Pragmatics slide 1

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Meaning
Semantics
Situation and context
Pragmatics
Sounds and letters
Phonology, Phonetics, Graphology.
Sentences, clauses, phrases, words
Grammar (Morphology & Syntax)
Text
Discourse
Analysis
Text Linguistics
The Levels of Language and
Linguistics

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Background of “Pragmatics”
• Charles Morris (1903 – 1979)
• Was concerned with the study of the
science of signs, which he called
semiotic;
• Distinguished 3 branches of semiotics:
syntactics (or syntax), which studies the
formal relation among different signs;
semantics, the study of the relation
between the signs and the objects they
denote;
pragmatics, the study of the relation of
signs to their interpreters, i.e. people.

Ogden and Richard’s semiotic triangle

What is semantics?
Semantics is the study of meaning.
More specifically, semantics is the study of
the meaning of words and sentences in
particular.
Lexical semantics - word meaning
Compositional semantics -phrase/sentence
meaning

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The essence of pragmatics
• syntax addresses the formal relations
of signs to one another,
• semantics the relation of signs to what
they denote,
• and pragmatics the relation of signs to
their users and interpreters

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The word pragmatics derives from
the Greek word ‘pragma’, which
means 'matter', 'thing', but also
'action'
Pragmatics

Pragmatics -
1) the meaning of a sentence, we must
understand the context in which it is used.
2) is concerned with how people use
language within a context and how they
use language in particular ways.

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1: “Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning.”
2: “ Pragmatics is the study of contextual
meaning”
3:“ Pragmatics is the study of how more gets
communicated than is said”
4:“ Pragmatics is the study of the expression of
relative distance.” ( Yule:2008).
Definitions

Both semantics and pragmatics study the
meaning of a linguistic form
However, they are different. What
essentially distinguishes them is whether
the context is considered. If it is not
considered, the study is in the area of
semantics; if it is considered, the study is
in the area of pragmatics.

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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.)
Pragmatics

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• The goal of pragmatics is to explain how
the gap between sentence meaning and
speaker’s meaning is bridged

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Pragmatics - the study of meaning as it
relates to speaker’s and addressee’s
background attitudes and beliefs, their
understanding of the context in which a
sentence is uttered, and their knowledge
of how language can be used to inform,
persuade, mislead, etc.

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• Pragmatics is the study of the
relationships between linguistic forms
and the users of those forms. In this
three-part distinction, only pragmatics
allows humans into the analysis.
• The natural realization is that
grammatical analysis alone is not
enough.

Definition of “context”
As a comprehensive concept, ‘context’ refers
to all the elements of a communicative
situation: the verbal and non-verbal context,
as well as the social context of the relationship
between the speaker and hearer, their
knowledge, and their attitude.
Context: linguistic context; situational context;
cognitive context.

Cognitive Context
It refers to the knowledge shared by the
speaker and the hearer:
(1) knowledge of the language they use,
(2) knowledge of what has been said
before,
(3) knowledge about the world in general,
(4) knowledge about each other.

Importance of Context
Context determines the speaker’s use
of language and also the hearer’s
interpretation of what is said to him.

“My bag is heavy”
1. Sentence meaning: BAG (BE HEAVY)
2. Possible pragmatic meanings:
An indirect, polite request, asking the
hearer to help him carry the bag. (When?)
A declining of someone’s request for help.
(When？)

More examples …
Try to think of contexts in which the following
sentences can be used for other intentions or
purposes than just stating facts.
(1) The room is messy.
(2) Oh, it is raining.
(3) The music of the movie is good.
(4) You have been keeping my notes for a whole
week now.

What is a speech act?
Just as people can perform physical acts,
such as hitting a baseball, they can perform
mental acts, such as imagining hitting a
baseball. People can also perform another
kind of act simply by using language; these
are called speech acts.
We use language to do a lot of things.

Some common speech acts
Function
Assertion
conveys information
Question
elicits information
Request
(more or less politely) elicits action
Order
demands action
Promise
commits the speaker to an action
Threat
commits the speaker to an action that the hearer does not want

Example: promise I promise to take him to a bar
tonight.
(performative use of the verb PROMISE)
John promises to take me to a bar tonight.
(not performative, because the subject is not I or
we.)
I will promise to take him to a bar tonight.
(not performative, because the tense is not
“present”.)
I promise to tell Mom if you touch my toys again.
(not promise, but a threat!)

Sentence types
Certain speech acts are so central to
communication that we have special sentence
types to mark them.
Sentence Type Example:
Declarative He is cooking in the kitchen.
Interrogative Is he cooking in the kitchen?
Imperative Cook the chicken!

Pragmatics: language in context
Pragmatics is the study of meaning in context dependent on the intentions of
participants in a conversational exchange.
Not the meaning of single words as we saw in semantics, but the intended meaning of
whole exchanges.
Context , intentions and shared knowledge are the keywords. Also cultural
implications play an important role.
A.: I have a 14 year old son
B.: Well that’s right
A.: I also have a dog
B.: Oh, I’m sorry
Can you understand the meaning of this exchange?
It would be hard to catch it, unless you know that A. is trying to rent an apartment
from B. and B. doesn’t accept pets.

If we don’t have a context or some knowledge
about a situation, the meaning can be ‘invisible’
as in the previous example. Or
- have you seen Sam?
- the black car is over there.
This seemingly incoherent text can be easily
understood if we know that Sam owns a black
car.

Context
Another type, is the physical context.
If you see a sign like this near a school: SLOW
DOWN. PUPILS CROSSING THE STREET.
It does not mean that you have to slow down
because you could run over eye-pupils and
reduce them to a pulp.

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The difference between grammatical analysis
and pragmatic analysis
• First, grammatical studies look for rules while pragmatic
studies look for principles. Rules are black and white, i.e. you
are either right or wrong. For instance, you have to say “He
studies linguistics”; the – s is required by a rule. Principles are
not black and white; you can obey them to some extent and
violate them to some extent. For example, one principle says
we should tell the truth and another says we should be polite
in our speech.
• Secondly, in grammar studies, we end up with products while
in pragmatics we always deal with processes. In other words,
after we have analyzed a sentence grammatically, our job is
done; in a pragmatic inquiry, we deal with an ever-unfolding
process-as the discourse goes on and on, the extra meaning
of some words become clearer and clearer.

Business
money,
benefit,
income
authority,
rivalry
work,
company
bargain,
contract
conference,
tourism
art, sport
fraud,
deception
war,
criminal
show

Step 2: Determining how parts work together

Step 3: Determining what is accomplished when parts work together

1. Кечерукова МА Прагматический текст в
методике обучения иностранным
языкам / Кечерукова МА АВ Тевелевич
//Научный диалог – 2016
2.Смағұлова Г. Мәтін лингвистикасы. –
Алматы : Қазақ университеті, 2002. – 111 б.
3. Ibrahim Abushihab A Pragmatic Stylistic
Framework for Text Analysis International
Journal of Education ISSN 1948-5476 2015,
Vol. 7, No. 1

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