What is pragmatics
Pragmatics -lecture-1.
Definition of pragmatics Pragmatics can be defined in various ways. A general definition is that it is the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication. As the process of communication is essentially a process of conveying meaning in a certain context, pragmatics can also be defined as the study of language in use.
Context Being essential to pragmatics, context is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer. There‟re two types of shared knowledge: the knowledge of the language they use, and the knowledge about the world, including the general knowledge about the world and the specific knowledge about the situation in which linguistic communication is taking place. Without such knowledge, linguistic communication would not be possible, and without considering such knowledge, linguistic communication cannot be satisfactorily accounted for in a pragmatic sense.
Chapter 8 Language in Use语言的使用
• Focal points:
• Speech Act Theory言语行为理论 • The Theory of Conversational Implicature会话含义
• Teaching difficulties:
• Speech Act Theory • The Cooperative Principle and its four maxim
An Introduction To Pragmatics
• Development
• a comparatively new branch of study in the area of linguistics • Developed in the 1960s and 1970s resulted from the expansion of the study of linguistics, especially that of semantics • Morris first proposed the word ―pragmatics‖ in his ―Foundations of the Theory of Signs ‖ : • the study of semiotics includes three parts: • syntax (sign---sign); semantics (sign---word); pragmatics (sign---its user). • 1977 Journal of Pragmatics published in Holland signified the start of pragmatics
• The scope of pragmatic study includes ―speech act theory‖, ―context‖, ―principle of conversation‖ etc.
英语语言学期末考试重点
第一章1.What is language?Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication2。
Design features of language①Arbitrariness（任意性）refers to the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning。
(sounds and meanings）②Duality（二层性）：The property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization。
③Productivity/creativity(创造性）:Language is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users。
④Displacement（移位性）：Human Languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present （in time and space) at moment of communication. （p7）3.Functions of language① Informative（信息功能)：to give information about facts。
What is pragmatics
Semantics (I):
– – – –
– –
Studying the relationships between language forms and the entities in the world; The duck ran up to Mary. *The bottle of ketchup ran up to Mary. Establishing the relationships between verbal descriptions and states of affairs in the world as true or not (studying truth-conditions of propositions expressed in sentences). The duck ran up to Mary and licked her. p&q
Semantics (II)
– – –
Logically, p & q = q & p Mary likes John and John likes Mary. The duck licked Mary and ran up to her.
Compare: The duck ran up to Mary and licked her.
–
There are things that semantics can’t handle.
Pragmatics:
– – –
Studies the relationships between language forms and the users of those forms; Allows humans into the analysis. Advantage of studying language via pragmatics:
大学语言学基础 英语复习资料
Chapter 1:1.What are the design features of language?The features that define our human language can be called Design Features.2.What is Arbitrariness?Saussure first refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs(symbol forms) bear no natural relationship to their meaning.3.What are onomatopoeia words?Words that sound like the sounds they describe.4.How do you understand of clauses language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level?The order of elements in a sentence follows certain rules,and there is a certain degree of correspondence between the sequence of clauses and the real happenings.5.What is duality?By duality is meant the property of having two levels of structures,such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.(Lyons)6.What is the advantage of duality?It lies in the great productive power our language is endowed with.A large number of different units can be formed out of a small number of elements.And out of the huge number of words,there can be endless number of sentences,which in turn can form unlimited number of texts.7.How do you understand language is a system?In terms of internal structure,language is hierarchical.There are 6 level.Speech sounds,morpheme,word,phrase,sentence,text.8.What is creativity?By creativity we mean language is resourceful because of its duality and recursiveness.(Chomsky Noam).The recursiveness refers to the potential of language to create endless sentences.9.What is displacement?Displacement means that human language enable their users to symbolize objects,events and concepts which are not present at the moment of communication.10.What is the benefit of displacement?Displacement benefits human beings by giving them the power to handle generalization and abstractions.11.What are the 3 theory concerning to the origin of language?First,the divine origin theory:Language is created by God.Second,the invention theory:Language is created by man.(①The bow-wow theory拟声说the evidence is onomatopoeic words.②The pooh-pooh theory感叹说the evidence is interjections③The yo-ho-yo theory劳动喊声说some rhythmic grunt.)Third,the evolutionary theory:when men involved in a certain degree,they have the cognitive ability.There are two basices:Psychical basic(speech organ) and social basises(cooperate communication ),then language came into being.12.What are the seven functions of language?Informative信息功能,Interpersonal人际，Performative施为，Emotion感情，Phatic communion 交感,recreational娱乐，meta-lingual元语言。
