Background

Abstract

In this chapter, I discuss terms and concepts relevant to pragmatics and intercultural competence to provide a foundation for the upcoming chapters. I begin with different definitions of pragmatics before defining subfields of pragmatics that are relevant to the present study (cross-cultural pragmatics, variational pragmatics, and interlanguage, L2 or second language pragmatics) and discussing pragmatic competence. This is followed by a discussion of various conceptualizations of culture and the relationship between culture, language and pragmatics. The final part of this chapter focuses on intercultural (communicative) competence and how it relates to pragmatics.