1. PRAGMATICS:
THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE USE AND
COMMUNICATION
PART 1
CHAPTER9,AN INTRODUCTIONTO LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
SIXTH EDITION,ADRIAN AKMAJIAN
ZARA ARIAN
DECEMBER, 2014

2. PRAGMATICS

3. PRAGMATICS
the study of language use, and in particular the study
of linguistic communication in relation to language
structure and context of utterance.
For instance, pragmatics must identify central uses of
language, it must specify the conditions for linguistic
expressions (words, phrases, sentences, discourse) to
be used in those ways, and it must seek to uncover
general principles of language use.

4. PRAGMATICS
 the most pervasive characteristic of human social interaction,
so pervasive that we hardly find it remarkable, is that we talk.
 When we focus on what people use language to do, we focus
on what a person is doing with words in particular situations;
we focus on the intentions, purposes, beliefs, and desires that a
speaker has in speaking.
Inner speech or self talk
External or normal speech

5. LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION
What is (successful) linguistic communication?
How does (successful) communication work?
What makes it possible for the speaker to
communicate to the hearer?

6. MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

7. THE MESSAGE MODEL
 A speaker has some message in mind that she wants to
communicate to a hearer.The speaker then produces some
expression from the language that encodes the message as its
meaning. Upon hearing the beginning of the expression, the hearer
begins identifying the incoming sounds, syntax, and meanings; then,
using her knowledge of language, she com-poses these meanings
in the form of a successfully decoded message.
 the speaker acts as a ‘‘transmitter,’’ the hearer acts as a ‘‘receiver,’’
and the vocal-auditory path (the sound wave) is the relevant
channel

8. the Message Model

9. PROBLEMS OF THIS MODEL
 First: ambiguity
the Message Model must be supplemented by
principles that take contextual appropriateness into
account to compensate for the pervasive ambiguity
of natural language.
E.g. Flying planes can be dangerous.

10. PROBLEMS OF THIS MODEL
Second: underdetermination of reference
the Message Model must be supplemented by
mechanisms for successfully recognizing the
intention to refer to a specific person, place, or
thing.
E.g. the shrewd politician can be used on different
occasions to refer to different people such as
Winston Churchill or Bill Clinton

11. PROBLEMS OF THIS MODEL
 Third: underdetermination of communicative intention
 What is missing in the model so far is an account of the
speaker’s communicative intention, which is not, in general,
uniquely determined by the (linguistic) meaning of the
expression uttered, but is part of the message communicated.
 E.g. I’ll be there tonight might be a prediction, a promise, or even a
threat, depending upon the speaker’s intentions in the
appropriate circumstances.

12. PROBLEMS OF THIS MODEL
 Forth: nonliterality
 The Message Model does not account for the additional
fact that we often speak nonliterally; that is, we may not
mean what our words mean. Common cases of this are
irony, sarcasm, and figurative uses of language such as
metaphor.
 E.g. Oh, that’s just great can, in the appropriate context,
be taken to mean the opposite of what the words
mean.

13. PROBLEMS OF THIS MODEL
 Fifth: indirection
 the Message Model does not account for the fact that
we some-times mean to communicate more than what
our sentences mean.
 E.g. it would be quite natural to say My car has a flat tire
to a gas station attendant, with the intention that he
repairs the tire: in this case we are requesting the
hearer to do something not reporting.

14. PROBLEMS OF THIS MODEL
Sixth: noncommunicative acts.
Communicating a message is not always the
purpose of our remarks, and this model does not
connect at all with these other uses.(speech acts or
perlocutionary acts)

15. SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION ACCORDING TO
THE MESSAGE MODEL
Linguistic communication is successful if the hearer
receives the speaker’s message. It works because
messages have been conventionalized as the
meaning of expressions, and by sharing knowledge
of the meaning of an expression, the hearer can
recognize a speaker’s message—the speaker’s
communicative intention.

16. THE INFERENTIAL MODEL
 in the course of learning to speak our language we also learn
how to communicate in that language, and learning this
involves acquiring a variety of shared beliefs or
presumptions, as well as a system of inferential strategies.
The presumptions allow us to presume certain helpful things
about potential hearers (or speakers),and the inferential
strategies provide communicants with short, effective
patterns of inference from what someone utters to what
that person might be trying to communicate.

17. THE INFERENTIAL MODEL
PRESUMPTION

18. DIRECT AND LITERAL COMMUNICATION
 We say what we mean and we mean what we say

19. DIRECT STRATEGY
 Utterance act:The hearer recognizes what expression the
speaker has uttered.
 Operative meaning:The hearer recognizes which meaning of
the expression is intended to be operative on this occasion.
 Speaker reference:The hearer recognizes what the speaker
is referring to.
 Direct:The hearer recognizes what the speaker is intending
to communicate directly.

20. LITERAL STRATEGY
 Contextual appropriateness:The hearer recognizes that it
would be contextually appropriate for the speaker to be
speaking literally.
 Literal:The hearer recognizes what the speaker is intending
to communicate literally (and directly).
The violation of conversational presumption
contextual inappropriateness.

21. NONLITERAL COMMUNICATION
 what we mean to communicate is not compatible with what
our expression literally means.

22. TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF EXPRESSIONS THAT ARE
SOMETIMES UTTERED NONLITERALLY
• The white house(the president or staff)
issued a statement.
• She is a ball of fire.(she’s got a lot of
energy)

23. STRATEGIES FOR NONLITERAL
COMMUNICATION
 Contextual inappropriateness:The hearer recognizes that it
would be contextually inappropriate for the speaker to be
speaking literally.
 Nonliteral:The hearer recognizes what the speaker is
communicating nonliterally (and directly).

24. INDIRECT COMMUNICATION
 We mean something more than what we mean directly.
 E.g.The door is over there. (used to request someone to
leave)
 E.g. I’m sure the cat likes having its tail pulled. (used to
request the hearer to stop pulling the cat’s tail)

25. STRATEGIES FOR INDIRECT COMMUNICATION
 Contextual inappropriateness:The hearer recognizes that it
would be contextually inappropriate for the speaker to be
speaking merely directly—in particular, merely claiming that
the cat does not like having its tail pulled.
 Indirect:The hearer recognizes what the speaker is also
communicating indirectly—in particular, that she is
requesting the hearer to quit pulling the cat’s tail.

26. SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION ACCORDINGTO
THE INFERENTIAL MODEL
Linguistic communication is successful if the hearer
recognizes the speaker’s communicative intention.
Linguistic communication works because the
speaker and the hearer share a system of inferential
strategies leading from the utterance of an
expression to the hearer’s recognition of the
speaker’s communicative intent.

27. PROVERBS
 Proverbs are traditional sayings having a fixed general sentential form, alluding to
a common truth or general wisdom, with some (rudimentary) literary value,
used to guide action, explain a situation, or induce a feeling or attitude.