Chapter 6 Pragmatics. Outline Introduction Micropragmatics Macropragmatics.

Chapter 6 Pragmatics

Outline

Introduction

Micropragmatics

Macropragmatics

Objectives:

To have a general view of pragmatics

To get well-informed about the theories of pragmatics

To develop your awareness of the use of language in linguistic communication

1. The definitions of pragmatics

Some definitions of pragmatics: ---- the study of all those aspects of

meaning not captured in a semantic theory.

---- the study of the relations between language and context that are basic to an account of language understanding.

---- the study of linguistic acts and the contexts in which they are performed.

(To be continued)

1. The definitions of pragmatics

Some definitions of pragmatics:

---- the study of language use and linguistic communication.

---- study of how utterances have meanings in situations.

---- the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.

---- the study of meaning in the context in which language is used.

2. The difference between pragmatics and semantics

Pragmatics and semantics study meaning at different levels.

Semantics----linguistic meaning (word meaning and sentence meaning) which is the conceptual meaning, abstract meaning and context-independent meaning;

Pragmatics----utterance’s or speaker's meaning, which is the meaning in language use and which is context dependent and concrete.

3. The notion of context

Contexts---- linguistic context and non- linguistic context.

1) Linguistic context ---- what occurs before and/or after a word, a phrase or even a longer utterance.

Three subtypes: Lexical context ---- grammatical

context ---- verbal context

3. The notion of context

2) Non-linguistic context ---- he broader situation in which a linguistic item is used. It may consist of three kinds of knowledge: background knowledge, context of situation, and mutual knowledge.

Three subtypes: Background knowledge ---- context of

situation ---- mutual knowledge

4. Sentence meaning and utterance meaning

sentence meaning ---- abstract, and de-contextualized

utterance meaning ---- concrete, and context-dependent

Utterance meaning is based on sentence meaning; it is the realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context.

6.2 Micropragmatics

1. Micropragmatics and macropragmatics

1) Micropragmatics ---- the study of the meaning of a linguistic item in smaller contexts;

Such as reference, deixis, anaphora, presupposition, etc

2) Macropragmatics ---- the study of language user interaction or the mechanisms by which the intended meanings are communicated.

2. Reference and inference

1) Reference ---- the act by which a speaker or writer uses language to enable a hearer or reader to identify something.

2) Inference ---- any additional information used by the hearer to connect what is said to what must be meant.

3. Deixis

1) What is deixis? Deixis is a technical term which

means “pointing” via language. Any linguistic form used to accomplish this “pointing” is called deictic expression, deictics or sometimes an indexical.

3. Deixis

2) Classification of deixis: Five types: Person deictics----identify

participants in the discourse, mainly consist of personal pronouns.

Time deixis----the function of lexemes and grammatical means to encode time relative to the time at which an utterance is produced.

(To be continued)

3. Deixis

2) Classification of deixis: Place dectics---- indicate the spatial

relations between the speaker and the referred object or place.

Discourse dectics----showing relations of utterances containing them to other parts of the discourse

Social dectics----indicating social status of the participants in a discourse, and their relations determined thereupon.

(Continued)

4. Presuppositions

1) Some definitions of presuppositions

---- any kind of background assumption against which an expression or utterance makes sense or is rational;

---- the conditions that must be met in order for the intended meaning of a sentence to be regarded as acceptable;

(To be continued)

4. Presuppositions

1) Some definitions of presuppositions (Continued)

---- the set of conditions that have to be satisfied in order for the intended speech act to be appropriate in the circumstances.

---- shared background information of interlocutors.

4. Presuppositions

2) presupposition triggers: ---- Definite descriptions e.g. My boyfriend is a rich

man.----I have a boyfrind ---- Factive verbs or adjective

phrases e.g. I am glad that you have

come----you have come.

(To be continued)

4. Presuppositions

2) presupposition triggers: ---- Implicative verb e.g. He managed to pass the

exam----he tried to pass the exam.

---- Change-of-state verbs e.g. He stopped smoking

cigarettes last year.----he had smoked before.

(To be continued)

(Continued)

4. Presuppositions

2) presupposition triggers: ---- Iteratives e.g. He promised to write

again----he had written it before. ---- Verbs of judging e.g. John criticized Jane for being

careless----Jane was/had been careless.

(To be continued)

(Continued)

4. Presuppositions

2) presupposition triggers: ---- Temporal clauses and phrases e.g. After his father dies/After his

father’s death he became penniless----His father died.

---- Cleft sentence e.g. What I needed was two extra

days----I needed something

(To be continued)

(Continued)

4. Presuppositions

2) presupposition triggers: ---- Non-restricted attributive

clauses e.g. John, who visited China last

year, is fond of Chinese tea----John has been to China twice.