语言学笔记
语言学笔记I Introduction1. What is linguistics?Linguistics is the systematic/scientific study of language.study: investigate, examine, not learnscientific: based on the systematic investigation of data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure, the way in which it is studied.language(zero article): It implies that it studies not any particular language, but languages in general.What is the relationship between data & theory?▲In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation; that is, a theory without the support of data is hardly valid; data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.The process of study may be as follows:1) Certain linguistics facts are found to display some similarities, so generalizations are made about them.2) On the basis of these generalizations hypotheses are formulated to account for the facts. These hypotheses are tested by further observations.3) A theory is constructed about how language works.2. What is a linguist? What is the main task for him?A person who studies linguistics. He does not need to be able to use a large number of languages for communication purposes, but he should have a wide experience of different types of languages. His task is not to learn to use any particular language, but to study how each language is constructed, how it is used by its speakers, and how it is related to other languages. He is alsoconcerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from one social class to another, how it changes from one historical period to the next, and how children acquire their mother tongue. To sum up, his task is basically to study and understand the general principles upon which all languages are built. To make his analysis as scientific as possible, he is usually guided by 4 principles.▲Consistency (一致性): there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement.▲Economy (经济性) : other things being equal, a shorter statement or analysis is preferred to a long or more involved one. The best statements are the shortest possible ones which can account most fully for all facts.▲Objectivity(客观性): a linguist should be as objective as possible in his description and analysis of data, allowing no prejudice to influence his generalization.▲Exhaustiveness(穷尽性): to gather all the materials relevant to one‘s investigation and give them an adequate explanation.3. What are the scopes of linguistics?▲Phonetics: the study of human speech sound▲Phonology: the sound pattering▲Morphology: the study of the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed▲Syntax: the arrangement of sentences▲Sem antics: the study of meaning▲Pragmatics: the study of how speakers use sentences to effect successful communication▲Psycholinguistics: the relationship between language & the mind▲Historic linguistics: the study of language change▲Sociolinguistics: the relationship between language & society▲Applied linguistics: the application of linguistic theories & principles to language teaching( narrow sense)▲Anthropological linguistics▲Neurological linguistics▲Mathematical linguistics▲Computational linguisti cs4. What are some important distinctions in linguistics?(重要区别)①Synchronic linguistics (共时语言学):the study of a language system at one particular point in time （研究特定时间的语言体系）Diachronic (historical)linguistics (历时语言学):an approach to linguistics which studies how a language changes over a period time（研究语言在一段时期内怎样变化）In modern linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one.e.g. The sound system of Modern British English②Prescriptive vs. descriptive( 规定性与描写性)▲The distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things actually are.▲Do/Don‘t say X. (prescriptive)▲People do/ don‘t say X. (descriptive)Look at the following pairs of sentences:▲It is I. It is me.▲Who did you speak to?▲Whom did you speak to?▲I haven‘t done anything.▲I haven‘t done nothing.▲③Speech & writing5. Why do modern linguistics regardthe spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language?▲1) linguistic evolution; ( historically)▲2) daily communication; (function)▲3)acquisition of the mother tongue; ( genetically)▲4) features of human speech (authentic)▲④Langue & parole(语言与言语)Who made the distinction between langue and parole? And when?▲F. de Saussure ( a Swiss linguist) in the early 20th century.▲― if we could embrace the sum of word-images stored in the minds of all individuals, we could identify the social bond that constitutes language (langue). It is a storehouse filled by the members of a given community through their active use of speaking (parole), a grammatical system that has a potential existence in each brain, or, more specifically, in the brains of a group of individuals. For language is not complete in any speaker; it exists perfectly only within a collectivity. In separating language( langue) from speaking (parole) we are at the same time separating (1) what is social from what is individual; and (2) what is essential from what is accessory and more or less accidental.( ------Saussure 1959:13-14 ) ▲―如果我们能了解所有个人头脑中的语言形象，我们就能知道形成语言的社会因素。
语用学课件1-What's-pragmatics
Sociolinguistics---- social factors (e.g. class,
education) affect language use
Psycholinguistics----linguistic behavior and
psychological process
10
Presentation
--- each student is supposed to collect materials about pragmatics and report in PPT form
--- each presentation should include: a. concrete examples and their analysis; b. Necessary background knowledge; c. evaluation; d. possible implications or applications.
