Communication process
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1.0 Introduction
Pragmatics is the study of the relation between the structure of a semiotic system and its usage in context, and, along with semantics. It is especially concerned with implicit meaning, with inference and the unsaid, and the way in which language structure trades on this background of the presumed and the inferred. A very important aspect of pragmatics is concerned with inferences that are invited, or implicated, rather than required by the semantics.
The philosopher H. P. Grice noted that there are a number of different ways in which such invited meaning can be invoked, all of which point to a set of background assumptions about how language should be used, which he formulated as a set of maxims of conversation. This principles work on a highly technical level in language when we analyze the conversation.
2.0 Relevant theories
Semantics and pragmatics are both concerned with the meaning of language...