# WELCOME TO ISTVAN KECSKES’ WEBSITE
 

Distinguished Professor of the State University of New York

President of the American Pragmatics Association (AMPRA) https://americanpragmaticsassociation.org

INPRA-10 International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication will be held on May 30-June 1, 2024, University of Pisa, ITALY

President of the Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR) Association

CASLAR-7, August 18-19, 2023, Peking University http://www.caslarcenter.com

AMPRA-5 Conference at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC from November 4-6, 2022. https://americanpragmaticsassociation.org


E-mail: ikecskes@albany.edu

Kecskes, Istvan. Sep 2022. The Cambridge Handbook of Intercultural Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.

Short reviews:

Intercultural pragmatics addresses one of the major issues of human communication in the globalized world: how do people interact with each other in a language other than their native tongue, and with native speakers of the language of interaction? Bringing together a globally-representative team of scholars, this Handbook provides an authoritative overview to this fascinating field of study, as well as a theoretical framework. Chapters are grouped into 5 thematic areas: theoretical foundation, key issues in Intercultural Pragmatics research, the interface between Intercultural Pragmatics and related disciplines, Intercultural Pragmatics in different types of communication, and language learning. It addresses key concepts and research issues in Intercultural Pragmatics, and will trigger fresh lines of enquiry and generate new research questions. Comprehensive in its scope, it is essential reading not only for scholars of pragmatics but also of discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, communication, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and second language teaching and learning.

Link to the publisher.

Kecskes, Istvan. March 1, 2023. Common Ground in First Language and Intercultural Interaction. De Gruyter Mouton.

Short reviews:

In recent years the traditional approach to common ground as a body of information shared between participants of a communicative process has been challenged. Taking into account not only L1 but also intercultural interactions and attempting to bring together the traditional view with the egocentrism-based view of cognitive psychologists, it has been argued that construction of common ground is a dynamic, emergent process. It is the convergence of the mental representation of shared knowledge that we activate, assumed mutual knowledge that we seek, and rapport as well as knowledge that we co-construct in the communicative process.

This dynamic understanding of common ground has been applied in many research projects addressing both L1 and intercultural interactions in recent years. As a result several new elements, aspects and interpretations of common ground have been identified. Some researchers came to view common ground as one component in a complex contextual information structure. Others, analyzing intercultural interactions, pointed out the dynamism of the interplay of core common ground and emergent common ground.

The book brings together researchers from different angles of pragmatics and communication to examine

  • (i) what adjustments to the notion of common ground based on L1 communication should be made in the light of research in intercultural communication;
  • (ii) what the relationship is between context, situation and common ground, and
  • (iii) how relevant knowledge and content get selected for inclusion into core and emergent common ground.

Kecskes, Istvan. November 2019. English as a Lingua Franca: The pragmatic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Short reviews:

“Pragmatists have a lot to learn from research on English as a Lingua Franca. As I learnt first-hand, there's no better way to start the learning process than with Istvan Kecskes' English as a Lingua Franca: The pragmatic perspective. I hope pragmatists will be inspired by this excellent piece of research.”

Mira Ariel, Professor of Linguistics, Tel Aviv University, Israel

 

“This is a very important and highly original book. Kecskes challenges two fields that have developed largely in parallel to listen to each other. There is much to learn about how speakers successfully communicate in a lingua franca and the implications of this for how we theorise pragmatics. The socio-cognitive approach that lies at the heart of this book is perfectly situated to address these questions and to bring researchers together in productive and respectful dialogue. This book is a must read for any scholar interested in how globalisation is impacting communication around the world. If you only have time to read one book this year, read this one.”

Michael Haugh, Professor of Linguistics, Head of School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Queensland, Australia

 

“This book demonstrates how the examination of English as a Lingua Franca provides novel insights into contemporary pragmatic theory. Kecskes has done marvelous work here. Readers should greatly appreciate the sparkling manner by which he guides them on this compelling intellectual journey.”

Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr.  Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

Festschrift for Istvan Kecskes’ 70th birthday: “DOING PRAGMATICS INTERCULTURALLY" Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin/New York edited by Rachel Giora (Tel Aviv University, Istrael) and Michael Haugh (University of Queensland, Australia).