Stylistics----linguistic and literature
4
• Some other applications
Anthropological linguistics Neurolinguistics Computational linguistics (e.g. machine
6
Purposes of a course in pragmatics:
pragmatic knowledge does serve to:
• --enhance pragmatic awareness; • --promote pragmatic competence; • --enable pragmatic analysis.
Chapter 6章
2.1 Performatives and constatives (P247)
Austin’s first shot at the theory is the claim that there are two types of sentences: performatives and constatives. 2.1.1 Constatives A constative is a sentence which describes or states something; it is either true or false. Example: Tom is taller than John.
Obviously, ‘context’ is a basic notion in pragmatic studies. Context is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer, including encyclopedic knowledge of the world, knowledge specific to the situation of communication, knowledge about the participants, and knowledge of the language they use, and so on.
Chapter Six
Pragmatics
1.2.2 Utterance-meaning An utterance is a piece of language actually used in a particular context. It is often a sentence in a certain context, but may not always be so. Once said in a certain context, a sentence may convey something more than its sentence-meaning, i.e. its literal meaning. Ex. 1
pragmatics-2-Deixis-and-distance-Ss
situational insertion
This kind of “you” is referred to by Maitland and Wilson as a “situational insertion”,
Deixis
Deixis:
the earliest target or first study area of pragmatics, since it directly concerns the relationship between language structure and the context in which it is
I’m working on a new book now.
Classification of deixis
person deixis place deixis time deixis discourse deixis social deixis --- Fillmore, 1971
Deixis: warm-up
A: —你说你是小狗我就给你这块糖 B: —你是小狗 A: —我让你说你是小狗 ! B: —我说的就是你是小狗啊 A: —你说“我是小狗”! B: —啊 ? 你是小狗 ?
Deixis
Deictics / indexicals / deictic or indexical expressions: language forms whose referents are identifiable only in the context concerned. Pronouns, Demonstratives (proximal vs. distal), tense markers, adverbs of time and space, and motion verbs.
