ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the subfield of linguistics in which such matters are studied, pragmatics. Pragmatic descriptions and explanations are currently attracting interest not only in linguistics but also in philosophy, psychology, and related fields. The term pragmatics was first used by Morris for aspects of language that involve users and contexts of use of linguistic expressions, as opposed to "syntax" and "semantics". Fundamental work on pragmatics has been purposely informal in that it is not accompanied by an interpreted formalization. Reading differs from oral interactions not only in the medium of communication, but in other important ways as well. Adult readers occasionally find the texts barely comprehensible, perhaps because they are not accustomed to looking at illustrations that are not directly referred to while they read. In reading, the child is faced with a task of interpreting adult language usage or language that the adult author judges to be right for the reader's abilities.
