Abstract At first sight, pragmatic and integrational approaches to language and communication might appear to share the same basic goal, that of studying human communication by focusing on language ‘in use’. However, a detailed comparison between these approaches from a theoretical and metatheoretical perspective reveals how some apparently convergent aspects and dimensions mask profound divergences between the two. This article examines the so-called ‘paradigm presuppositions’ involved, i.e. ‘the set of background assumptions which one makes about the nature and limits of one’s subject matter, the method of studying it, and what counts as evidence, and which determines the form that theories take’ [Leech, G., 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. Longman, London, p. 3].