What is pragmatic
What is pragmatic?08英语1班黄依依学号20081801B027Pragmatics is a relatively late comer in linguistics. It enters the linguistic scene at the end of the 1970s. However, to many people, this is a rather new area. As a point of departure, this section gives a briefing of the new discipline and discusses some of the topics of general concerns.Is pragmatics a new branch of linguistics? The answer is both “yes” and “no”.“Yes”, because to some people, the term pragmatics is a branch of linguistics, and like many other branches of linguistics, the term becomes increasingly popular through researchers’explorations of linguistic facts. That’s why some linguistics books include it as a separate and growing discipline under the umbrella term linguistics.“No”, because to some other people, pragmatics involves social as well as individual norms in language production and comprehension. In other words, social, cultural and psychological factors play important roles in language use. Since pragmatics is related to multi-dimensions or plural disciplines, it is better seen as an interdisciplinary study of language in use.“No”, also because some other linguists think otherwise. For Verschueren, for instance, pragmatics, as well as linguistics, is but a perspective into language use. To him, language use, seen either from the speaker or hearer’s point of view, is simply an adaptation. An adaptation to topics, interlocutors, situations, purposes, in one word, to contexts. Hence, pragmatics is a theory or perspective of linguistic adaptation.Hence if we take the above three views as three separate sets, then the second set is very much like an intersection of sets. In this way, it is both adequate and inadequate in saying that pragmatics is a branch or new branch of linguistics.Can we say that pragmatics is a study of meaning? Again, the answer can be “y es” and “no”, because it is not accurate to merely regard the new discipline as a study of meaning.The true thing about pragmatics is that it does look at meaning; however, this is only one part of the story. Semantics, which is defined as the branch of linguistics that studies meaning, cares for meaning, too. In this way, it seems rather confusing. What, then, is the relationship, sameness or difference, between pragmatics and semantics?To make things easier, for the present sake, let’s explain it this way: pragmatics caters for a special part or aspect of meaning that semantics overlooks or fails to handle. For detailed explanations about the difference between the two concep ts, please refer to the section below.What on earth is pragmatics?There are more than a dozen of definitions about pragmatics, because this field of linguistics has been so charming and appealing to so many people that each one ofthem seems to claim an interest in it and define it from his own perspective.Here are some very often cited definitions in literature. We will try to share with you how each definition strikes us, and eventually we will provide our own definition.(1) Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others.(Crystal, 1987:120) This definition emphasizes the absolute roles that context and language users (speaker and hear) play. The former is instrumental in framing language users’ choices of linguistic means for optimal communication outcomes, while the later are solely responsible for the awareness of context or speech environment in which they are to perform certain functions via language or fulfill specific objectives by utilizing available linguistic means within their capability.(2) Pragmatics can be usefully defined as the study of how utterances have meanings in situations.(Leech, 1983:X) In a way, through this definition, Leech is clearing up the differences between semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. What he is trying to say here is like this: Sentences are for syntax, while utterances for pragmatics; sentence meanings free from situations are for semantics, while utterance meanings bound with situations are for pragmatics.(3) Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said.(Yule, 1996:3) For George Yule, pragmatics belongs to that part of linguistics that tries to probe into those meanings over-loaded or beyond what is literally conveyed in concrete speech events and situations. In other words, it is often the case that language users are inclined to mean something more by his speech, and as to what is exactly meant by this oversaid or communicated message, it is the job of pragmatics to figure out. Apparently, Yule is directing us to the conversational analysis of meanings, a tradition of meaning study initiated in the 1950s.Careful readers might notice that we have tried to maintain a neutral position in this definition and would like to recommend this definition to others.Why do we bother to know pragmatics? Practical minds might be asking about the uses of learning pragmatics. We must say that there are many ways to answer this question. One way is to relate it to job opportunities.As far as our knowledge goes, people who are trained with pragmatics are finding more positions related to teaching, research, editing, advertising, forensics, trade, negotiation, corpus analysis, computer programming, among other things. Indeed, it is related to any work with a touch of language.。
语言学概论(英)试卷一
1. __________ means the lack of a logical connection between the form of something and its expression in sounds. A. Ambiguity B. Abstractness C. Arbitrariness D. Fuzziness2. The study of language development over a period of time is generally termed as _______ linguistics. A. applied B. diachronic C. comparative D. synchronic3. According to N. Chomsky, ________ refers to a language user’s underl ying knowledge about the system of rules. A. performance B. competence C. parole D. langue4. “It is wrong to split an infinitive.” This is an example of _____ rules. A. prescriptive B. descriptive C. transformational201 年 月江苏省高等教育自学考试8801语言学概论（英）一、 选择题（每小题1分，共20分）在下列每小题的四个备选答案中选出一个正确的答 案，并将其字母标号填入题干的括号内。
