The International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) is an international scientific organization devoted to the study of language use. Established in 1986, with its seat at the University of Antwerp, it now has on average 1,400 members in over 70 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.
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.