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PRAGMATICS

• BY: PAWAN KUMAR and BHAVI DHINGRA

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Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of language incontext and concentrates on language as acommunication tool that is used to achievesocial ends.

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Why pragmatics?

Sometime what you say is not what you mean.(felicity condition)

Sometime what you say is having literally different meaning than what is conveyed.(cooperative maxim)

Semantic covers only literal meaning of the utterance it does not look beyond the words.

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As per Steve Campsall:“Pragmatics is a way of investigating how sense can be made of

certain texts even when, from a semantic viewpoint, the text seems to be either incomplete or to have a different meaning to what is really intended.”

Pragmatics includes:• Speech act theory : The philosopher J.L. Austin (1911-1960) claims

that many utterances (things people say) are equivalent to actions.

• Felicity conditions : These explain that merely saying the words does not accomplish the act.

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Contents:

• Speech act• Deixis• Conversational maxims(Gricean maxims,1989)• Reference• Inference• Anaphor• Discourse analysis:

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Felicity condition

These are conditions necessary to the success of a speech act ( Latin root –“felix” or “happy”). They are conditions needed for success or achievement of a performative.

Only certain people are qualified to declare war, baptize people or sentence convicted felons. In some cases, the speaker must be sincere (as in apologizing or vowing). And external circumstances must be suitable:

Types of felicity condition:1. Preparatory conditions:

Preparatory conditions include the status or authority of the speaker to perform the speech act.

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2. situation of the utterance3. Conditions for execution: Conditions for execution can assume an

exaggerated importance. We are so used to a ritual or ceremonial action accompanying the speech act that we believe the act is invalidated, if the action is lacking

4. Sincerity conditions : At a simple level these show that the speaker must really intend what he or she says.

e.g. , when Peter says "I promise to do the dishes” ( in making the utterance he performs the promise). If Peter utters the sentence without the intention to keep the promise, or if eventually he does not keep it, then although something is not in order with the utterance, the problem is not that the sentence is false: it is rather "infelicitous",

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Speech acts

• We usually know how speakers intend us to 'take' (or, interpret the function of) what they say.

• We can usually recognize the type of act performed by a speaker in uttering a sentence.

'requesting','commanding', 'questioning' and 'informing‘…etc.are covered in the use of the term speech act

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• Forms Functions

• Did you eat the food? Interrogative Question

• Eat the food (please). Imperative Command (request)• You ate the food. Declarative Statement

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Direct Speech Act

When the semantic meaning of a sentence is the same as what the speaker intended to convey , it is described as a direct speech act. For example, when a speaker doesn't know something and asks the hearer to provide the information, he or she will typically produce a direct speech act of the following type:

Can you ride a bicycle ?Did he come to class yesterday?

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Indirect Speech Act• Whenever one of the forms in the set above is used

to perform a function other than the one listed beside it, the result is an indirect speech act.

Now compare this utterance with “Can you pass the salt?

• In this second example, you would not usually understand the utterance as a question about your ability to do something. In fact, you would not treat this as a question at all. You would treat it as a request and perform the action requested.

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Words alone do not have a simple fixed meaning.They are very much affected by the situation, the speaker and the listener.

Speech act theory broadly explains these utterances :

1.Locutionary act : comprise simply the speech acts that have taken place.Two types of locutionary act – utterance acts : where something is said (or a sound is made) and

which may not have any meaning, example : Oh! - is an utterance (communication is not intended - it is just a sound caused by surprise).

– propositional acts : where a particular reference is made. Example:”The black cat ” (something is referenced, but no communication may be intended)

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• 2.llocutionary act: are the real actions which are performed by the utterance, where saying equals doing, as in betting, believe , dare, warning.etc.

Example:”I promise to pay you back”- is an illocutionary act (it intends to communicate)..

• 3.Perlocutionary acts: Speech acts that have an effect on the feelings, thoughts or actions of either the speaker or the listener. In other words, they seek to change minds!

• Example: “Please find the black cat ”- is a directive perlocutionary act (it seeks to change behaviour).

