In this paper I try to define as precisely as possible what pragmatics is, and then to show how it can be defined as being linguistic, and as distinct from other subdisciplines of linguistics, namely syntax, and mainly semantics (chapter 1). Then I discuss Searle’s speech act theory and performative hypothesis, which are said to have given birth to the study of what is called pragmatics (chapter 2). The following two chapters I devote to the explanation of the fact that language users tend to use speech acts indirectly (chapter 3) and to implicate something beyond the literal words they utter (chapter 4). In the next chapter I turn towards politeness, and elaborate on the topic in detail as politeness theories and strategies have emerged to be so important issues that they could even be treated as a subdiscipline of pragmatics (chapter 5).