pragmatics georgeyule-

PRAGMATICS – George Yule

1. DEFINITIONS AND BACKGROUND

• “The study of contextual meaning communicated by a speaker or writer, and interpreted by a listener or reader.” (G.Yule)

• “The study of the relation of signs to their interpreters.” (Charles Morris)

• “The study of the relations between linguistic forms and its users(…)Only pragmatics allows humans into the analysis: their assumptions, purposes, goals, and actions they perform while speaking.” (G.Yule)

PRAGMATICS IS…

1- THE STUDY OF SPEAKER MEANING WHAT PEOPLE MEAN by their

utterances rather than what the words or phrases might mean by themselves.

2- The study of contextual meaning

• Importance of the CONTEXT: the circumstances and the audience or public.

3-The study of how more gets communicated than said.

A great deal of what is UNSAID is recognized as part of what is communicated.

• The study of “invisible meaning”

IN OTHER WORDS…

PRAGMATICS studies HOW PEOPLE MAKE SENSE OF EACH OTHER LINGUISTICALLY.

For example: A: So_ did you?B: Hey_ who wouldn’t?Two friends in a conversation may imply some

things and infer some others without providing any clear linguistic evidence. So, pragmatics requires us to make sense of what people have in mind.

2.DEIXIS• DEIXIS: “pointing via

langauge” To accomplish this

pointing we use deictic expressions or indexicals.

i.e: “What’s that?” (used to indicate sth. in the immediate context.)

Deictic expressions depend on the speaker and hearer sharing the same spatial context, in face-to face spoken interaction.

SPATIAL DEIXISForms used to point to

LOCATIONi.e: “Here” and “There” “Come”

and “Go”

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCEWhen speakers mark how

close or distant something is perceived to be.

i.e: “That man over there” implies psychological distance.

DEICTIC PROJECTION: when speakers act as if they are somewhere else.

i.e: “I´m not here now.” (telephone answering machine)

Recording is a performance for a future audience in which I project my presence to be in the required location.

TEMPORAL DEIXIS

Forms used to point to location in time.i.e: “now” - “then”In contrast to now, the distal expression

then applies to both past and future time relative to the speaker’s present time.

i.e: “I was in Scotland then”“I’ll see you then”

3. REFERENCEREFERENCE: an act in which a speaker or writer, uses

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

Words in themselves do not refer anything. People refer.REFERRING EXPRESSIONS: linguistic forms like

proper nouns, definite or indefinite noun phrases, and pronouns.

The choice of one type of these expressions rather than another is based on what the speaker assumes the listener already knows.

FOR EXAMPLE:

“Look at him” (use of pronoun)“The woman in red” (definite article)“A woman was looking at you” (indefinite

article and pronoun) So, reference is tied to the speaker’s

goals and beliefs about the listener knowledge in the use of language.

INFERENCE

Reference is a key process, is additional information used by the listener to create a connection between what is said and what must be meant.

For example

• If we say "That Picasso is in the museum", we mean that there is a Picasso´s picture inside that museum.

ANAPHORIC REFERENCE

The expressions used to maintain reference to something or someone already mentioned.

i.e: “A man was looking at us. He then disappeared.”

The initial reference is often indefinite (A man…) and is called the ANTECEDENT.

The subsequent reference is definite or a prononun (He…) and is called ANAPHORA.

6. SPEECH ACTS and EVENTS

• Actions performed via utterances are called Speech Acts.

In English they are commonly known as: apology, compliment, complaint, invitation, promise, or request and apply to the speaker’s communicative intention.

For example:

“This tea is really cold!”

This utterance can be interpreted as a complaint or as a praise, depending on the circumstances. (If it is winter or summer, a cold or a hot day, etc.)

SPEECH ACTS

1- The locutionary act: the basic act of utterance which produces a meaningful linguistic expression.

If you have difficulty in producing a meaningful utterance (because it’s a foreign language or you’re tongue-tied), then you might fail to produce a locutionary act.

Aha mokof

a

WHAT??

2. ILLOCUTIONARY ACT• The communicative force of an utterance.

We form an utterance with some kind of function in mind:

An offer, a statement, a promise, a threat, etc.

3. THE PERLOCUTIONARY ACT:

The effect of an utterance

Take the next utterance and state the illocutionary act/force.

“ I’ll see you later”

How can the speaker assume that the intended illocutionary force wil be

recognized by the hearer?

IFIDs: Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices

Felicity Conditions

IFIDs Felicity ConditionsThe most common IFIDs

are performative verbs: verbs that explicitly name the illocutionary act being performed.

i.e: “I promise you that…”“I warn you that…”“I predict that…”

Certain expected or appropiate circumstances for a speech act to be recognized as intended.

i.e: “ I sentence you to six months of prison”

If the speaker wasn’t a judge in a court, this performance would be infelicitous or inappropiate.

