Author: Ravi Jay

Before we begin, let’s share our understanding about Syntactics, Semantics and Pragmatics with a simple refresher; broadly speaking, there are 3 kinds of ellipsis:
1) Syntax: Programming languages have constructs with which you write software to get machine to do something exactly how you want it. When we grew up, our parents told us how to ‘sit’ or ‘sleep’ or ‘stand’ – and so we did. And, we learned.
2) Semantics: Learning how to write software comes with the realization that there is more than way to tell the machine to do something exactly how you want it. Granted the programming constructs (and syntax) exist, but the way we craft commands differ from person to person. As we grew up, we learned that there is more than 1 way to sit, stand and sleep and more than once place to do it. And, we evolved our application of learning.
3) Pragmatics: As we started learning more than 1 programming language, we started to think about context and how to get what we want in a good way rather than focus on syntax itself. As we grew up, we started to think why we sit or sleep and realized that ‘rest/relaxation’ is what we want and there are many ways to get ‘rest’ and it depends on where we are and who we are with. And, we started thinking less about what we say/do and more about outcomes we want to drive in that context.

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