (Foreign Languages Department, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China)
  • Received:2015-06-12 Revised:2015-06-12 Online:2015-01-25 Published:2015-06-12
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Abstract: Evolutionary perspective finds it hard to integrate itself into pragmatics in the form of conundrums though it has been greatly valued in many other disciplinary studies. When an evolutionary paradigm is deployed to explain linguistic facts, it is often confronted with challenges from ontology, epistemology and methodology. Based on the evolutionary veins of pragmatics, it is found that the major misunderstandings of evolutionary perspective on pragmatics are manifested in determinism, reductionism and Panglossianism, the clarification of which requires the academia to focus more on the theories of evolution and the social dimensions of pragmatics so as to emancipate pragmatics in a real sense.

Key words: evolutionary pragmatics, determinism, reductionism, Panglossianism

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