Doctoral thesis

Pragmatics is probably the field of linguistics least studied experimentally as, unlike other areas, it cannot easily be studied in isolation. Despite growing interest from multiple scientific perspectives—which have offered mathematical and computational descriptions, as well as advances in the formalisation of various pragmatic processes—there is no unified, cohesive and systematic model to describe them, particularly from a computational perspective. Existing studies often focus on individual components, and do not provide a holistic vision that can connect different pragmatic phenomena with broader linguistic theories. This research aims to contribute to the fields of digital humanities and pragmatics through a multidisciplinary strategy, taking an analytical and categorisation approach inspired by the developments in various disciplines (linguistics, natural language processing and neuroscience).

Firstly, this study aims to establish a typology of implicatures and inference strategies. Achieving this will require a process of documenting and classifying current approaches to the categorisation of implicatures from linguistic and logical perspectives. Additionally, we will identify approaches from pragmatics-related methods in language technologies to be incorporated into the typology. 

Secondly, this research aims to analyse existing proposals for defining and modelling pragmatic phenomena. The analysis will be informed by linguistic, formal and computational perspectives, as well as insights from other fields such as neuroscience. Relevant data to describe pragmatic phenomena will be collected, through the compilation of existing datasets or the creation of a new one. 

Thirdly, we seek to develop or adapt a computational tool to support and enhance the systematic analysis of pragmatic aspects, based on the previous research and considering the data gathered. 

Finally, the study aims to contribute to the field of computational pragmatics and digital humanities with a new perspective informed by knowledge from various domains, including linguistics, natural language processing and neuroscience. By integrating contributions from these fields, this research aims to offer a holistic, descriptive and analytical proposal for understanding pragmatic phenomena. Ultimately, this study endeavours to find answers for classic linguistic questions at the intersection point of technology and science.