Pragmatic

PRAGMATICS:Meaning and content, and the intention to communicate.

* Pronouns and discourse* Deixis* Maxims of Conversation

Presented by:Hanin, Aisyah, Shaimimey

“Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social

interaction and the effects of our choice on others.”

(David Crystal)

“Pragmatics is all about the meanings between the lexis and the grammar and

the phonology…Meanings are implied and the rules being followed are

unspoken, unwritten ones.”

(George Keith)

• The study of what the speakers mean, or ‘speaker meaning’, is called

pragmatics. In many ways, pragmatics is the study of ‘invisible’ meaning, or

how we recognize what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or written.

• Pragmatics is the study of meaning of words, phrases and full sentences, but

unlike semantics which deals with the objective meanings of words that can

be found in dictionaries, pragmatics is more concerned with the meaning of

words in fact convey when they are used, or with intended speaker meaning

as it is sometimes referred to.

When a diplomat says yes, he means ‘perhaps’;

When he says perhaps, he means ‘no’;

When he says no, he is not a diplomat.

When a lady says no, she means ‘perhaps’;

When she says perhaps, she means ‘yes’;

When she says yes, she is not a lady.

Voltaire (Quoted, in Spanish, in Escandell 1993)

Physical context:• This encompasses what is physically

present around the speakers/hearers at the time of communication. What objects are visible, where the communication is taking place, and what is going on, etc.

Examples:• I want that book. (accompanied by

pointing)• Be here at 9:00 tonight. (place/time

reference)

Linguistics context:• What has been said before in the

conversation. The “history” of things said so far.

• Also known as co-text.

Examples:• I can’t believe you said that!

• If my mom heard you talk like that, she’d wash all your mouths out with soap!

You’ll have to bring it back tomorrow because she

isn’t here today.

???...

The word ‘deixis’ is a technical term (from Greek)for one of the most basic things

we do with utterances, which means ‘pointing’ via language.

Any linguistic form used to accomplish ‘pointing’ is called a deictic expression.

Deictic expressions are also known as indexical.

A speech event includes at least two persons:

• 1st person = the speaker

• 2nd person = addressee

If the two persons do not only refer to themselves while talking, there is a 3rd

person that does not has to take part in the conversation.

The pronouns for the 1st person : I – my – mine

The pronouns for the 2nd person : you – your – yours

Definite and specific pronouns : this, that, those or these

Indefinite and specific pronouns : somebody, something, who, what

Indefinite and non-specific pronouns : someone, something, nobody,

nothing

Concerns the locations relative to anchorage points in the speech event.

Locations can be specified relative to other objects.

Example: The station is two hundred yards from the college.

Locations can be specified relative to the location of participants.

Example: It’s two hundred yards away.

Some pure place-deictic words: here and there (adverbs); this and that

(demonstrative pronouns)

-Symbolic usage of here: pragmatically given unit of space that includes the

location of the speaker.

Example: I’m writing to say I’m having a marvelous time here.

Adverbs: here and there (contrast on a proximal/distal dimension)

-here: proximal (near) - there: distal (more distant)

Example: Bring that here and take this there.

Demonstrative pronouns are more clearly organized in a proximal/distal

dimension.

-this: the object in a pragmatically given area close to the speaker’s

location.

- that: the object beyond the pragmatically given area close to the speaker’s

location.

Directions: to the left from; to the right from

Motion verbs- signs of place deixis

-Come vs. go makes distinction between the direction of motion.

He’s coming – he is moving towards the speaker’s location.

He’s going – he is moving away from the speaker’s location.

I’m coming – the speaker is moving towards the location of the

addressee.

proximal 'now' indicates both the time coinciding with the

speaker's utterance and the time of the speaker's voice

being heard (the hearer's now)

• distal 'then' applies to both past and future time relative

to the speaker's present time

Examples:

November 22nd, 1963? I was in Scotland then.

Dinner at 8:30 on Saturday? Okay, I'll see you then

• all deictic expressions depend on knowing the relevant utterance time (Fillmore 1971).

– time the utterance was made = coding time (CT)– time the utterance is heard/read = receiving time (RT)

Deictic Simultaneity: CT = RT (normal verbal utterance situation)

• complication in written messages and pre-recordings of media programs

Back in an hourFree beer tomorrow In this case a decision has to be made about whether the deictic center remains on the speaker (and CT) or is projected on the addresse (and RT)

•Temporal events can be treated as objects that move toward

or away from us

Example:

i. This program is being recorded today, Wednesday April

1st , to be relayed next Thursday

ii. This program was recorded last Wednesday April 1st, to

be relayed today

iii. I write this letter while chewing peyote

iv. I wrote this letter while chewing peyote

choice of verb tense expresses temporal deixis:

o present tense is proximal:

Example: I live here now

o past/future are distal:

Examples: I lived there then

I will be in London by then

o conditional/unlikely event also treated as deictically

distant

Example: I could be in Hawaii (if I had a lot of

money)

Reference:

An act by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to

enable a listener (or reader) to identify something. These

are called referring expressions.

