Introduction.ppt

Pragmatics
"1. How do people communicate more than
what the words or phrases of their utterances
might mean by themselves, and how do
people make these interpretations?
2. Why do people choose to say and/or
interpret something in one way rather than
another?
Spencer-Oatey, Helen & Vladimir Zegarac. 2010. Pragmatics. In Norbert Schmitt,
editor, An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd edition, Chapter 5, pp. 70-88.
London: Hodder Education, p. 70.

Pragmatics
3. How do people's perceptions of contextual
factors (for example, who the interlocutors
are, what their relationship is, and what
circumstances they [75:] are communicating
in) influence the process of producing and
interpreting language?"

Code-Model of
Communication
 "…communication is seen as an encoding-
decoding process, where a code is a system that
enables the automatic pairing of messages (that is,
meanings internal to senders and receivers) and
signals (that is, what is physically transmitted
(sound, smoke signals, writing) between the
sender and the receiver). According to this view,
communication is successful to the extent that the
sender and the receiver pair signals and
messages in the same way, so that the message
broadcast in the form of a given signal is identical
to the one received when that signal is decoded."
London: Hodder Education, pp. 70-71.

Expansion of Code-Model of
Communication
Good, as far as it goes, BUT: “human
communicative behaviour relies heavily on
people's capacity to engage in reasoning
about each other's intentions, exploiting not
only the evidence presented by the signals in
the language code but also evidence from
other sources, including perception and
general world knowledge.”

Sample Dialogue
[1] Kiki: Where are you going tonight?
[2] Sharon: Ministry.
[3] Kiki: Ministry?
[4] Sharon: Ministry of Sound. A club in London. Heard of it?
[5] Kiki: I've been clubbing in London before.
[6] Sharon: Where to?
[7] Kiki: Why do you want to know?
[8] Sharon: Well, I may have been there.
[9] Kiki: It was called 'The End'.
[10] Sharon: Nice one!
[11] Kiki: I hope you have a good time at the Ministry.
(Contributed by Kelly-Jay Marshall)

Contextual Meaning
“These observations show that the meaning of an
utterance is not fully determined by the words that are
used: there is a gap between the meaning of the words
used by the speaker and the thought that the speaker
intends to represent by using those words on a
particular occasion. More technically, the linguistic
meaning of an utterance underdetermines the
communicator's intended meaning. This gap is filled by
the addressee's reasoning about what the
communicator (may have) intended to communicate by
his or her utterance. Hence, pragmatics plays a role in
explaining how the thought expressed by a given
utterance on a given occasion is recovered by the
addressee.”

Cultural Literacy Knowledge
Background: Louis Warren is the publisher for
the author Appin Dungannon. Everyone hates
Dungannon because he is a vile human being.
Warren also hates him. Warren goes to
Dungannon's hotel room where he discovers
that Dungannon has been murdered.
 “Louis Warren kept staring at the body, idly
wondering if he had two more wishes coming.”
McCrumb, Sharyn. 1988. Bimbos of the Death Sun. New York: Ballantine Books, p. 114.

Cooperative Principle of
Conversation
" '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.' (Grice, 1989: 26)"

Grice’s Maxims of
Conversation
1. Truthfulness Quality
2. Informativeness Quantity
3. Relevance Relation
4. Style Manner

Explaining the Impact
of Social Factors
 Politeness Principle
 Pragmalinguistic Perspective
 Sociopragmatic Perspective
 Face Model of Politeness

Getting Something at the
Table
I am eating at a table with other people. I want
the salt. It is relatively far from me. What can
I do / what should I do or say?
1. Reach for it. [Not in chapter.]
2. Stand up and reach for it.
3. Reach and say: "Pardon my boarding
house reach." [Not in chapter.]
4. Say: "Pass the salt, will you?"
5. Say: "Can you pass the salt, please."
6. Say: "I like my food quite salty."

Pragmatics and Language
Learning and Teaching
 Possibility (or likelihood) of pragmatic
transfer
 Pragmatic proficiency and the value of
language instruction
 Materials and methods for developing
pragmatic proficiency
 Pragmatic performance and learner
identity

Implications for Language
Teaching, Learning, and Use
 The Importance of Context
 The Complexity of Meaning Construction
 The Impact of Speech Act Theory
 Sociolinguistic Rules [NOT in
Chapter]
 The Possibility (or Likelihood) of
Pragmatic Transfer)
 People's Sensitivities to Face
editor, pp. 74-91. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. London: Arnold, Chapter
5, pp. 86-89.