---- counterfactual conditions e.g. John could have passed the

exam if he didn’t get too nervous----John got too nervous.

(To be continued)

(Continued)

4. Presuppositions

2) presupposition triggers: ---- Questions e.g. What are you thinking

about?----You are thinking about something.

---- Comparisons and contrasts e.g. Carol is a better linguist

than Barbara----Barbara is a linguist.

(Continued)

6.3 Macropragmatics

1. Speech act theory 1) Constaives and performatives --- Constative is saying sth;

performative is doing sth ---- Perf can be modified by “hereby”,

while Constative can not ---- Constative has truth value; while

Performative can only be said appropriate

e.g I watch TV every evening. (constative)

I advise you to give up smoking. (performative)

1. Speech act theory

2) Explicit Performatives and Implicit Performatives

Explicit performative: A sentences which contains a performative verb that obviously shows the speech act the sentence performs.

Implicit performative: A sentence which contains no performative verb and the speech act the sentence performs is determined by the context.


3) Speech act theory A speaker, while making an

utterance, is, in most cases, performing three acts simultaneously. In other words, when we use language we characteristically intend to do three things: (1)we say something; (2)we indicate how we intend the hearer to take what we have said; and (3) we have definite effects on the hearer as a result.


Locutionary act---- the act of saying something.

uttering the sentence to express the literal meaning

Illocutionary act---- the act performed in saying something.

expressing the speaker’s intention by the literal meaning

Perlocutionary act---- the act by saying something

the results or effects that are produced by means of saying something.

e.g. It’s cold in here.


4) Types of illocutionary acts: Five types classified by Searle: Representatives ---- stating or

describing, saying what the speaker believes to be true

e.g. It was a warm sunny day. Chomsky didn’t write about

peanuts.

(To be continued)


4) Types of illocutionary acts: (Continued) Directives ---- trying to get the hearer to

do something e.g. Give me a cup of coffee. Make it

black. Could you lend me a pen, please? Commissives ---- committing the speaker

himself to some future course of action e.g. I will bring you the book tomorrow

without fail. We will not do that.

(To be continued)


4) Types of illocutionary acts: (Continued)

Expressives ---- expressing feelings or attitude towards an existing state

e.g. I’m sorry for the mess I have made. It’s really kind of you to have thought

of me. Declarations ---- bringing about

immediate changes by saying something e.g. I now declare the meeting open. I fire you.


5) Indirect speech act theory Speech acts are performed

indirectly through the performance of another speech act.

For example, if a robber says to his victim “I advise you to give me all in your pocket”, he is not really advising, but threatening.


Two types of indirect speech acts: a) conventional indirect speech acts ---- those illocutionary acts which are

customarily and standardly used to make indirect speech acts. A typical examples are:

Can you pass me the salt? Would you mind sitting down over

there? Could you please just sign this paper? I would be appreciate it if you could be

a little quieter, please. (To be continued)


Two types of indirect speech acts: (Continued)

b) Non-conventional indirect speech acts

---- More complicated and indeterminable than the conventional ones in that they may depend much more on the mutual shared background information and the context of situation.

A: Will you go to the party with us? B: I hear Mary is going too.

2. The Cooperative Principle and its maxims

The Cooperative Principle and its maxims

Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.

The four maxims:


(1) Maxim of Quality ----try to make a contribution one that is true, i.e.

i) Do not say what you believe to be false.

ii) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.


(2) Maxim of Quantity----try to make your contribution one that is informative. It also has two sub-maxims:

i) Make your contribution to the conversation as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange).

ii) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.


(3) Maxim of Relevance----“be relavant”.

In other words, the speaker has to make sure that whatever he or she says is relavant to the conversation at hand.


(4) Maxim of Manner----be perspicuous. It includes at least the following four sub-maxims:

i) Avoid obscurity of expressions.

ii) Avoid ambiguity. iii) Be brief (avoid unnecessary

prolixity). iv) Be orderly.


To put the CP in a simple way, these four categories of cooperative principle and their attendant maxims describe what participants usually do, either consciously or subconsciously, in order to get along with each other to make efficient use of language in talk exchanges. To do so, they have to be informative, truthful, relevant and clear. The listener will normally assume that the speaker is following these criteria.

3. Conversational Implicature

1) What is implicature? --- what a speaker implies, suggests

or means as distinct from what he literally says, e.g.

a) He’s a Chinese, but doesn’t play table tennis.

Implicature: Chinese play table tennis

b) 甲：下午踢球吧！乙：上午在换草皮。 ( 含义：下午没法踢球 )


2) What is conversational implicature? ---- a message that is not found in the

plain sense of the sentence. The speaker implies it. The hearer is able to infer this message in the utterance, by appealing to the rules governing successful conversational interaction.

