IPRA - IPrA

The International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) is an international scientific organization devoted to the study of language use. Established in 1986, it now has over 1,200 members in over 60 countries world-wide. It is listed in The World of Learning, and it is a recognized member of the Consortium of Affiliates for International Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The IPrA journal Pragmatics is now ONLINE. IPrA Members have direct access to recent issues. All older issues (over 10,000 pages of peer-reviewed pragmatics articles) are being placed in open access. To provide and maintain this service, IPrA needs your membership.

Articles are indexed and/or abstracted in: the MLA International Bibliography, (from volume 15, 2005) in Elsevier Bibliographic Databases, and (from volume 18, 2008) in ISI Web of Knowledge (Institute for Scientific Information, Thomsen), i.e. Social Sciences Citation Index, Social Research,Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Journal Citation Reports / Social Sciences Edition. Impact factor for 2011: 0.400. Pragmatics is included in the European Research Index for the Humanities (ERIH).

IPrA's scientific goals
The INTERNATIONAL PRAGMATICS ASSOCIATION (IPrA) was established in 1986 to represent the field of pragmatics in its widest interdisciplinary sense as a functional (i.e. cognitive, social, and cultural) perspective on language and communication. In particular, it pursues the following goals:

the search for a coherent general framework for the discussion and comparison of results of the fundamental research, in various disciplines, carried out by those dealing with aspects of language use or the functionality of language;
the stimulation of various fields of application (such as language teaching, the study of problems of intercultural and international communication, the treatment of patients with language disorders, the development of computer communication systems, etc.);
the dissemination of knowledge about pragmatic aspects of language, not only among pragmaticians of various 'denominations' and students of language in general, but in principle among everyone who, personally or professionally, could benefit from more insight into problems of language use.

(For a brief history of IPrA activities until 2011, see http://www.semioticon.com/semiotix/2011/10/ipra-the-international-pragmatics-association-at-25/)

Obituary

John Gumperz, who served IPrA as its first President (from 1986 to 1990), passed away on Friday 29 March 2013 in Santa Barbara, at the age of 91.

During his long and fruitful life, he made irreplaceable contributions to our understanding of language and culture.

He will be missed by all who enjoyed his modest, inspiring, and warm presence.