Sociopragmatic Issues—
What and What Not to Teach
Consider whether you should teach students to do
the following; especially when you know their
culture differs in the way it approaches these
issues.
…say "Bless you" after someone sneezes
…call you by your first name
…say "thank you" in response to a
compliment
…insist people respond positively to offers
…give fewer compliments that others may
take as insincere
…be more open on taboo subject
editor, pp. 74-91. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. London: Arnold, Chapter 5,
p. 89. With additions by R. L. Good.

INTRODUCTION TO
PRAGMATICS
 the study of language use
 the study of linguistic phenomena from
the point of view of their usage
properties and processes (Verschueren,
1999).
 the study of meaning in interaction
(Thomas, 1995)
The linguistic phenomena to be studied
from the point of view of their usage can
be situated at any level of structure.
The question pragmatics asks is: How are
the language resources used?

BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
 Phonetics and phonology – unit of
analysis?
 Morphology – unit of analysis?
 Syntax – unit of analysis?
 Semantics explores the meaning of
linguistic units, typically at the
level of words (lexical semantics)
or at the level of sentences or more
complex structures

PRAGMATICS AND PHONETICS
 The level of speech sounds: Most
speakers of languages with a
significant degree of dialectal
variation, who have grown up with a
local dialect but who were socialised
into the use of a standard variety
through formal education, will find
that the language they use sounds quite
different depending on whether they are
in their professional context or
speaking to their parents or siblings.

PRAGMATICS AND MORPHOLOGY
 The level of morphemes and words: there
are pragmatic restrictions on and
implications of aspects of derivational
morphology. Consider the derivational
relationship between grateful and
ungrateful or kind and unkind. The reason
why this relationship is not reversed,
with a basic lexeme meaning “ungrateful”
from which a word meaning “grateful” would
be derived by means of the negative
prefix, has everything to do with a system
of social norms which emphasizes the need
for gratefulness and kindness.

PRAGMATICS AND SYNTAX
 At the level of syntax: the same
state of affairs can be described by
means of very different syntactic
structures:
 John broke the figurine
 The figurine was broken by John
 The figurine was broken
 The figurine got broken.

PRAGMATICS AND SEMANTICS
 At the level of word meaning (lexical
semantics), more than what would be
regarded as ‘dictionary meaning’ has to be
taken into account as soon as a word gets
used. Many words cannot be understood
unless aspects of world knowledge are
invoked.
 E.g. topless district – it requires
knowledge about city areas with high
concentration of establishments for
(predominantly male) entertainment where
scantly dressed hostesses or performers
are the main attraction.

Pragmatics and Language
Learning and Teaching
 Possibility (or likelihood) of
pragmatic transfer
 Pragmatic proficiency and the value
of language instruction
 Materials and methods for developing
pragmatic proficiency
 Pragmatic performance and learner
identity

Implications for Language
Teaching, Learning, and Use
 The Importance of Context
 The Complexity of Meaning
Construction
 The Impact of Speech Act Theory
 Sociolinguistic Rules [NOT in
Chapter]
 The Possibility (or Likelihood) of
Pragmatic Transfer)
 People's Sensitivities to Face
editor, pp. 74-91. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. London: Arnold, Chapter
5, pp. 86-89.

‘MEANING’ IN
PRAGMATICS
 ‘I promise to be back early’
means a promise on condition a future
action is involved: ‘I’ll come back
early’ (SEE the Speech act theory)

‘MEANING’ IN PRAGMATICS
 Meaning is a triadic relation
“Speaker means Y by X”. E.g:
A: Shall we see that film tonight?
B: I have a headache.
The speaker means NO by saying I HAVE
A HEADACHE.

pragmatics = utterance meaning.
 Utterance meaning consists of the
meaning of the sentence plus
considerations of the intentions of the
Speaker (the speaker may intend to
refuse the invitation to go to the
film), interpretation of the Hearer
(the Hearer may interpret the utterance
as a refusal, or not), determined by
Context and background knowledge.

 pragmatics = meaning in context
 ! Meaning is not seen as a stable.
Rather, it is dynamically generated in
the process of using language. Also,
pragmatics as the study of ‘meaning in
context’ does not imply that one can
automatically arrive at a pragmatic
understanding of the phenomena involved
just by knowing all the extralinguistic
information, because ‘context’ is not a
static element.

TASK 1
Jacob: Do you know the way back to the
dining hall? We can go in my car.
Mark: Oh, I thought you didn’t know
the way to the campus.
Jacob: I thought you didn’t know!

TASK 2
What might be the functions of the
following utterances?
1. It’s hot in here.
2. Can you pass me the salt?
3. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
4. It’s a beautiful day today.

Introduction.ppt

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Introduction.ppt