Speech Acts Pragmatics Conversational maximsraha/306a_web/08-downloadfiles/PragmaticsF... · Speech Act? Would you? Could you? In a box? Could you? Would you? With a fox? Obligative

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English 306A; Harris 1

Pragmatics

Interpersonal functionAustinian Speech ActsGricean Conversational Principles


Speech Acts

Sam-I-Am’sbeen here.

I can’t find any whisky!

Conversational maxims


Functions

Ideational function:What does “The cat is on the mat” mean as an expression in

the system of English?How?

Denotation, truth conditions, event schemata, semantic roles, …

Interpersonal function:What does “The cat is on the mat” mean to hearer X, when

said by speaker Y, in context Z?How?

Speech acts, conversational maxims, face principles, deixis, …


Functions

Ideational function:What does “The cat is on the mat” mean as an expression in

the system of English?How?

Denotation, truth conditions, event schemata, semantic roles, …

Interpersonal function:What does “The cat is on the mat” mean to hearer X, when

said by speaker Y, in context Z?How?

Speech acts, conversational maxims, face principles, deixis, …

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Meaning

SemanticsPropositionsTruth/falsityContext-freeLanguage-in-vitro

PragmaticsUtterancesAppropriatenessContext-dependentLanguage-in-vivo


Ideational function

What we’ve been studying to this point:Language from the perspective of encoding ideas, and the mechanicsof transmitting those ideas, within the system of a language.


Interpersonal function

Language from the perspective of making andmaintaining human contact, so we cancoöperate, negotiate, decide, get along, buildbridges, and generally function as socialanimals.



A supplement to the ideational function—not asubstitute—but a crucial supplement.

The ideational function is necessary, but notsufficient.

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Phatic communionsocial contact

Communicativemental contact



Interpersonal functionPhatic

The use of language to establish or maintainsocial relations

Sam!


Phatic

Utterances whosechief function is toestablish or maintaincontact; much likecanine gluteus-maximus reciprocalolfactory analysis.

Hi, Hello, yo, …How are you, How’s it going,

How’s it hanging, …Live long and prosper, Keep

on truckin, Keep it real, …Nice weather, Cold enough

for you?, Hope the raindon’t hurt the rhubarb, ….


Interpersonal functionCommunicative

The use of language to encode and transmitintentions

I will try them. You will see.

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Wait! Hold the presses.That sounds like theideational function!What gives?




Not quite. Notice theword is “intentions,”not “ideas”.




Take, for instance, theutterance, If you will let me be,I will try them. You will see.

Ideationally, it’s just a pair ofpropositions.

Communicatively, it’s asurrender, a capitulation, acollapse of my resolve, and aprediction that I won’t like yourdamn viridescent chow!


Communicative

Utterances whosechief function is toshare mental contents

InformationAttitudesWorldviews

The cat is on the mat.Homer eats crap.Huh?Try them, try them, and you

may, I say.My kingdom for a horse.Please put the lid back down.Put the F&^#ing lid down!e = mc2

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Phatic and Communicative

=Sam!If you will letme be, I will try them. You will see.


Phatic and Communicative

Every utterance has bothphatic and communicativedimensions.


Speech Acts & Conversational Maxims

J. L. AustinPeople do things with words beyond assertingtruth. We act through speech.

H.P. GriceThe way people coordinate theirspeech is very intricate. We follow maxims.


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Speech acts

Locutionthe utterance of a sentence withspecific denotation

Illocutionthe making of a statement, offer,promise, …

Perlocutionthe bringing about of effects onthe audience by means of utteringa sentence (persuading,entertaining, scaring, …)



Illocutionthe making of a statement, offer,promise, …


Speech acts



Illocution= the speech act


Speech acts


Illocutions/Speech Acts

statement

statement

statementconfirmation

despisement

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Acts through speech

Offer, decline, accept, promise, bet, warn, threaten,suggest, advise, declare, marry, christen, compliment,insult, joke, …

Try them! Try them!Try them and you may

I say!

Sam!If you will let me be, I

will try them. You will see. English 306A; Harris 26

Performative verbs

Verbs which describethe action speakersperform with thecorrespondingsentences.

