Download or read book Pragmatics and Fiction written by Jon-K. Adams and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1985-01-01 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pragmatics and Fiction explores the basic pragmatic differences between fictional and nonfictional discourse. These differences derive mainly from the creation of a fictional figure who narrates the text and who, in turn, addresses his narrative to a fictional audience. Since these figures become the language users of the fictional text and, therefore, displace the actual writer and reader from the communicative context, they dominate the text’s pragmatic features. After elaborating a description of fiction from the point of view of these fictional language users, some of the implications for literary interpretation are taken up, particularly those for reader-oriented criticism.