This document provides an overview of pragmatics, which it defines as the study of contextual meaning, speaker meaning, and how more is communicated than what is literally said. It discusses key concepts in pragmatics including deixis (pointing via language using deictic expressions), reference (using linguistic forms to enable identification), inference, and speech acts. Speech acts are classified as declarations, representatives, expressives, directives, or commissives depending on their communicative function. Politeness in interactions is also discussed in relation to maintaining face wants and performing face-threatening or face-saving acts.

1. PRAGMATICS – George Yule

2. 1. DEFINITIONS AND
BACKGROUND
• “The study of contextual meaning
communicated by a speaker or writer, and
interpreted by a listener or reader.” (G.Yule)
• “The study of the relation of signs to their
interpreters.” (Charles Morris)
• “The study of the relations between linguistic
forms and its users(…)Only pragmatics
allows humans into the analysis: their
assumptions, purposes, goals, and actions
they perform while speaking.” (G.Yule)

3. PRAGMATICS IS…
1- THE STUDY OF SPEAKER MEANING
WHAT PEOPLE MEAN by their
utterances rather than what the words or
phrases might mean by themselves.

4. 2- The study of contextual meaning
• Importance of the CONTEXT: the
circumstances and the audience or public.

7. 3-The study of how more gets
communicated than said.
A great deal of what is UNSAID is
recognized as part of what is
communicated.
• The study of “invisible meaning”

8. IN OTHER WORDS…
PRAGMATICS studies HOW PEOPLE MAKE
SENSE OF EACH OTHER
LINGUISTICALLY.
For example:
A: So_ did you?
B: Hey_ who wouldn’t?
Two friends in a conversation may imply some
things and infer some others without
providing any clear linguistic evidence. So,
pragmatics requires us to make sense of
what people have in mind.

9. 2.DEIXIS
• DEIXIS: “pointing via
langauge”
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.

11. SPATIAL DEIXIS
Forms used to point to
LOCATION
i.e: “Here” and “There” “Come”
and “Go”
PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISTANCE
When speakers mark how
close or distant something
is perceived to be.
i.e: “That man over there”
implies psychological
distance.
DEICTIC PROJECTION: when
speakers act as if they are
somewhere else.
i.e: “I´m not here now.”
(telephone answering
machine)
Recording is a performance
for a future audience in
which I project my presence
to be in the required
location.

12. TEMPORAL DEIXIS
Forms used to point to location in time.
i.e: “now” - “then”
In contrast to now, the distal expression
then applies to both past and future time
relative to the speaker’s present time.
i.e: “I was in Scotland then”
“I’ll see you then”

13. 3. REFERENCE
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.

14. 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.

15. INFERENCE
Reference is a key process, is additional
information used by the listener to create a
connection between what is said and what
must be meant.

16. For example
• If we say "That Picasso is in the museum",
we mean that there is a Picasso´s picture
inside that museum.

17. 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.

18. 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 request and apply
to the speaker’s communicative intention.

19. For example:
“This tea is really cold!”
This utterance can be interpreted as a
complaint or as a praise, depending on the
circumstances. (If it is winter or summer, a
cold or a hot day, etc.)

20. SPEECH ACTS
1- The locutionary act: the basic
act of utterance which produces a
meaningful linguistic expression.
If you have difficulty in producing a
meaningful utterance (because it’s a
foreign language or you’re tongue-tied),
then you might fail to produce a
locutionary act.
Aha
mokof
a
WHA
T??

21. 2. ILLOCUTIONARY ACT
• The communicative force of an utterance.
We form an utterance with some kind of
function in mind:
An offer, a statement, a promise, a threat,
etc.
3. THE PERLOCUTIONARY
ACT:
The effect of an utterance

22. Take the next utterance and
state the illocutionary act/force.
“ I’ll see you later”

23. How can the speaker assume that the
intended illocutionary force wil be
recognized by the hearer?
IFIDs: Illocutionary Force
Indicating Devices
Felicity Conditions

24. IFIDs Felicity
ConditionsThe most common IFIDs
are performative
verbs: verbs that
explicitly name the
illocutionary act being
performed.
i.e: “I promise you that…”
“I warn you that…”
“I predict that…”
Certain expected or
appropiate circumstances
for a speech act to be
recognized as intended.
i.e: “ I sentence you to six
months of prison”
If the speaker wasn’t a judge
in a court, this performance
would be infelicitous or
inappropiate.

