Pragmatics of Human Communication: revisiting a classic study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60114/rbtf.v13i1.151Keywords:
Human communication, Systemic relational theory, Linguistics, Psychotherapeutic clinicAbstract
The article revisits Pragmatics of Human Communication, by Paul Watzlawick et al. (1967), a foundational work in systemic relational theory, through two perspectives: recent reviews by Janet Bavelas (2021; 2022) on the book, and contemporary studies in the field of pragmatics. By engaging with linguistic studies, the article bridges two areas—clinical psychology and linguistics—to expand the concepts of human communication. Bavelas’s reinterpretation (2021; 2022), based on contemporary pragmatic studies, underscores the importance of considering multifunctionality, multimodality, and ambiguity as pillars of human interactions, including in clinical contexts.
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