| 释义 |
pragmatic, a. and n.|prægˈmætɪk|
[= F. pragmatique, Ger. pragmatisch, etc., ad. L. pragmaticus skilled in business, esp. law (Cic.), in late L., relating to civil affairs (also n.), a. Gr. πραγµατικός active, business-like, versed in affairs, relating to matter of fact, also n. a man of business or action; f. πρᾶγµα, πραγµατ- a deed, act, affair, state-affair, business, etc., f. πράττειν to do.]
A. adj.
1. Relating to the affairs of a state or community. pragmatic sanction, rendering late juridical L. (Cod. Justin.) pragmatica sanctio (jussio, annotatio), also pragmaticum rescriptum: ‘an imperial decree referring to the affairs of a community’, the technical name given to some imperial and royal ordinances issued as fundamental laws.
Applied first to edicts of the Eastern Emperors; subsequently to certain decrees of Western sovereigns, as the Pragmatic Sanction attributed to St. Louis of France, 1268, containing articles directed against the assumptions of the Papacy; those of Charles VII of France in 1438, and of the Diet of Mainz in 1439, embodying the most important decisions of the Council of Basle, the former being the basis of the liberties of the Gallican church. In more recent European history, applied particularly to the ordinance of the emperor Charles VI, in 1724, settling the succession to the Austrian throne; also, to that of Charles III of Spain in 1759, granting the crown of the Two Sicilies to his third son and his descendants.
1643Prynne Sov. Power Parl. App. 32 In this Parliament the pragmatick sanction was restored. 1688Answ. Talon's Plea 17 To abrogate and to annull at the same time, the pragmatick Sanction, and the Concordat too. 1699Burnet 39 Art. xxxvii. (1700) 385 Pragmatick Sanctions were made in several Nations to assert their Liberty. 1710J. Harris Lex. Techn. II, Pragmatick Sanction, is a Term in the Civil Law for a Letter written to a Corporation, or any Publick Body, by the Emperour in answer to their Request to enquire or know the Law of him. 1767Hist. Europe in Ann. Reg. 30/1 The King then published his pragmatic sanction, or royal ordinance, for the expulsion of the Jesuits. 1848W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc's Hist. Ten Y. II. 220 The revocation of the pragmatic act which left the youthful Isabella heiress of the Spanish crown. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. v. ii. I. 552 ‘Pragmatic Sanction’ being, in the Imperial Chancery and some others, the received title for Ordinances of a very irrevocable nature, which a sovereign makes in affairs that belong wholly to himself, or what he reckons his own rights. 1885Encycl. Brit. XIX. 657/1 After his [Charles VI's] death, the pragmatic sanction led to the War of the Austrian Succession.
2. Busy, active; esp. officiously busy in other people's affairs; interfering, meddling, intrusive; = pragmatical a. 3, 4.
1616B. Jonson Devil an Ass i. vi, I loue to hit These pragmaticke young men, at their owne weapons. 1674Govt. Tongue vi. §33 Common estimation puts an ill character upon pragmatic medling people. 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. II. vi. 238 Cepeda..a pragmatic and aspiring lawyer, seems to have held a secret correspondence with Pizarro. 1879Farrar St. Paul II. 282 note, If St. Paul said κυρίου, the marginal θεοῦ of some pragmatic scribe might easily have obtruded itself into the text.
3. Conceited in one's own opinion, opinionated; dictatorial, dogmatic; = pragmatical a. 4 b.
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 202 It was in vaine to chalenge the pragmatique Pagan in point of honour. 1653R. Sanders Physiogn., Moles 17 It signifies her to be pragmatique, proud, and one that will domineer over her husband. 1771Foote Maid of B. i. Wks. 1799 II. 214 She is as pragmatic and proud as the Pope. 1872W. Minto Eng. Prose Lit. 599 A strong contrast to the pragmatic Cobbett was the amiable, indolent, speculative Sir James Mackintosh. 1872Spectator 7 Sept. 1131 To spoil by..irrelevant and pragmatic dogmatism a very able and useful paper.
4. Treating the facts of history systematically, in their connexion with each other as cause and effect, and with reference to their practical lessons rather than to their circumstantial details. [= Ger. pragmatisch, after πραγµατικός, πραγµατεία, in Polybius.] Cf. pragmatism 3.
1853M. Arnold Irish Ess., etc. (1882) 291 For the more serious kinds, for pragmatic poetry, to use an excellent expression of Polybius. 1864Webster, Pragmatic history, a history which exhibits clearly the causes and the consequences of events.
5. Practical; dealing with practice; matter-of-fact; = pragmatical a. 2.
1853C. L. Brace Home Life Germany 124 A strict and pragmatic people, like the mass of the Scotch. 1882–3Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. II. 1613 The pragmatic school only looked at Christianity as a system of doctrine. It failed to look upon it as an historical development.
6. a. Belonging or relating to philosophical pragmatism; concerned with practical consequences or values. See pragmatism 4.
1902W. James Var. Relig. Exper. 518 This thoroughly ‘pragmatic’ view of religion has usually been taken as a matter of course by common men. 1906Hibbert Jrnl. Jan. 337 Whether it is applied to knowledge or to faith, the pragmatic test is a severe one. 1907W. James Pragmatism 45 The pragmatic method in such cases is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences. Ibid. iv. 136 The pragmatic value of the world's unity is that all these definite networks actually and practically exist. 1932C. Morris Six Theories of Mind vi. 282 The pragmatic contribution to the theory of mind. 1948Mind LVII. 358 These ‘pragmatic paradoxes’ as they have been called, are worth examination. 1964A. W. Burks in Moore & Robin Stud. in Philos. C. S. Peirce 2nd Ser. viii. 143 Peirce's pragmatic principle of meaning. 1971G. Petrović in R. Klibansky Contemp. Philos. IV. 393 To the uninformed the pragmatic theory of truth seems identical with that of Marx.
b. spec. Relating to the practical interpretation of political or social issues. Cf. pragmatism 4 b.