They do not needto be present;diagnostics.


Performative verbs

ask, tell, describe,state, …

promise, advise,request, …

pronounce,christen,sentence, …


ask, tell, describe,state, …

promise, advise,request, …

pronounce,christen,sentence, …

Performative verbs

Informative

Obligative

Constitutive

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Performative verbs—informativeask, tell, describe, assert, …

I ask you: is the cat onthe mat?

I’m telling you, the catis on the mat.

I assert: the cat is onthe mat.


Performative verbs—obligativepromise, advise, request, …

I promise you: the catis on the mat.

I advise you: the cat ison the mat.

I request of you: putthe cat on the mat.


Performative verbs—constitutivepronounce, christen, sentence, …

I pronounce youhusband and wife.

I christen this vesselthe Good ShipLollipop.

I sentence you tothirty days in thehole.


Performative acts withoutperformative verbsSpeech acts withoutperformative verbs

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Speech acts withoutperformative verbs

I ask you, is the cat onthe mat?

ORIs the cat on the mat?

OR

The cat is on the mat?


Speech acts withoutperformative verbs

I’m sorry.vs.

I apologize.

I’m sorry for The Cat.vs.

I apologize for The Cat.


Categories of speech acts(Dirven and Verspoor, Table 1, chapter 7)

Ritualized social circumstances (thank someonewhen something has been exchanged, sentence attermination of trial, pronunciation of marriage,…);utterance primarily constitutes act.

Communicate, or request communication ofinformation (assert facts, question truth of facts, solicitthe completion of an assertion, …); utterance primarilyengages in trafficing information.

Commit self or solicit others to do something (offerassistance, request favour, make a bet, …); utteranceprimarily concerns future conduct.

Constitutive

Informative

Obligative


Categories of speech acts(Dirven and Verspoor, Table 1, chapter 7)

Expressive

Declarative

Assertive

Interrogative

Directive

Commissive

thanking, apologizing, …

sentencing, pronouncing, …

asserting, describing, …

asking

requesting, ordering, …

promising, offering, …

Constitutive

Informative

Obligative

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Speech Act?

Would you? Could you?In a box?Could you? Would you?With a fox?


Speech Act?


Obligative (Commissive)Offering


Speech Act?


Obligative (Commissive)OfferingObligative (Directive)Urging


Speech Act? Not in a box.Not with a fox. …I would not eat green eggs and ham.I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

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Obligative (Commissive)Declining



Informative (Assertive)Warranting


H. P. Grice


How to talk

Make your conversationalcontribution such as isrequired, at the stage atwhich it occurs, by theaccepted purpose ordirection of the talk-exchange in which you areengaged.

(Grice 1975: 45)

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How to talk

Coöperate.


Relation

Quality

Quantity

Manner

Be relevant.

Be truthful.

Be sufficient (but not prolix).

Be perspicacious.

How to talk, more specificallyGrice’s Maxims


How to talk and interpret; conversational implicatureGrice’s Maxims

Not moral or social injunctionsEmpirically derived principles

Maxims that people naturallyfollow, and generally expectothers to follow

To speak

To understand (conversationalimplicature)

Observable mostly in violation


Maxim of relationIs there a gas station around here?

(=Tell me where I can get gas. I need it and I’m a stranger.)

Be relevant.A1: Yep, there’s a gas station at

King and Weber. [closed]A2: Nope, you’ll have to go all the

way to Erb Street;everything’s closed aroundhere because of the anthraxscare.

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Maxim of qualityIs there a gas station around here?


Be truthfulSay what you believe to

be true.Don’t say what you

believe to be false.




Be truthfulSay what you believe to be

true.Don’t say what you believe

to be false.A1: Nope. [ommitting that there

is gas bar at the CanadianTire.]

A2: Well, there’s a gas bar, if youjust need some gas.




Be truthfulSay what you believe to be

true.Don’t say what you believe

to be false.A1: Nope. [false; there is one]A2: Yep, two lights up on the left

there’s a new PetrosaurusStation.


Maxim of quantityIs there a gas station around here?