OTHER IFIDs Other Felicity conditions

Word order Stress Intonationi.e: “You’re going!” (I tell

you)

“You’re going?”( I request confirmation)

“Are you going?”( I ask you if)

General Conditions: on the participants, for example, that they can understand the same language, and that they aren’t play-acting or being non-sensical.

• Content Conditions: for example, a promise must be about a future event.

Preparatory Conditions: specific requirements prior to an utterance in order for it to count as a

particular speech act.

Sincerity conditions: requirements on the genuine intentions of a speaker.

For example: for a promise, the speaker genuinely intends to carry out the future action.

The essential Condition:A requirement that the utterance commits

the speaker to the act performed.

The utterance changes my state from non-obligation to obligation.

Speech Act Classification1- DECLARATIONS: speech acts that change the

world via an utterance. The speaker has to have a specific role, in a specific context, in order to perform a declaration appropiately.

• “I now pronounce you husband and wife” (Priest)

• “You’re out” (referee)

2- REPRESENTATIVES: speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the

case or not.

Statements of fact, assertions, conclusions, descriptions, etc.

• “The Earth is flat.”

• “Chomsky didn’t write about peanuts”.

3- EXPRESSIVES: speech acts that state what the speaker feels.

They express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy, or sorrow.

• “I’m really sorry!”

• “Congratulations!”

4- DIRECTIVES: speech acts used to get someone else to do sth.

They express what the speaker wants. They are: commands, orders, requests, suggestions. They can be positive or negative.

• “Gimme a cup of coffee. Make it black”.• “Don’t touch that”.• “Could you lend me a pen, please?”

5- COMMISSIVES: speech acts used by speakers to commit themselves to some future action.

They are: promises, threats, refusals, pledges, etc.

• “ I’ll be back”.

• “We are going to get it right next time.”

• “We won’t do that”.

DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

• DIRECT: when there’s a direct relationship between the structure (declarative, interrogative, imperative) and its communicative function (statement, question, commnad/request.)

• INDIRECT: Indirect relation between the structure and function.

Example of indirect speech acts:

• “Move out of the way!” – (the only direct command.)

• “Do you have to stand in front of the T.V?”(A question functioning as an indirect command)

• “You’re standing in front of the T.V!”.( a declarative functioning as an indirect request)

7. POLITENESS and INTERACTION

• A linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction.

• We take part in a wide range of interactions, mostly with strangers, where the social distance determined by external factors is dominant.

• However, there are other factors, like amount of imposition or degree of friendliness, which are often negotiated.

POLITENESS• “Polite social behaviour” within a culture. We

assume that participants in an interaction are generally aware of such cultural norms and principles of politeness.

Face: the public self-image of a person. It refers to that emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects the other sto recognize.

Politeness in an interaction can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face.

Examples of social distance: respect or deference

“Excuse, Mr. Buckingham, can I talk to you for a second?”

Social closeness: friendliness, camaraderie, or solidarity.

“Hey, Bucky, got a minute?”

Face Wants: A person’s expectations that their pulic self-image will be respected.

• If a speaker says sth. that represents a threat to another individual’s expectations, regarding self-image, it’s described as a face-threatening act.

• When someone says an utterance that avoids a potential threat t a person’s face, it’s called face-saving act.

Example

A: “I’m going to tell him to stop that awful noise right now!!” (Face-threatening act)

B: “Perhaps you could just ask him if he’s going to stop because it’s getting late and we need to sleep…” (Face- saving act)

Self and Other: Say nothingImagine you arrive at a lecture but you’ve

forgotten a pen to take your notes. You think that teh person next to you may provide the solution.

In this scenario, you’re going to be SELF, and the person next to you OTHER.

You: (look in bag, rummage in, search in pockets)

The Other: “Here, use this.”

That was called a “Say nothing approach”

• Without uttering a word, you have the intention that your problem will be recognized.

• Many people prefer to have their needs recognized by others wihout having to express those needs in langauge.

• When those needs are in fact recognized, more has been communicated than was said.

Say something: Off and On record

“Uh, I forgot my pen”“Hmm, I wonder where I put my pen”These statements are not directly addressed

t the other. The other can act as if they have not even been heard.

Off record expressions: utterances notdirectly addressed t another one.

On record experssions: are direct address froms.

“Give me a pen” “Lend me your pen”These are known as bald on record-

they’re the most direct approach, like the use of imperatives.

Would you lend me a pen, please?” Here we use mitigating devices, like would and please, that soften the demand.