Pragmatics, as a field of linguistic inquiry, is concerned with “language as it is used” (Grundy, 2000). Within pragmatics, the sub-field of socio-pragmatics focuses on language use in relation to gender, institutional roles, power, and social status, among others (Attardo, 1998). A focus on the relationship between language and socio-cultural factors or that between utterances and social contexts best describes the interest and orientation of the Socio-pragmatics Research Group (SPRG).

The Socio-pragmatics Research Group is a group of academics and graduate students that are actively involved in researching socio-pragmatics-related topics. The group is based in Malaysia and the topics for research are particular to the country and its people. The idea for the group is borrowed from the Linguistic Politeness Research Group (LPRG) based in Sheffield-Hallam University, United Kingdom.

In essence, SPRG was formed with the following aims:

• To provide an avenue or a platform for researchers, academics and students to present and share their work on various sub-topics that fall under socio-pragmatics.
  
  

• To gather academics and graduate students on a periodic basis in order to discuss selected readings pertaining to the field of socio-pragmatics.
  
  

• To hold talks and round-table discussions with invited scholars in the field.