Pragmatics in linguistics

1. PRAGMATICS
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2. Introduction
The term “pragmatics” was first coined in the 1930s by
the philosopher C.W. Morris; developed as a subfield of
linguistics in the 1970s.
Pragmatics is needed if we want a fuller, deeper, and
generally more reasonable account of human language
behavior.
Definitions
Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the
ways in which context contributes to meaning.
Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice
Of language in social interaction and the effects of our
Choice on others.(David Crystal)

3. REGULARITY
Luckily, people tend to behave in fairly REGULAR ways when
it comes to using language. As part of social groups we
follow general expected patterns of behavior.
For example: “I found an old bike. The chain was rusted and the tyres flat”.
It would be pragmatically odd to say:
“I found an old bike. A bike has a chain. The chain was rusted. A bike also has
tyres. The tyres were flat.”
DEIXIS
DEIXIS: “pointing via language "To accomplish this pointing we use deictic
expressions or indexicals.
i.e: “What’s that?” (used to indicate sth. in the immediate context.)
Deictic expressions depend on the speaker and hearer sharing the same spatial
context, in face-to face spoken interaction.

4. Person deixis: used to point people. (me, you)
Place deixis : used to point location in time (now, then).
i.e: “I’ll put this here, ok?”
Time deixis: used to point to a time " now, then, tonight, last week “
REFERENCE AND INFERENCE
REFERENCE: an act in which a speaker or writer, uses
linguistic forms to enable a listener or reader, to identify
something. Words in themselves do not refer anything. People
refer.
REFERRING EXPRESSIONS: linguistic forms like proper
nouns, definite or indefinite noun phrases, and pronouns.
The choice of one type of these expressions rather than
another is based on what the speaker assumes the listener
already knows.
Types of deictic expressions :

5. FOR EXAMPLE:
“Look at him” (use of pronoun)
“The woman in red” (definite article)
“A woman was looking at you” (indefinite article and pronoun)
So, reference is tied to the speaker’s goals and beliefs about the listener
knowledge in the use of language.
THE ROLE OF CO-TEXT
Co- text: the linguistic environment in which a word is used.The co-text clearly
limits our range of possible interpretations we might have for a word.
i.e: “Brazil wins World Cup”
Brazil would be the referring expression, and the rest of the sentence the co-text.
ANAPHORIC REFERENCE
The expressions used to maintain reference to something or someone already
mentioned.
i.e: “A man was looking at us. He then disappeared.”
The initial reference is often indefinite (A man…) and is called the ANTECEDENT.
The subsequent reference is definite or a prononun (He…) and is called
ANAPHORA.

6. SPEECH ACTS and EVENTS
Actions performed via utterances are called Speech Acts.
In English they are commonly known as:
apology, compliment, complaint, invitation,promise, or reque
st and apply to the speaker’s communicative intention.
The circumstances surrounding the utterance are called the
Speech Event and it’s their nature that determines the
interpretation of an utterance as performing a particular
speech act.
POLITENESS and INTERACTION
• A linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction.
• We take part in a wide range of interactions, mostly with
strangers, where the social distance determined by external
factors is dominant.

7. • However, there are other factors, like amount of imposition or degree of
friendliness, which are often negotiated.
POLITENESS
• “Polite social behavior” within a culture. We assume that participants in an
interaction are generally aware of such cultural norms and principles of politeness.
Face: the public self-image of a person. It refers to that emotional and social
sense of self that everyone has and expects the other recognize.
Politeness in an interaction can be defined as the means employed to show
awareness of another person’s face.
Face Wants: A person’s expectations that their public self-image will be
respected.
• If a speaker says sth. that represents a threat to another individual’s expectations,
regarding self-image, it’s described as a face threatening act.
• When someone says an utterance that avoids a potential threat t a person’s face,
it’s called face-saving act
A: “I’m going to tell him to stop that awful noise right now!!” (Face-threatening
act)
B: “Perhaps you could just ask him if he’s going to stop because it’s getting late
and we need to sleep…” (Face- saving act)