According to Grice’s theory of conversational implicature, conversational implicature arises through the violation/use of the cooperative principle and its maxims.


3) illustrations of the maxims violations

a) The violation of maxim of Quantity The maxim requires the speaker to

provide as much information as necessary, not too much and not too little. If it is violated, then the speaker must intend to convey sth more than what he says, e.g

A: Where have you been? B: Out. (Implicature: It’s none of

your business)


b) The violation of the maxim of Quality

The maxim requires the speaker speak sincerely.

A: What will you do if you fail the exam?

B: I’ll eat my hat. (Implicature: It is impossible for me to fail the exam)


c) the violation of the maxim of Relevance

A: Smith doesn’t seem to have a girlfriend these days.

B: He has been paying a lot of visit to New York lately.

(Implicature: He has or may have a girlfriend in NY)


d) the violation of the maxim of Manner

Lady: (standing in the middle of a busy street) Officer, can you tell me how to get to the hospital?

Policeman: Just stand where you are and you’ll find out how to get to the hospital.

(Implicature: Don’t stand here. It’s dangerous)


4) Characteristics of conversational implicature:

cancellability ---- the implicatures are cancellable

if we add some other premises to the original ones.

non-detachability ---- the implicature is attached to

the semantic content of what is said, not to the linguistic form used.

(To be continued)


4) Characteristics of conversational implicature: (Continued)

non-conventionality ---- the implicatures are the property

of utterances, not of sentences. indeterminacy ---- Utterance may have different

conversational implicatures depending on the different hypotheses made by the speaker and the hearer

(To be continued)


4) Characteristics of conversational implicature: (Continued)

calculability ---- the implicatures can be

worked out through inference. context-dependency ---- the implicature has to be

inferred from the particular situation of the utterance

4. The Politeness Principle

1) Politeness Politeness can be understood as

a social phenomenon. Politeness in an interaction is defined as a means one employs to show awareness of another person’s face (the public self-image of a person) or to achieve good interpersonal relationships.


Two factors that may affect the achievement of politeness:

social distance ---- whether the speaker and hearer are quite distant from each other socially.

social closeness ---- whether the speaker and the hearer are quite close to each other socially.


2) The principle of politeness Principle of politeness: to be

polite, one needs to minimize (other things being equal) the expression of impolite beliefs and maximize (other things being equal) the expression of polite beliefs.


The Politeness Principle is also defined in terms of some maxims. And each maxim is accompanied by a sub-maxim or we may say the maxims tend to go in pairs as follows:

(I) Tact Maxim (i) Minimize cost to other (ii) Maximize benefit to other (II) Generosity Maxim (i) Minimize benefit to self (ii) Maximize cost to self

(To be continued)


(III) Approbation Maxim (i) Minimize dispraise of other (ii) Maximize praise of other] (IV) Modesty Maxim (i) Minimize praise of self (ii) Maximize dispraise of self

(To be continued)


(V) Agreement Maxim (i) Minimize disagreement

between self and other 尽量减少双方的分歧

(ii) Maximize agreement between self and other] 尽量增加双方的一致

(VI) Sympathy Maxim (i) Minimize antipathy between

self and other (ii) Maximize sympathy between

self and other]


Of the twinned maxims (I) – (IV), (I) appears to be a more constraint on conversational behaviour than (II), and (III) than (IV). This, if true, reflects a general law that politeness is focused more strongly on other than on self.

Moreover, within each maxim, sub-maxim (b) seems to be less important than sub-maxim (a), and this again illustrates the more general law that negative politeness (avoidance of discord) is a more weighty consideration than positive politeness (seeking concord).


One further difference in importance should be noted, although it is not reflected in the form of the maxims: politeness towards an addressee is generally more important than politeness towards a third party.


3) Ignorance of the principle Note that although politeness is

dominant in social interaction, the politeness principle and maxims can be ignored in some situations, such as:

a) in times of emergency, as in “Stop! Stop!” or when the primary concern is the efficiency of communication rather than the face, as in “Take the medicine every four hours, with a maximum of four times a day.”

(To be continued)


b) when the threat to the hearer’s face is minor or none, as in “If any further information is needed, don’t hesitate to contact me.”

c) when the speaker has authority over the hearer, as in “(Father to son) Shut the door.”

d) when the speaker and the hearer are in intimate relation, as in “(husband to wife) Wait here. I’ll fetch some water.”

Chapter 6 Pragmatics. Outline Introduction Micropragmatics Macropragmatics.

Documents

abstract meaning

linguistic meaning word

conceptual meaning

context of situation

non linguistic context

lexical context

grammatical context

context dependent