Admission requirements
No specific formal requirements other than general requirements for the MA, but basic knowledge of pragmatics and/or argumentation theory is necessary.
Description
In the pragmatics literature some version of Grice’s ‘cooperation principle’ is often presupposed. It is assumed that communication breaks down if the participants are not doing their best to make their own intention understood and to understand the other’s intention. In real life, however, we encounter many instances of communication in which the speaker does not seem to be fully cooperative in the sense that he does not want his real intention to be understood. Such forms of non-cooperative language use range from relatively innocent phenomena as ‘white lies’, humour, advertising techniques and ‘nudging’, via the use of framing devices and fallacies (that may be less or more serious), to full blown cases of lying, manipulation, propaganda and deceit. In this course, we approach the topic of non-cooperative language use (with a focus on lying) from two perspectives. First we study the ‘Gricean’ pragmatics literature, especially the recent monograph by Meibauer (2015), about lying and manipulation. Second, we look at Pragma-Dialectical Argumentation Theory, as summed up by Van Eemeren (2010), and its concept of ‘strategic maneuvering’. After a study of the general literature in the first part, the participants each write a paper about a specific instance of non-cooperation ‘from the wild’. A discussion of these case studies constitutes the core of the second part of the course. General questions to be addressed include: is it possible to lie by implicature or by withholding information? Is strategic maneuvering a form of manipulation? Are fallacies necessarily deceptive or manipulative? To what extent does the evaluation of a strategic maneuver, or even an outright lie, depend on the context (specific activity type)?
Course objectives
Students acquire insight into the different ways in which pragmatics and argumentation theories deal with non-cooperative language use, in particular lying and misleading.
Students have the skills to analyze actual instances of non-cooperative language use using different analytical models, in particular Gricean pragmatics and pragma-dialectical argumentation theory.
Students learn to compose a paper that could in principle be submitted to a scientific journal.
Timetable
Mode of instruction
Seminar/Research
Course Load
Total course load = 280 hours
Classes (12 x 3 hours) = 36 hours
Class preparation (12 x 8 hours) = 96 hours
Research and writing paper = 120 hours
Peer review process = 28 hours
Assessment method
Assessment
The research paper is graded and needs to be minimally 5.5.
Oral presentations in class as well as contributions to the discussion board and to the peer review process all need to be sufficient.
Resit
Only the paper can be re-taken.
Exam review
How and when a review of the written paper will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the results, a review of the written paper will have to be organised.
Blackboard
Yes
Reading list
Eemeren, Frans van (2010). Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse. Benjamins.
Meibauer, Jörg (2015). Lying at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface. Mouton.
(Both books are available as e-book in the library.)
Registration
Regular higher-year bachelor and master students are obliged to register ahead of time via uSis for lectures and workgroups.
For all other students applies that registration is through the co-ordinator of studies
General information about uSis is available in English
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable
Contact
For information about the content of this course Ronny Boogaart
For practical matters you may contact the secretarial office of the Opleiding Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur/Neerlandistiek. It is the Onderwijsadministratie P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 101A. Tel. 071 5272 2604. E-mail.