D. functional5. What kind of sounds can we make when the vocal cords are vibrating?A. VoicelessB. VoicedC. Glottal stopD. Consonant6. An aspirated p, an unaspirated p and an unreleased p are ___________ of the p phoneme.A. analoguesB. allomorphsC. morphemesD. allophones7. Which branch of phonetics concerns the production of speech sounds?A. Acoustic phoneticsB. Articulatory phoneticsC. Auditory phoneticsD. Neither of them8. Conventionally a ___________ is put in slashes.A. allophoneB. phoneC. phonemeD. morpheme9. ___________ is a sub-field of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language.A. MorphologyB. syntaxC. SemanticsD. Pragmatics10. ___________ does not belong to major syntactic categories.A. AuxiliaryB. NPC. ND. PP11. There are different types of affixes. The affix “ed” in the word “learned” is known as a(n) ________.A. stemB. derivational morphemeC. inflectional morphemeD. root12. Morphemes that represent tense, number, gender, case and so forth are called __________ morphemes.A. inflectionalB. boundC. freeD. derivational13. Semantics can be defined as the study of ________.A. namingB. meaningC. communicationD. context14. The classic semantic triangle reflects ________.A. the naming theoryB. the conceptual viewC. the contextualist viewD. the behaviorist view15. ________ concerns with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form; it’s abstract and de-contextualized.A. ReferenceB. SemanticC. SenseD. None of the above16. The semantic triangle holds that the meaning of a word ________.A. is interpreted through the mediation of conceptB. is related to the thing it refers toC. is the idea associated with that word in the minds of speakersD. is the image it is represented in the mind17. _____ deals with how language is acquired, understood and produced.A. SociolinguisticsB. PsycholinguisticsC. PragmaticsD. Morphology18. ____ refers to how children acquire language.A. Language comprehensionB. Language productionC. Language acquisitionD. Language listening19. _____ refers to the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations.A. LearningB. CompetenceC. PerformanceD. Acquisition20. ____ refers to how we perceive and understand speech and written language.A. Language comprehensionB. Language productionC. Language acquisitionD. Language listening二、填空题（每小题1分，共10分）21. In the pronunciation of the word “lean”, [i:] is assimilated by the following sound [n]. Thisassimilation is termed as ______.22. According to the “semantic triangle” presented by Ogden and Richards, the symbol refers tothe linguistic elements, the referent refers to the object in the world of experience, and the thought or ______refers to concept.23. A ______ vowel is one produced by holding the tongue towards back of the mouth.24. ______ phonetics studies the physical properties of human speech sounds, such as soundlength, pitch, strength and frequency.25. ______ refers to the phenomenon that the two or more words contrast semantically.26. Linguistics is a branch of science which takes ______ as its object of investigation.27. A linguistic study is synchronic if it describes and analyses facts of a fixed period of time; itis ______ if it does this through the course of history.28. ______ construction refers to two or more words, phrases or clauses having equivalent syntactic status.29. ______ is the study of the rules governing the formation of sentences.30. The design features of a language are __________, duality , creativity and displacement .31. Furniture is the superordinate of bed ._____________________________________________________________ 32. Cold and hot are complementary antonyms.______________________________________________________________33. When performing an illocutionary act of representative, the speaker is making a statement or giving a description which he himself believes to be true._____________________________________________________________ 34. The utterance meaning of a sentence varies with the context in which it is uttered. _____________________________________________________________35. While conversation participants nearly always observe the CP, they do not always observe these maxims strictly._____________________________________________________________36. displacement37. phoneme三、 判断说明题（每小题2分，共10分）在题后的括号内，正确的写“T ”，错误的写“F ”，并在题下空处说明理由。
语言学备课PPT第六章
as a self-contained, intrinsic system; in the study of language, any extra-linguistic factor was to be kept out of consideration. This is the spirit in which traditional phonology studied the sounds of language, traditional syntax studied the structure of sentences, and traditional semantics studied the meaning. The meaning of language was considered as something intrinsic, and inherent ,i.e., a property attached to language itself. Therefore, meanings of words, meanings of sentences were all
studied in an isolated manner, detached from the context in which they were used. If we take the meaning of word “dog” as an example, linguists or semanticists were quite happy with its definition as “a domesticated, canine mammal, etc.” And they would also be happy to explain the meaning of the sentence “The dog is barking” as the predication consisting of the argument“DOG” and the predicate “BARK”.What the sentence is used for in real situations of communication was excluded from their investigation; they felt
语用练习题
Exercises to Pragmatics
Pragmatics: 1. What is Pragmatics? 2. Why do we have to study Pragmatics, since we have semantics? 3. What are the 4 deixis? 4. Speech Act Theory 5. Performative and Constative 6. The theory of Illocutionary Act 7. CP PP
22. A(n )”_____” means that some sentences, in the utterance and the seeming performance of a speech act, perform a certain illocutionary act indirectly. A. direct speech act B. indirect speech act C. illocutionary act D. utterance 23. The _____ provided great philosophical insight into the nature of linguistic communication. A. speech act theory B. CP theory C. communicative competence D. linguistic competence
16. A: This bag is a little bit heavy. B: Let me help you. What is the illocutionary act of speaker A? A. This bag is heavy. B. I don‟t want to carry it away. C. Could you help me with this bag? D. I‟m very happy about it.
