The of language variation.  An alternative title might be simply
"Language Effects."  The term "pragmatics" has somewhat different
meanings among scholars of language:  Language USE, whose foremost
student is probably John Searle, and language EFFECTS, in the sense
the term was used by John Dewey and applied to the study of language
by I.A. Richards and Charles Morris, among a host of others.

This course will be conducted as a true seminar, with student reports
focusing on recent research in language effects on its users.  There
will be no actual textbook, although a photocopied volume of papers
written by previous students in the course will be used.  Course
requirements will include one in-class oral report on a topic of the
student's choosing, two essay examinations to be written in class,
and a 12-15 page research paper.  Among the topics probably covered
will be the cognitive structure underlying language pragmatics, an
overview of language variables, cultural sensitivity in language
choice (sexism, racism, ageism, and other discrimination in language use,
language clarity, deferential and assertive language, intensity
and obscenity, style, figures of speech, humor, functions of questions,
especially rhetorical questions, effects of differences in sentence
structure, sex differences, geographical, nationality, and ethnic
differences, socioeconomic class differences, relation of language
to perception and cognition, and linguistic communication competence.
Not all these topics can be covered, of course.  Which ones are covered
will depend on the choices of the members of the seminar.