An integral pragmatic analysis of Borges's short-short story

Abstract

The article presents an integrative pragmatic analysis of Jorge Luis Borges's short-short story "The Fortune Teller". Firstly, the analysis offers a hierarchy of eight reading levels, ranging from the most literal or naive to the most interpretative. Then, the theoretical principles of the three main pragmatic approaches -pragmatics of communication (also known as interactional approach, or Palo Alto School), pragmatics of language (Austin, Searle, Grice) and transcendental or universal pragmatics, and discourse ethics (Apel and Habermas)-, are applied to a further interpretation. Finally, an examination of several additional readings that propose analogies and extrapolations to theories and concepts from diverse fields, with an emphasis on those stemming from education sciences, is suggested.