pragmatic
1.3.2 Assigning reference in context
Example : And just think ,if he hadn’t fallen out of bed , I’d never have found out about it ! It is impossible to understand it , because I don’t know who he referred to and what was the it. It is difficult to assign reference .
1.3.3 Structural ambiguity 结构歧义
• Example : • Afterwards, the Bishop walked among the pilgrims 朝圣者 eating their picnic lunches. • We have to decide whether it was the Bishop or the pilgrims who ate the sandwiches.
Second
Contextual Meaning: meaning in context
The meaning of the sentence depends on who the speaker is , who the hearer is, when and where it is used.
Speaker meaning (A father is trying to get his 3-yearold daughter to stop lifting up her dress to display her new underwear to the assemble.)
13. Pragmatics & Language learning
Outline
1. What is pragmatics? 2. Pragmatics: Implications to L2 teaching 3. Pragmatics: Implications to L2 research
11/13/2011 essentials in pragmatics, fall 2011 8
1987: J. Verschueren: Pragmatics as a theory of linguistic adaptation; 1989: G. M. Green: Pragmatics and natural language understanding; S. Blum-Kulka & J. House: Cross-cultural pragmatics; 1991: S. Davis: Pragmatics: A reader; 1992: G. Kasper, S. Blum-Kulka & J. House: Interlanguage pragmatics; 1993: J. Mey: Pragmatics: An introduction; 1995: J. Thomas: Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics; 1996: G. Yule: Pragmatics; 2002: J. Verschueren:
（何自然，1997：1~8）
11/13/2011 essentials in pragmatics, fall 2011 5
语用学研究在不同语境中话语意义的恰当地表达 和准确地理解，寻找并确立使话语意义得以恰 当地表达和理解的基本原则和准则。 （索振羽，2000：14） As a word, pragmatics is synonymous with ―being practical‖, and as a term, it is epistemologically synonymous with pragmatism. A subfield of linguistics developed in the late 1970s, pragmatics studies how people comprehend and produce a communicative act or speech act in a concrete speech situation which is usually a conversation. (Shaozhong Liu, 2000:382)
新编语言学教程chapter6pragmatics课堂
11
Direct anaphora (direct relation between the antecedent and the anaphor):
husband. >> Joan hadn 't been beating her husband. ? Iteratives The flying saucer came/ didn 't come again . >>The flying saucer came before.
15
? Temporal clauses
7
2.2 Deixis (p.144)
Deixis is the words and expressions whose reference depends entirely on the situational context of the utterance and can only be understood in light of these circumstances.
6
2. Micropragmatics (p.143) 2.1 Reference
The act by which a speaker or writer uses language to enable hearer or reader to identify something is called reference.
heads. >> There exists a man with two heads. ? Factive verbs John realized/ didn ' t realize that he was in debt. >>John was in debt.
