Mark Jary

Mark Jary has a PhD in Linguistics from University College London. He currently teaches modules relating to linguistic meaning on the English Language and Linguistics programme, including Semantics, Pragmatics and Philosophy of Language. These subjects have their roots in analytic philosophy, and so some of the modules he teaches are also attended by students from the Philosophy programme.

Professor Jary has an interest in Spanish linguistics and contributes to the translation modules on the Modern Languages programme.

He also supervises research students in areas relating to semantics and pragmatics.

Professor Jary has a strong interest in sentence types and the speech acts they are used to perform. His 2010 monograph Assertion provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the declarative mood and assertion, while his 2014 book, co-authored with Mikhail Kissine, looks at the semantics and pragmatics of imperative sentences. His work on speech acts and mood has also led him to write on theory of mind and the Spanish subjunctive.

In his most recent single-authored work, he has turned to some fundamental questions in pragmatic theory, such as the relationship between intention attribution and implicature derivation, and he plans further work in related areas.