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Deixis • It refers to the phenomenon wherein understanding the

meaning of certain words and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information.

• There are some words in the language that cannot be interpreted at all unless the physical context, especially the physical context of the speaker, is known. These are words like here, there, this, that, now, then, yesterday,

• As well as most pronouns, such as I, you, him, her, them. Some sentences of English are virtually impossible to understand if we don't know who is speaking, about whom, where and when.

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For example:

“You'll have to bring that back tomorrow, because they aren't here now.”

• Out of context, this sentence is extremely vague. It contains a large number of expressions (you, that, tomorrow, they, here, now) which depend for their interpretation on the immediate physical context in which they were uttered. . These expressions have to be interpretted in terms of what person ,place or time the speaker has in mind.

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Person deixis

• Concerns with the grammatical persons involved in an utterance,

• (1) those directly involved (e.g. the speaker, the addressee),

• (3) those mentioned in the utterance

Generally indicated by pronouns• Examples:• I am going to the movies.• Would you like to have dinner?• They tried to hurt me, but he came to the rescue.

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Place Deixis• Concernsed with the spatial locations relevant to an utterance. Examples:• I enjoy living in this city.• Here is where we will place the statue. • She was sitting over there

Deictic terms are generally understood to be relative to the location of the speaker, as in

• “The shop is across the street.”“here” and “there” are often used to refer to locations near to and far from the speaker, • “Here is a good spot; it is too sunny over there.”“there” can also refer to the location of the addressee, • “How is the weather there? “In other languages, the distinction is three-way: proximal, i.e. near the speaker, medial, i.e. near the addressee, and distal, i.e. far from both • eg in Korean, Japanese, Thai, Filipino and Turkish

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Temporal deixis• Concerns itself with the various times involved in and referred

to in an utterance. • Example adverbs like "now", "then",

2 categories:• Encoding Time, or ET: Relative to the time when an utterance

is made "encoding time", or ET.• Decoding Time or DT: when the utterance is heard • Example: It is raining out now, but I hope when you read this

it will be sunny.

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Others:Discourse

• Also referred to as text deixis, indicates the use of expressions within an utterance to refer to parts of the discourse that contains the utterance . Example:

• Example: 1. Have you heard this joke? here “this” refers to an upcoming joke. 2.In the next chapter , in the next paragraph….etc

Social Deixis Social deixis concerns the social information that is encoded within various expressions, such as relative social status and familiarity T-V distinctions, named for the Latin “tu” and “vos” (informal and formal versions of “you”) are the name given to the phenomenon when a language has two different second-person pronouns. Example: in Shakespeare’s plays : a king – “Your Majesty”

or “you” while a peasant – “ thou”…. the T form might be used when speaking to a friend or social equal, whereas the V form would be used speaking to a stranger or social superior. In English, we also express status and attitude through titles, eg. Prof. , Dr.etc.

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Conversational maxims(Gricean maxims,1989)

The Gricean Maxims are a way to explain the link between utterances and what is understood from them. The success of a conversation depends upon the various speakers’ approach to the interaction.

Paul Grice proposes that in ordinary conversation, speakers and hearers share a cooperative principle. Speakers shape their utterances to be understood by hearers. The principle can be explained by four underlying rules or maxims.

1.Quality – speakers should be truthful.2. Quantity-a contribution should be as informative as is required neither

too little, nor too much.3. Manner – speakers’ contributions should be perspicuous: clear, orderly and

brief, avoiding obscurity and ambiguity.

4. Relevance – speakers’ contributions should relate clearly to the purpose of the exchange.

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Maxims are useful for analysing and interpreting conversation. Very often, we communicate particular non-literal meanings by appearing to "violate" or "flout" these maxims. Saying sarcastically and in a more humorous way.

• e.g. Background:• A friend's father considers whether or not to buy your friend a new car,

and you are aware that your friend's old car has broken down before. • A: Should I buy my son this new sports car? B Improper:

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, his car runs fine. B Proper:

I don't know if that's such a good idea, his car breaks down all the time.