“We have edited this book, Doing Pragmatics Interculturally: Cognitive, Philosophical, and Sociopragmatic Perspectives, as a token of our appreciation of István Kecskés’ scientific achievements. We have known Kecskés for many years now and think very highly of him. He is a phenomenal linguist whose impact on his various fields of expertise is unprecedented. For one, he is the forefather of Intercultural Pragmatics, a new field in linguistics which he started from scratch, and which has attracted numerous scholars in the years since its inception. Thanks to him, the field of Intercultural Pragmatics has now a journal of its own (Intercultural Pragmatics), its own international conference (INPRA: International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication), and is also a key pillar of the bi-annual pragmatics conference in the Americas (AMPRA: International American Pragmatics Association Conference). Intercultural Pragmatics also has a seminal book of its own, authored by Kecskés (Intercultural Pragmatics, Oxford University Press, 2014), which provides a platform for the field, while also moving beyond traditional pragmatics. And what’s more, now, thanks to Kecskés, Intercultural Pragmatics has also a book series of its own (Mouton Series in Pragmatics, with Kecskés as Editor-in-Chief). Add to this another three books he has co-edited on Intercultural Pragmatics (Kecskés & Assimakopoulos 2017; Kecskés & Horn 2007; Kecskés & Romero-Trillo 2013), and the extent of his impact on the field of Intercultural Pragmatics is self-explanatory”

- Rachel Giora, Editor, Tel Aviv University
- Michael Haugh, Editor, The University of Queensland, Australia

“INTERCULTURAL PRAGMATICS" OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

“This book introduces an important new dimension to the field of pragmatics, shedding much light on social interaction across cultural lines and on the way that language is used in these interactions.”
Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct and The Stuff of Thought.

“Intercultural Pragmatics presents a valuable new perspective on how individual and cultural factors are intertwined in communication. Moving beyond the traditional pragmatic concern with utterance-length exchanges among monolingual speakers, and focusing instead on the distinctive features of discourse-length exchanges among speakers with different languages and cultures, it provides genuinely important insights into an exciting new field of research.” - Deirdre Wilson, University of London

“Istvan Kecskes, the internationally renowned forefather of intercultural pragmatics, has now written THE book on the subject. Professor Kecskes is an invaluable guide for exploring the sociocultural and cognitive dimensions of intercultural—and intracultural—communication and their implications for the study of pragmatics.” - Laurence Horn, Yale University

“In the increasingly globalized and ‘translingual’ world, intercultural communication is one of the greatest practical problems facing millions of people on a daily basis. How do they manage to communicate (if they do)? This is the central question of the new field of intercultural pragmatics, of which Istvan Kecskes is the spiritus movens. It is also the question at the heart of Kecskes’s new book Intercultural Pragmatics. Few questions addressed by linguists today could be more important and more fascinating.” - Anna Wierzbicka, Austral National University
Editor-in-Chief

Journal: “INTERCULTURAL  PRAGMATICS”

Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin/NewYork

Intercultural Pragmatics is a fully peer reviewed forum for theoretical and applied pragmatics research. The goal of the journal is to promote the development and understanding of pragmatic theory and intercultural competence by publishing research that focuses on general theoretical issues, more than one language and culture, or varieties of one language.

Kecskes, Istvan & Laurence Horn. 2007. Explorations in Pragmatics: Linguistic, Cognitive and Intercultural Aspects. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter

Editor-in-Chief

Book Series: MOUTON SERIES IN PRAGMATICS

Mouton Series in Pragmatics (MSP) is a timely response to the growing demand for innovative and authoritative monographs and edited volumes from all angles of pragmatics. Recent theoretical work on the semantics/pragmatics interface, empirical work within cognitive and developmental psychology and intercultural communication has directed attention to issues that warrant reexamination, as well as revision of some of the central tenets and claims of the field of pragmatics. The series welcomes proposals that reflect this endeavor.
Editor-in-Chief

Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR)

Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR) is a bilingual, peer-reviewed journal that publishes papers both in Chinese and English. It is the first bilingual journal (Chinese-English) published by a Western publisher. Each issue of the journal publishes three papers in Chinese and three papers in English; each paper in the journal has a summary in both Chinese and English.