Provide enough informationBut not too muchA1: Yep.A2: Sure, King and Erb.A3: Yep, King and Erb.

They have a sale ongumboots at thehardware store acrossthe street from it, too.

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Maxim(s) of mannerIs there a gas station around here?


Be clearDon’t be obscureDon’t be ambiguousBe briefBe orderly




Be clearYes. Somewhere near the

theatre.Don’t be obscureDon’t be ambiguousBe briefBe orderly


Be clearDon’t be obscure

Yep. Next to the old Smithplace.

Don’t be ambiguousBe briefBe orderly


(=Do you know where I can get some gas? I’m a stranger)


Be clearDon’t be obscureDon’t be ambiguous

Maybe there is, maybethere isn’t.

Be briefBe orderly



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Be clearDon’t be obscureDon’t be ambiguousBe brief

Sure quite a few. I know where every gasstation built in the KW area since the GreatWar was located. First, there was the OlliePetrie Service Station at the corner of …

Be orderly




Be clearDon’t be obscureDon’t be ambiguousBe briefBe orderly

Sure. At Erb, turn right off King. To get to King,take Westmount, and turn left when you get there.Before that, go three lights down University andturn left at Westmount. First, however, …




[T]hough some maxim isviolated at the level ofwhat is said, the hearer isentitled to assume thatthat maxim, or at least theoverall cooperativeprinciple, is observed at thelevel of what is implicated.

How to listen(Conversational implicature)


Grice’s Maxims

The important point:Grice charted the many,many ways we coordinateour speech to each other’sneeds and expectations.

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Intention; figuration

All language dialogic (conversational).Grice’s maxims form a baseline of expectations.Figures of thought (tropes) function by violating

maxims, deviating from baseline.The ‘first reading’ doesn’t make sense, so hearers figure

out the speaker’s intention--not what the utterancemeans, but what the speaker means by thatutterance.


Metonymy

Violates quality

Satisfies relation,quantity, manner


Metaphor

My love is red,red rose.


Repetitio

My love is red,red rose.

Violates manner(brevity)

Satisfies relation,quantity, quality

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Polyptoton

Violates manner(brevity)



Irony

Violates quality

Satisfies relation,quantity, manner

Lovely day!


Paronomasia

Violates manner(clarity)



Now, for the high-brow stuff

Polonius:What do you read, my lord?

Hamlet

Words, words, words.

Violates quantity and relation(Satisfies quality and mostly manner)

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Polonius:What is the matter, my lord?

Hamlet

Between whom?

Violates relation(satisfies quantity, manner, … quality?)


Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue sayshere that old men have grey beards, that

their faces are wrinkled, their eyespurging thick amber and plumtree gum, and

that they have plentiful lack of wit,together with most weak hams; all ofwhich though I most powerfully and

potently believe, yet I hold it not honestyto have set it thus down, for yourself, sir,shall grow old as I am, if like a crab you

could go backward.


Polonius:I mean the matter that you read,

my lord.

Hamlet






could go backward.



my lord.

Hamlet

Violates

quantity






could go backward.



my lord.

Hamlet

Violates

relatio

n

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could go backward.



my lord.

Hamlet

Violates

manner

(clarity, b

revity

, ord

erliness)






could go backward.



my lord.

HamletQualit

y?



Hamlet English 306A; Harris 76

I ask to be, or not to be.That is the question, I ask of me.This sullied life, it makes me shudder.My uncle's boffing dear, sweet mother.Would I, could I take my life?Could I, should I, end this strife?Should I jump out of a plane?Or throw myself before a train?Should I from a cliff just leap?Could I put myself to sleep?…To sleep, to dream, now there's the rub.I could drop a toaster in my tub.

Hamlet

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Pragmatics

Interpersonal functionPhatic and Communicative

Speech actsInformative, Constitutive, and Obligative

Grice’s MaximsThe coöperative principle (and its ramifications)Speaking and understanding (conversational implicature)

Speech Acts Pragmatics Conversational maximsraha/306a_web/08-downloadfiles/PragmaticsF... · Speech Act? Would you? Could you? In a box? Could you? Would you? With a fox? Obligative

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