Introducing English Linguistics

semantics
) and can be used to refer to entities in the external world (ref-
erence
). Semantics is one component of grammar, and is therefore part of
our linguistic competence (a full treatment of semantics is given in
Chapter 6). As Fish correctly observes, however, interpretation of a sen-
tence goes beyond understanding its meaning at the level of grammar. We
need to understand the entire social context in which a sentence was
uttered, a different level of interpretation that is studied within prag-
matics
, which explores the role that context plays in the interpretation of
what people say.
Although many linguists agree with this view of the relationship
between grammar and pragmatics, others believe that the boundary
between grammar and pragmatics is not this discrete. For instance,
Fillmore (1996: 54) notes that “this view yields a subtractive view of