25. OTHER IFIDs Other
Felicity
conditions Word order
 Stress
 Intonation
i.e: “You’re going!” (I
tell you)
“You’re going?”( I
request
confirmation)
“Are you going?”( I ask
you if)
 General
Conditions: on
the participants, for
example, that they
can understand the
same language,
and that they aren’t
play-acting or being
non-sensical.
• Content
Conditions: for
example, a promise
must be about a
future event.

26. Preparatory Conditions: specific
requirements prior to an utterance in order for
it to count as a particular speech act.
Sincerity conditions: requirements on the
genuine intentions of a speaker.
For example: for a promise, the speaker
genuinely intends to carry out the future
action.

27. The essential Condition:
A requirement that the utterance commits
the speaker to the act performed.
The utterance changes my state from non-
obligation to obligation.

28. Speech Act Classification
1- DECLARATIONS: speech acts that change the
world via an utterance. The speaker has to have a
specific role, in a specific context, in order to
perform a declaration appropiately.
• “I now pronounce you husband and wife”
(Priest)
• “You’re out” (referee)

29. 2- REPRESENTATIVES: speech acts that
state what the speaker believes to be the
case or not.
Statements of fact, assertions, conclusions,
descriptions, etc.
• “The Earth is flat.”
• “Chomsky didn’t write about peanuts”.

30. 3- EXPRESSIVES: speech acts
that state what the speaker feels.
They express psychological states and can
be statements of pleasure, pain, likes,
dislikes, joy, or sorrow.
• “I’m really sorry!”
• “Congratulations!”

31. 4- DIRECTIVES: speech acts used
to get someone else to do sth.
They express what the speaker wants. They
are: commands, orders, requests,
suggestions. They can be positive or
negative.
• “Gimme a cup of coffee. Make it black”.
• “Don’t touch that”.
• “Could you lend me a pen, please?”

32. 5- COMMISSIVES: speech acts used by
speakers to commit themselves to some
future action.
They are: promises, threats, refusals,
pledges, etc.
• “ I’ll be back”.
• “We are going to get it right next time.”
• “We won’t do that”.

33. DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH
ACTS
• DIRECT: when there’s a direct relationship
between the structure (declarative,
interrogative, imperative) and its
communicative function (statement,
question, commnad/request.)
• INDIRECT: Indirect relation between the
structure and function.

34. Example of indirect speech
acts:
• “Move out of the way!” – (the only direct
command.)
• “Do you have to stand in front of the
T.V?”(A question functioning as an indirect
command)
• “You’re standing in front of the T.V!”.( a
declarative functioning as an indirect request)

35. 7. 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.
• However, there are other factors, like
amount of imposition or degree of
friendliness, which are often negotiated.

36. POLITENESS
• “Polite social behaviour” 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
sto recognize.
Politeness in an interaction can be defined as
the means employed to show awareness of
another person’s face.

37. Examples of social distance:
respect or deference
“Excuse, Mr. Buckingham, can I talk to you
for a second?”
Social closeness: friendliness,
camaraderie, or solidarity.
“Hey, Bucky, got a minute?”

38. Face Wants: A person’s expectations that
their pulic 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.
Example

39. 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)

40. Self and Other: Say nothing
Imagine you arrive at a lecture but you’ve
forgotten a pen to take your notes. You
think that teh person next to you may
provide the solution.
In this scenario, you’re going to be SELF,
and the person next to you OTHER.
You: (look in bag, rummage in, search in
pockets)
The Other: “Here, use this.”

41. That was called a “Say nothing
approach”
• Without uttering a word, you have the
intention that your problem will be
recognized.
• Many people prefer to have their needs
recognized by others wihout having to
express those needs in langauge.
• When those needs are in fact recognized,
more has been communicated than was
said.

42. Say something: Off and On
record
“Uh, I forgot my pen”
“Hmm, I wonder where I put my pen”
These statements are not directly addressed
t the other. The other can act as if they
have not even been heard.
Off record expressions: utterances not
directly addressed t another one.

43. On record experssions: are direct
address froms.
“Give me a pen”
“Lend me your pen”
These are known as bald on record-
they’re the most direct approach, like the
use of imperatives.
Would you lend me a pen, please?” Here
we use mitigating devices, like would
and please, that soften the demand.