What is evolutionary pragmatics?

This chapter analyses the path from philosophical pragmatics to evolutionary pragmatics. Specifically, the first part of the essay shows how pragmatics emerges in the context of ordinary language philosophy with reference to the idea of meaning as use. The second part examines the definitions of pragmatics offered by the two main schools of thought on the subject that have developed over time: the Anglo-American tradition and the continental European tradition. The last part of the essay outlines the contours of a new line of research in the field of language origins studies: evolutionary pragmatics. The chapter proposes that considering pragmatics as the basis for the origin of human communication (and, secondarily, language) means taking into account the specific contribution of three fundamental factors: 1) selective pressures driving the evolution of communication; 2) structural preconditions (i.e. brain and cognitive structures underlying the use of language); 3) material conditions of expression (i.e. the evolution of the channel used in communicative exchange).