Pragmatics in business discourse: mapping territories, diffusion and adaptations

Abstract

In the IRP inaugural issue the editors highlighted that pragmatics is often an extra perspective subsumed into contexts and frames driven by other disciplines; they welcomed the acceleration of diffusion but warned against the possible distortion of "corner-stone" principles. This article maps the territory of business discourse studies and explores the diffusion of pragmatic ideas (deixis, implicature, speech acts, politeness, etc.). This leads to discussion of the nature of engagement and suggestions for the future.