Pragmatics: Inferred Meaning

1
Pragmatics Inferred Meaning

• Lecture 13

2
Semantics vs. Pragmatics

• Semanticsmeaning conveyed by words and sentences
• Lexicalthe sense (dictionary meaning) of
  individual words
• Sentential or truth-conditionalthe meaning of
  the assertion does it match the real world?
• Pragmaticsmeaning in social context inferred or
  situational meaning
• Non-truth-conditional
• How do we use language to do things?

3
Pragmatics

• What are the functions of the following?
• Hey, how are you?
• I like your haircut.
• What are you doing tonight?
• Do you know what time it is?
• The use of language has a social function
• We follow social scripts
• Cultural

4
Speech Acts

• We call the things we do with words Speech Acts
• Greetings
• Directives
• Requests
• Insults
• Promises, etc.
• They may be explicit
• I command you to go to your room.
• Usually, they are nonexplicit
• Go to your room.

5
Speech Acts

• The four moods
• Declarative
• Imperative
• Interrogative
• Exclamatory
• We expect certain speech acts to take certain
  forms
• The prototypical command is an imperative.
• The prototypical request is an interrogative.
• The prototypical apology is declarative.

6
Speech Acts

• But form does not always match function. Compare
• Direct speech actsuse the prototypical form
• Come to work on time!
• Did you finish your chores?
• I didnt mean to hurt your feelings
• Indirect speech actsuse the unexpected form
• It would be best if you came to work by 8 every
  day.
• Your chores are done, I assume.
• You know I didnt mean it, right?

7
Saving Face

• We use indirect speech acts to save facethe
  social perception of a persons character
  (morality) or prestige (social standing).
• (to a waiter) Could you bring me some more
  coffee?
• Bring me more coffee.
• What are you doing tonight?
• OhIm pretty busy.

8
Felicity Conditions

• How do we know what speech act a person is
  performing?
• Felicity Conditionsthe conditions under which we
  know something qualifies as a certain speech act
• Ungrammaticalthe syntactic term for wrong
• Infelicitousthe pragmatic term for wrong

9
Utterance Pairs Speech Events

• Social scripts often come in pairs.
• Greeting-greeting
• Farewell-farewell
• Question-answer
• Request/command/invitation-acceptance/rejection
• Compliment/thanks/congratulations-acknowledgement
• Complaint-excuse/apology/denial
• Longer sections of speech are known as speech
  events.
• These have formulaic beginnings and endings. We
  can recognize them for what they are.

10
Implicature

• Implicaturerefers to inferred meaning above and
  beyond the semantic meaning
• Consider
• Do you know how to get to Buckingham Palace?
• Do you have room in your car for us?
• Can you pass the salt?
• Yes-no questions often satisfy a precondition for
  a further request. We are expected to infer that
  request.

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Implicature

• Grices Cooperative Principle
• Assumes all speakers to be sane and desiring to
  communicate.
• In order to communicate, we must cooperate with
  each other by following four maxims.
• If someone obviously flouts the maxims, there
  must be a reason.
• Grices Maxims
• Quality--essentially equals truthfulness (dont
  say what you know to be false dont say what you
  lack evidence for)
• Quantityamount of information revealed in
  statement is appropriate to the situation
  (doesnt necessarily have to do with numbers)
• Relationwe expect that all the parts of the
  conversation will relate somehow, not be random
• Mannerwe choose a form of language which fits
  our audience (not obscure, ambiguous, overly
  lengthy, or poorly organized)

12
Implicature

• What maxims are flouted? What implicature is
  created?
• John What are you reading?
• Ken A book
• Husband When is your mother going home?
• Wife Well, she brought ten changes of clothes.
• Mary Do you want ice cream?
• Dan I hate ice cream.
• Ben What do you think of Lisa?
• Mom Shes certainly interesting.