To perform an act of reference, we can use proper

nouns, noun phrases (definite and indefinite) and

pronouns.

a) Proper nouns:‘Mercedez-Benz’ ‘Sunway

Lagoon’

b) Noun phrases (definite) : ‘The school bus’ ‘The

badminton player’

c) Noun phrases (indefinite) :‘A vehicle’ ‘A girl’

d) Pronouns:‘It’ ‘He, him’

We can also refer to things when we are not sure what to call

them.

Examples:

i.The blue thing

ii.That icky stuff

Invent names:

Example: Mr Kawasaki

(a man who always drove his motorcycle fast

and loud through his neighborhood )

The choice of one type of referring

expression rather than another seems

to be based, to a large extent, on what

the speaker assumes the listener

already knows.

For successful referencereference to occur, we must also recognize the role of

inferenceinference..

What are inferences?What are inferences?

Inference:

Additional information used by listener to create a

connection between what is said and what must be

meant.

Listener makes inferences about what is said in

order to arrive at an interpretation of the speaker’s

intended meaning. The choice of one type of

referring expression rather than another seems to be

based on what the speaker assume the listener

already know.

Examples:

Situation: students are studying linguistics

Student 1: Can I look at your Chomsky?

Student 2: Sure, it’s on the shelf

Inference: If Chomsky is the name of a writer of a book, then

Chomsky must be used to identify a copy of a book by that writer.

Situation: a nurse comes to a doctor’s room

Nurse: The hernia in room 5 wants to talk to you

Doctor: Sure, let’s go there

Inference: If hernia is a name of a disease, then hernia must be

referred to a patient suffering hernia.

Practices:

Make an inference to interprete each of these

utterance.

A boy: We saw Shakespeare in London

Waiter: The ham sandwich left without paying

Dentist: My eleven-thirty canceled so I had an early

lunch

Teacher: Picasso is in the museum

A girl: Jennifer is wearing Calvin Klein

In English, initial reference is often indefinite. The definite noun phrases and

the pronouns are examples of subsequent reference to already introduced referents, generally known as anaphoric reference, 

or anaphora. In technical terms, the second or subsequent expression is the anaphora

and the initial expression is the antecedent.

1. After the initial introduction of some entity, speakers will use various expressions to maintain reference:

Example:

“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”

• a man the man he a man the man he • a woman the woman she a woman the woman she • he + she they he + she they

Anaphoric reference

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

The use of zero anaphora clearly creates an expectation that the listener will be able to infer who or what the speaker intends to identify

Example:

“Peel an onion and slice it. Drop the slices into hot oil. Cook for three minutes.”

3. The connection between an antecedent and

anaphoric expression can also be created with the use of

other nouns that are related to the antecedent by inference.

Example:

We found a house to rent, but the kitchen was very small

I caught a bus and asked the driver if it went near the

downtown area.

We have used the term ‘inference’ to

describe what the listener (or reader)

does. When we talk about an

assumption made by the speaker (or

writer), we usually talk about a

‘presupposition’

•What a speaker (or writer) assumes it true or known

by a listener (or reader) can be described as

presupposition.

Examples:

o Your brother is waiting outside

o Why did you arrive late?

o When did you stop smoking?

Discourse analysis is about how we make sense

of what we read, how we can recognize well-

constructed text as opposed to those that are

jumbled or incoherent, how we understand speakers

who communicate more than they say, and how we

successfully take part in that complex activity called

conversation .

The word ‘discourse’ is usually defined as

‘language beyond the sentence’ and the analysis of

discourse is typically concerned with the study of

language in text and conversation.

• Trains collide, two die (newspaper headline)

• No shoes, no services (on shop windows in summer)

• My Town, My natal was in a small town, very close to Riyadh capital of Saudi Arabia. The distant between my town and Riyadh 7 miles exactly. The name of this Almasani that means in English Factories. It takes this name from the peopl’s carrer. In my childhood I remember the people live. It was very simple. Most the people was farmer. (sample essay by a student learning English)

• Ties or connection that exist within texts• Also known as cohesive ties • Example:

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he could.

That car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my

college education. Sometimes I think I’d rather had the convertible.

father – he – he – hemy – my – ILincoln – ita Lincoln convertible – that car – the convertiblebought – saving – penny- worth a fortune – sold – payonce – nowadays - sometimes

However, by itself, cohesion would not be sufficient to enable us to make sense

of what we read. It is quite easy to create a highly cohesive text that has a lot of

connections between the sentences, but is very difficult to interpret. Note that the

following text has connections such as Lincoln-the car, red-that colour, her-she,

letter-a letter

My father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car driven by the police was red. That

colour doesn’t suit her. She consists of three letters. However, a letter isn’t as fast as a

telephone call.

It becomes clear from this type of example that the ‘connectedness’ we

experience in our interpretation of normal texts is not simply based on

connections between words. There must be some other factors that leads us to

distinguish connected texts that make sense from those that do not.

• The key to the concept of coherence (everything fitting together well) is not

something that exists in words or structures, but something that exists in people.

• It is people who ‘make sense’ of what they read or hear. They try to arrive at an

interpretation that is in line with their experience of the way the world is.

•Example:

HER: That’s the telephone

HIM: I’m in bath

HER: O.K

• English conversation can be described as an activity in which for the most part, two or more people take turns in speaking.

• Only one person speaks at a time and there tends to be avoidance of silence between speaking turns.

• If more than one participants try to talk at the same time, one of them usually stops, as in the following example

• Example:

A: Didn’t you [know wh-B: [But he must’ve been there by twoA: Yes but you knew he was going

Completion points:

• The speakers can mark their turns as complete:

i) by asking question

ii) by pausing at the end of a completed syntactic

structure like a phrase or a sentence

• The listeners can indicate that they want to take the

speaking turn:

i) by making short sounds, usually repeated

ii) use body shift or facial expressions to signal that

they have something to say

‘rudeness’ – if one speaker cuts in on another speaker‘shyness’ – if one speaker keeps waiting for an opportunity to take a turn and none seems to occur

• The participants characterized as ‘rude’ or ‘shy’ in this way may simply be adhering to slightly different conventions of turn-taking

• One way ‘to keep the turn’ is:i)don’t pause at the end of a sentence, make your sentence run on using connectors like and, then, so, but,…

ii) place your pauses at points where the message is clearly incomplete, and preferably ‘fill’ the pause with a hesitation marker such as er, em, ur, ah,…

Example 1:

Pauses (marked by …) are placed before and after verbs rather than at the end of sentences

A: that’s their favourite restaurant because they… enjoy French food and when they were… in France they couldn’t believe it that… you know that they had… that they had better meals back home

Example 2:

Speaker X produces filled pauses (with em, er, you know) after having almost lost the turn at his first brief hesitation

X: well that film really was… [wasn’t that he was good atY: [when di-X: I mean his other… em his later films were much more … really more in the romantic style and that was more what what he was… you know… em best at doingY: so when did he make that one

• Make your contribution as

informative as is required, but

not more, or less than is

required.

Example 1:

A girl: Do you have the time?A man: Yes, it’s 9:30

• One finds this normal because the maxim is observed• The man contribute only as much information as required-not excessive like: “it’s 9:30 at night, Greenwich Mean Time, 20 May 2009,…”- not inadequate like: “it’s night time”

Example 2:

Jenny: Liz, can I have John’s number?Liz: Yes

Despite her positive answer, we find Liz’s behaviour is weird because the maxim is violated.

Less information is provided than is required

• Do not say what you believe to be false

• Do not say that for which you lack of adequate evidences

Example 1:

Sophia : Jim, do you know where the Big Ben Clock Tower is?Jim : It’s in London

• This is normal because the maxim is observed.

Jim does not contribute what he believes to be false and to be unsubstantiated. (e.g: It’s in Hong Kong)

Example 2:

Mary: Jenny, how do you like this novel?Jenny: Oh, I like the red cover

• Jenny’s reply strange because the maxim is violated.

Jenny says something that evidently she does not believes in (she told a lie)

• Be relevant

• Example 1:

Waiter: How do you like your steak cooked?Customer: Medium rare, please.

• One finds this normal because the maxim is observed• The woman contributes what is relevant for the purpose of conversation.

• The maxim is violated if the answer given is irrelevant e.g: I like steak very much.

What nice weather!

• Be clear, brief and orderly

• Avoid obscurity of expression

• Avoid ambiguity

Example 1:

A: What did Laura do when she heard Lauri’s boat had arrived?B: Laura jumped and ran to the pier.

One finds this conversation normal because the maxim is observed

Example 2:

A: What did Laura do when she heard Lauri’s boat had arrived?B: Laura ran to the pier and jumped.

One find this conversation bewildering because the maxim is violated.

For each of the following conversational excerpts, name a maxim that has been violated and explain how.

1.I’m a millionaire (actually I’m penniless)

2. Don’t be silly. I love working 80 hours a week with no vacations

3. Dr. Kawashima received his Ph.D in 1986, his B.A in 1980, and his M.A in 1982.

4. John: When am I going to get back the money I lent you? David: Boy, it’s hot in here

5. Patient: What should I do to get rid of this awful headache, doctor/Doctor: Take some medicine

6. Customer: Excuse me, how much is this screwdriver?Seller: $9.95. The saw is $39.50, and the power drill there on

the table is $89.00

Book:

i)The Study of Language

Internet:

i)http://www.ling.ohio-state-edu/~kdk/201/spring02/slides/pragmatics-4up.pdf

ii)http://ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/~jilka/index.html

iii)www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/pragmatics.htm

iv)www.kwary.net/maxim-of-conversation

v)Drshadiabanjar.blogspot.com/2009/03/pragmatics-definitions-and-

backgrounds.html

vi)Drshadiabanjar.blogspot.com/2009/03/deixis-and-distance.html