- 1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性，平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
- 2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
- 3、如文档侵犯您的权益，请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间：9:00-18:30)。
– –
Scenario II: A little boy comes in the front door.
What’s the problem?
Knowledge of vocabulary or grammar?
Semantics and pragmatics both look at the knowledge we use to extract meaning when we hear or read, and to convey meaning when we speak or write. The dividing line?
What is pragmatics?
What is pragmatics, compared with syntax and semantics?
Syntax:
– – – – –
Studying the relationship between language forms; Mary, duck, the, to, up, ran Studying the rules that determine the correct structure and exclude incorrect orderings. The duck ran up to Mary and __ licked her. The bottle of ketchup ran up to Mary.
–
The sequence of the two events being described should be reflected in the order of mention.
Not a rule, but a general tendency or pragmatic principle that may not apply in some situations.
–
This room is a pig sty! How many times have I told you about this room? Clean this room up.
(a) Matt: Do you want some cake? Chris: I’m on a diet. (b) Ed: How was the party? Faye: Don’t ask! (c) Matt: Lend me a pen. Chris: Here. But it’s running out of ink.
– –
Semantics concentrates on meaning that comes from purely linguistic knowledge; Pragmatics concentrates on aspects of meaning that cannot be predicted by linguistic knowledge alone and takes into account knowledge about the physical and social world.
One can talk about people’s intended meanings, their assumptions, their purposes or goals, and the kinds of actions (e.g. requests) that they are performing when they speak. The analysis could not be very consistent or objective once human factors are considered; Frustrating because it requires us to make sense of people and what they have in mind.
Definitions of pragmatics
Below are four definitions of pragmatics. What elements do they have in common? Do you notice any differences in emphasis?
–
Semantics (II)
– – –
Logically, p & q = q & p Mary likes John and John likes Mary. The duck licked Mary and ran up to her.
Compare: The duck ran up to Mary and licked her.
– – –
–
(a) Mike: That’s an interesting hat. Annie: What do you mean by that? (b) Steve: Listen to this. ‘No animal bird or reptile shall be kept in the Flat or any other part of the building without the prior written consent of the Lessor which (if given) shall be deemed to be by way of license revocable at will.’ Jane: That just means tenants can’t have pets without the landlord’s written permission and that even if he does give permission, he can take it back any time he wants to.
Semantics (I):
– – – –
– –
Studying the relationships between language forms and the entities in the world; The duck ran up to Mary. *The bottle of ketchup ran up to Mary. Establishing the relationships between verbal descriptions and states of affairs in the world as true or not (studying truth-conditions of propositions expressed in sentences). The duck ran up to Mary and licked her. p&q
Here is an example of a context where three different utterances could potentially have similar pragmatic meanings, even though each of them has a different semantic meaning. A mother walks into a very messy room and addresses the teenage inhabitant:
–
Disadvantage:
A closer look at pragmatics and semantics
Pragmatic failures:
–
Scenario I:
Father: We don’t DO that. Daughter: I KNOW, Daddy. You don’t WEAR dresses. Mother: Wipe your feet, please.
–
There are things that semantics can’t handle.
Pragmatics:
– – –
Studies the relationships between language forms and the users of those forms; Allows humans into the analysis. Advantage of studying language via pragmatics:
– – –
(a) Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interactions and the effects of our choice on others. (b) Pragmatics can be usefully defined as the study of how utterances have meanings in situations. (c) Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said. (d) There is a distinction between a hearer’s knowledge of her language and her knowledge of the world. In this section, I shall argue that it is this distinction that underlies the distinction between semantics and pragmatics.
– – – – – – –
(c) Parent: Where are your shoes, young man? Child: Under my bed. Parent: When I asked where your shoes were, I wanted you to put them on. (d) Ed: Lugubrious? Faye: You know, sort of mournful, not very cheerful. (e) Dave: What did Macbeth mean when he said that life was a tale told by an idiot? Sarah: I guess he thought that life didn’t make any sense.