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In analysing utterances and searching for relevance we can use a hierarchy of propositions – those that might be asserted, presupposed, entailed or inferred from any utterance.

• Presupposition:Your sister is waiting outside.Presupposition: You have a sister.

• Entailments – logical or necessary corollaries of an utterance.someone is waiting outside.

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Discourse analysis

Studies how written, oral and visual texts are used in specific contexts to make meanings, as opposed to analyzing language-as-an-abstract-system.

• Connective : a linguistic form that connectswords or word groups.1. Explicit connectives :and, because, when, so, etc2. implicit connectives : invisible / understood

• Attribution: Deciding whether the relation orarguments are ascribed to the writer of the textor to someone other than the writer.

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REFERENCEReference is an act in which a speaker, or writer,

uses linguistic forms to enable a listener, or reader, to identify something.

The categories of referring expressions1.Proper nouns2.Definite nouns3.Indefinite nouns4.Pronouns

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The categories of referring expressions

Proper nouns:

“Cairo” “ Hillary Clinton”

Definite noun phrases:

“the city” “the secretarry of state”

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Contd. noun phrases (indefinite): “A place” “A woman”

Pronouns:“It”

“she , her”

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It is important to recognize that not all referring expressions have identifiable physical referents. Indefinite noun phrases can be used to identify a physically present entity, but they can also be used to describe entities that are assumed to exist, but are unknown, or entities that, as far as we know, do not exist.

Example: We'd love to find a nine-foot-tallbasketball player

This is sometimes called an attributiveuse, meaning 'whoever/whatever fits

the description'.

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Make an inference1. The role of inference in communication is to allow the listener to identify correctly which particular entity the speaker is referring to.2.Because there is no direct relationship between entities and words, the listener’s task is to infer which entity the speaker intends to identify by using a particular expression:

Process: you read something, add what you know about it and then draw a conclusion

What I read + What I already know = What I infer

A character has tears in his eyes

People with tears in their eyes are often sad

The character might be sad

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The Role of Co-text

Identifying intended referents has been aided by the linguistic material, or co-text, accompanying the referring expression. The referring expression actually provides arange of reference, that is, a number of possible referents.For example:a)Cheese sandwich is made with white bread.b)The cheese sandwich left without paying.

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Anaphora and Antecedants “In the film, a man and a woman were trying to wash a cat. The man

was holding the cat while the woman poured water on it. He said something to her and they started laughing”.

In English, initial reference , is often indefinite (a man, a woman, a cat). In the example the definite noun phrases (the man, the cat, the woman) and the pronouns (it, he, her, they) are examples of subsequent reference.

The initial expressions antecedentsSubsequent references anaphors

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Zero anaphor

When the interpretation requires us to identify an entity, and no linguistic expression is presented, it is called zero anaphora, or ellipsis.

1. Peel an onion and slice it.2. Drop the slices into hot oil.3. Cook Æ for three minutes.Æ = ‘slices’, ‘them’.

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Anaphor and C-command

An anaphor must take its reference from an Appropriate antecedent Within the Same phrase Or sentence i.e. A bound Constituent must Be c-- commanded By an ‐appropriate antecedent.

There are three rule for A to c-command B:• A does not dominate B• B does not dominate A• Every branching node that dominates A, also dominates BThis in nutshell means that the domain of c-command is first

branching node.

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e.g. He hit himself.• In the following tree the

following holds • * A c-commands C, D, and

E. * B does not c-command

any nodes. * C c-commands A and F. * D c-commands E.

* E c-commands D.*F c-command C, D and E.

B / \ A C | / \

F D E

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Exercise:• 1- What are the deictic expressions in the following

utterance? I'm busy now so you can't do that here. Come back

tomorrow. • 2- Someone stands between you and the TV set you were

watching, so you decide to say one of the following. Identify which would be direct and which indirect speech acts.

(a) Move! (b) You're in the way. (c) Could you sit down? (d) Please get out of the way.

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Queries??...

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Queries??...