Pragmatics re-established on its feet: Weigand’s Mixed Game Model 2010

The “Mixed Game Model” as a linguistic theory conceptualizes the natural ability of human beings: “competence-in-performance”. The theory rests on a holistic view of language and dialogue that takes into account the physically and socially complex and more or less chaotic universe we live in. Competence-in-performance is thereby rooted in human biology. This ability enables people to communicate in an extremely context-sensitive manner. It rests on the subtle integration of three fundamental registers of human mental functioning in dialogic communication: perception (including emotional perception), cognition, and natural language. This explains why the theory is called the Mixed Game. The Mixed Game defines language as dialogue, conceptualizing the components of natural language along action and reaction. The book gives us a new foundation to the pragmatics of the human communication system, a rigorous systematic methodology to study all kinds of dialogues, from the simplest to the more sophisticated, from the most informal to the most institutional or professional. This book also suggests various theoretical and practical developments. It is useful not only for linguists, but also for all researchers in psychology, sociology, and more generally in all the human sciences.