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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Habermas’ Universal Pragmatics: Theory of Language and Social Theory

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Although Habermas’ universal pragmatics has played a marginal role in studies on pragmatics, it can still make an important and meaningful contribution, precisely because it highlights the system of validity claims that lie in speech acts. This type of analysis allows one to consider the dialogic dynamics that engage speakers in the activity of reciprocal giving and asking for reasons for saying and doing things. The reasons why a speaker knows he or she can say what he or she says in the presence of other speakers constitute an essential element of the production of meaning; and reciprocally identification of the speaker’s reasons by the listener is an indispensable condition of the activity of understanding of meaning. These factors allow one to render explicit the dialogue dynamics on which the quality of the utterance and understanding, like the quality of social relationships, depend.