pragmatics ✏ Título: How can we be pragmatically sustainable?

1. HOW CAN WE BE PRAGMATICALLY SUSTAINABLE?
“Make good use of language so that the majority of society does not suffer from depression in
the future”:
One of the causes of depression in adolescents is bullying, both physical and mental, or being a
person with low self-esteem. And for this not to happen, society has to make less use of
threatening acts that threaten the hearer's positive face, which consists of using fewer expressions
of disapproval, criticism, accusations, insults, reprimands, etc.
“Use the politeness principle to achieve gender equality in cultures where their social politeness
is damaging women”:
There are cultures where their social politeness (their social set of rules that determine their
behaviour) is prejudicial to women's development and equality. We can change this by using the
right politeness rules. So that in the future women all over the world will have the same rights as
men.
"Do not make your contribution more informative than is required":
Don't use more information than necessary when using the language, particularly when using
written language. Usually, by expressing certain things on paper, people tend to make an excessive
or unnecessary use of paper, which drastically affects future global paper reserves/stock. Thus,
people should use one method known in Pragmatics as The Cooperative Principle, specifically to
indicate not making your contribution more informative than is required. This way, everyone could
be more sustainable not only pragmatically speaking but also with the environment.
“Use rules of politeness to avoid disagreement”:
In some contexts, like encounters between two political figures to discuss certain topics, there is
always the possibility of disagreement between them due to the existence of different aims or
beliefs about that topic. Thus, being rational agents, they will always try to choose means that
satisfy their ends. However, these confrontations could be dissolved by using what is known in
Pragmatics as Politeness Rules, such as “Give options”, which would help both speakers involved
in a conversation to maintain a mutual interest.
“Raise awareness on environmental issues through talks”
Verbal communication is very important in various daily life areas, essentially to communicate
ideas between speakers. Thus, one of the possible objectives to mark with this resource is to
transmit the general cultural knowledge of certain speakers from different countries to raise
awareness of various issues. This is the case, for example, of recycling in Spain and France, where
some regions of France are not used to recycle as in Spain.