THE ARCHITECTURE OF MEANING: A SOCIO-COGNITIVE ANALYSIS OF PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE IN CONTEMPORARY COMMUNICATION

Abstract

Pragmatics, the study of language in use, bridges the gap between literal linguistic meaning and intended speaker meaning. While semantics focuses on the invariant meanings of words and sentences, pragmatics examines the influence of context, social hierarchy, and cognitive inference on interpretation. This article explores the core frameworks of pragmatics—specifically Speech Act Theory, Gricean Maxims, and Relevance Theory—and examines how these models adapt to the digital age of mediated communication.