1961Mem. & Proc. Manch. Lit. & Philos. Soc. CIII. 58 This was an explicit pragmatic democratic philosophy of an older generation. 1964Listener 29 Oct. 654/2 Isn't there a danger that this kind of practical, pragmatic socialism, taking problems as they come, is going to rob you of a long-sighted view into the future. 1966Times 11 Mar. 8/6 Mr. Wilson replied..that his ‘policy was already very socialist and very pragmatic’. 1970Bull. Inst. for Study of U.S.S.R. Aug. 17 The technocrat is more or less content with any ideology provided that it does not hamper pragmatic development. 1976Howard Jrnl. XV. i. 3 Taking into account an admission of guilt or willingness to compensate for damage should only be done on the grounds that it is to the advantage of society to have the offender admit his guilt or pay for the damage. This is a very pragmatic attitude.
7. Linguistics. Of or pertaining to pragmatics. Cf. sense B. 4 below.
1935B. Malinowski Coral Gardens II. iv. iv. 52 Since it is the function, the active and effective influence of a word within a given context which constitutes its meaning, let us examine such pragmatic utterances. 1953C. E. Osgood Method & Theory Exper. Psychol. xvi. 699 The pragmatic dimension of semiotic, the relation between signs and their users or the effect of signs upon their users. 1957C. Cherry On Human Communication vi. 226 Statistical communication theory abstracts from the semantic and pragmatic aspects of the set of signs used. 1964E. A. Nida Toward Sci. Transl. iii. 36 There is a steady tendency for many terms to shift within the pragmatic area from an ethical response to an esthetic one. 1967R. A. Waldron Sense & Sense Devel. iii. 49 The attitudes to language dealt with in the last chapter came into conflict with tradition in the stress they lay upon the pragmatic functions of language.
B. n.
1. A decree or ordinance issued by the head of a state; = pragmatic sanction: see A. 1.
1587Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1364/2 His excessiue authoritie hath beene, and still is restreined, checked and limited by lawes and pragmatikes, both ancient and new, both in France and Spaine and other dominions. 1656Blount Glossogr., Pragmatic,..a Proclamation or Edict. 1766Char. in Ann. Reg. 11/2 There were even two pragmatics: one that ceded the possessions of the house of Austria to the Archduchess of Poland, the other that contended they were the property of Mary Theresa. 1861J. G. Sheppard Fall Rome vi. 286 It was a solemn occasion, and the emperor deemed it worthy of a solemn document, or ‘Pragmatic’, as it was called.
†2. One versed in business; a person deputed to represent another in business or negotiation, an agent; cf. ‘man of business’, business 22 d. Obs.[Cf. also obs. It. ‘pragmatico, an atturnie or practicioner in the lawe, a proctor... Also one wont to stand by a pleader or oratour instructing him in lawe points. Also one expert in doing of things’ (Florio 1598).] 1589G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 150 Since those busie limmes began to rowse, and besturre them, more then all the Pragmatiques in Europe. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. viii. §48. 559 Pandulphus (the Popes Pragmaticke) hauing first desired safe conduct of King John, arriues at Douer. 1625B. Jonson Staple of N. i. v, My man o' Law! Hee's my Attorney and Sollicitour too! A fine pragmaticke!
3. An officious or meddlesome person; a busybody; a conceited person.
1645Milton Colast. Wks. 1851 IV. 369 These matters are not for pragmatics, and folkmooters to babble in. 1659Gauden Tears Ch. iv. xvi. 502 Such pragmaticks..labour impertinently. 1835Fraser's Mag. XII. 269 The flippants and pragmatics who infest all the highways of society.
4. pl. const. as sing. Linguistics. The study or analysis of linguistic signs as they relate to the human user and his behaviour (see quot. 1937). Also attrib.
1937C. Morris Logical Positivism 4 Analysis reveals that linguistic signs sustain three types of relations (to other signs of the language, to objects that are signified, to persons by whom they are used and understood) which define three dimensions of meaning. These dimensions in turn are objects of investigation by syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics. 1952Mind LXI. 205 The ‘pragmatics’ group would say that ‘points of view’ are the business of philosophers. 1954Ibid. LXIII. 360 The step..from descriptive pragmatics to descriptive semantics. 1964E. A. Nida Toward Sci. Transl. iii. 35 Pragmatics, in contrast to both semantics and syntactics, deals with the relation of symbols to behavior. 1969I. I. Revzin in R. Klibansky Contemp. Philos. III. 332 In this domain there has been a general shift of interest from syntactics (the first set-theoretical and generative models) to semantics (and possibly pragmatics). 1971Language XLVII. 522 The philosophical dichotomy is between ‘semantics’ and ‘pragmatics’, roughly corresponding to reference and inference respectively. 1975Ibid. LI. 37 Partee..expresses reservations about the place of the referential/attributive distinction in natural language, and sees the possibility of assigning it to pragmatics. 1978Sci. Amer. Nov. 82/2 The grammar of language includes rules of phonology, which describe how to put sounds together to form words; rules of syntax, which describe how to put words together to form sentences; rules of semantics, which describe how to interpret the meaning of words and sentences; and rules of pragmatics, which describe how to participate in a conversation, how to sequence sentences and how to anticipate the information needed by an interlocutor. |