This document discusses key concepts in pragmatics and discourse analysis. It defines pragmatics as the study of implied or inferred meaning based on context. It discusses how context, deixis, speech acts, cohesion, Grice's cooperative principle, and background knowledge all contribute to deriving meaning beyond the literal words. Discourse analysis examines how language is used in texts and conversations through these pragmatic lenses.

1. Pragmatics and
Discourse Analysis
Universidad Nacional Experimental
“Francisco de Miranda”
Aprendizaje Dialogico Interactivo
Modalidad: Semi – Presencial
Programa: Educación
Mención: Inglés
Prof, Mahly J. Martínez

2. PRAGMATICS
Pragmatics is the study of 'invisible' meaning, or how we reorganize
what is meant even when it isn't actually said (or written). In order
for that to happen, speakers (and writers) must be able to depend on
a lot of shared assumptions and expectations.
Context
Linguistic context is also known as co-
text. The co-text o; a word is the set of
other words used in the same phrase or
sentence. This surrounding co-text has a
strong effect on what we think the word
means.
the 'physical' location will influence
your interpretation. Our
understanding of much of what we
read and hear is tied to the physical
context, particularly the time and
place, in which we encounter
linguistic expressions.
Deixis

3. DEICTIC EXPRESSIONS
There are some words in the language that cannot be interpreted at all
unless the physical context, especially the physical context of the
speaker, is known. These are words like here, there, this, that, now, then,
yesterday, as well as most pronouns, such as I, you, him, her, them.
Some sentences of English are virtually impossible to understand if we
don't know who is ' speaking, about whom, where and when. For
example: You'll have to bring that back tomorrow, because they aren’t
here now. Out of context, this sentence is extremely vague.
 Person Deixis: all personal, demostratives pronouns (she, he, I, you,
this, those,)
 Time Deixis: (now, then, tonight, last week)
 Place Deixis: (here, there)
E.G. I am not going there now, I will go tomorrow

4. REFERENCE AND ANAPHORA
We have to define reference as an act by which a speaker (or writer) uses
language to allow a listener (or reader) to identify something. We often assume
that the words we use to identify things are in some direct relationship to those
things. It's not as simple as that. We may not actually know someone's name, but
that doesn't prevent us from referring to the person.
E.g. I don't know this men
Maria went to Caracas, she will be back tomorrow.
Anaphora can be defined as subsequent reference to an already introduced
entity. Mostly we use anaphora in texts to maintain reference. When we
establish a referent (Can I borrow your book?) and subsequently refer to the
same object (Yeah, it's on the table), we have a particular kind of referential
relationship between book and it.

5. SPEECH ACTS
Austin (1962) sates that a speech act is the way we use language to do things. In
other words, a speech act refers to the nonlinguistic accomplishment of un utterance.
Austin (1962) establishes that speakers produce an unlimited number of sentences
using a very finite set of rules. These sentences reflect also a limited set of speech
acts or functions. we can usually recognize the type of 'act' performed by a speaker in
uttering a sentence. The use of the term speech act covers 'actions' such as
'requesting', 'commanding', questioning' and 'informing'.
E.g. Can you ride a bike? (Interrogative)
Can you past the salt? (Request)
•The Iocutionary act is the saying: something which is meaningful and can be understood. It
corresponds to what is said or to the literal meaning or signification of the structure of the
expression.
•An illocutionary act consists in using a sentence to perform I function (action).
•A perlocutionary act is the results or effects that are produced by mean of saying
something, that is to say, the act refers to the effect achieved by what is said.

6.  Identify the Iocutionary, illocutionary
and perlocutionary act in the following
examples.
 A. I am thirsty
 b. Why don't we go to the movies instead?
In the first sentence, we can see, that the locution is a statement,
but this person’s intetion was not to inform that he/she was
thirsty. The intention o illocution is a request, meaning please, Get
me a drink. The perlocution will be achieved if the listener
performs the action of getting a cold drink for him/her.

7. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
In the study of language, some of the most interesting questions arise
in connection with the way language is 'used', rather than what its
components are. When we carry this investigation further and ask
how it is that we, as language-users, make sense of what we read in
texts, understand what speakers mean despite what they say, and
successfully take part in that complex activity called conversation, we
are undertaking what is known as discourse analysis.
Cohesive Devices Cooperative Principle
Background Knowledge

8. COHESION
We know, far example, that texts must have a certain structure which
depends on factors quite different from those required in the structure of a
single sentence. Some of those factors are described in terms of cohesion, or
the ties and connections which exist within texts. A number of those
types of cohesive ties can be identified in the following text:
My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every
penny he could. That car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he
sold it to help pay for my college education. Sometimes I think I’d rather have
the convertible.
There are connections present here in the use of pronouns, which we
assume are used to maintain reference (via anaphora) to the same people and
things

9. COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE
 In underlying assumption in most conversational exchanges seems to he that the
participants are, in fact, co-operating with each other. This principle, together with four
maxims which we expect will be obeyed, was first set out by Grice (1975).'The co-
operative principle is stated in the following way: "Make your conversational
contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, hv the accepted
purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged." Supporting this
principle are the four maxims:
 Quantity: Make your contribution as informative as is required, but not more, or less,
than is required
 Quality: Do not say that which you believe to be false or for which you lack evidence
 Relation: Be relevant
 Manner: Be clear, brief and orderly
 Given that we operate with the co-operative principle, it also becomes clearer how
certain answers to our questions which, on the surface, do not seem to be
appropriate, can actually be interpreted. Consider this conversational fragment:
 Carol: Are you coming to the party tonight?
 Lara: I've got an exam tomorrow.
 On the face of it, Lara’s statement is not an answer to Carol’s question. Lara doesn’t
say “Yes” or No”. Yet, Carol will immediately interpret the statement as meaning “No”
or “probably not”. Thus, Lara's answer is not simply a statement of tomorrow's
activities; it contains an implicature (an additional conveyed meaning) concerning
tonight's activities.

10. Background Knowledge
 A schema is a general term for a conventional
knowledge structure which exists in memory.
We have many schemata which are used in the
interpretation of what we experience and what
we hear or read about.
 One particular kind of schema is a 'script'. A
script is essentially a dynamic schema, in
which a series of conventional actions takes
place.

11. USING OUR BACKGROUND
KNOWLEGDE
After all, it is not a normal part of a janitor's duties.
John was on his way to school last Friday.
He was really worried about the math
lesson.
Last week he had been unable to control the class.
The final sentence of this text contains a surprise: