Is it semantics or pragmatics?

https://languagedebates.wordpress.com/tag/pragmatics/

One of the lovely year 12s asked for clarification on the difference between semantics and pragmatics. It's a question that's been asked many times, and one that linguists are still pondering. There's a link above to a useful blog post by someone far more knowledgeable than me. Have a read and see if it makes the answer a little clearer.

Attitudes to language - new Facebook 'like' buttons?

Here's an article from the Guardian this week about some potential new emojis to be introduced on Facebook. Notice the attitude of the writer towards some of the (very American ) suggestions. Can you think of any suggestions you'd like to make? Notice the idiom used in 'man up' and 'come off it', and the pragmatics behind some of the suggestions.

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