Using language in context: Pragmatics

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Using language in context Pragmatics

• Rules of Conversation

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Social Conventions

• Language use form of social behavior
• In interactions with other people, we follow
  certain conventions
• Dont let doors slam in peoples face.
• Be quiet when other people are sleeping.
• Tip at least 15 percent.
• Dont face strangers in elevators.

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What social conventions do we observe in
conversations?
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• John (an OSU student) How was the football game
  last Saturday?
• Phil (another OSU student) Not so good. Indiana
  won, 45-17.

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• John Are you taking this class for a GEC?
• Mary Yeah, it was the only thing that would fit
  in my schedule.
• John The new president of OSU is named Karen
  Holbrook.

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• John How do you dial an off-campus number from a
  campus phone?
• Mary You walk over to the telephone, you pick up
  the receiver, which is the longish part attached
  to the curly cord. You hold the receiver up to
  your face so that the round part closest to the
  cord is by your mouth and the other round part is
  by your ear. You make sure you hear a constant
  tone thats called a dial tone. Then you press
  the key labelled 9 on the base part of the
  telephone, then the keys for the rest of the
  numbers in the telephone number.

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• Grandma (Johns 90 year old grandmother) You
  young people are always talking about your
  e-mail. How do you send this e-mail?
• John Oh, I use Netscape Composer.

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• 201 instructor (to class) In casual speech,
  English speakers tend to strand prepositions.
  They rarely pied-pipe.

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• 201 instructor (to class) In casual speech,
  English speakers end sentences with prepositions.
  

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Cooperative Principle

• Participants in a conversation act in accordance
  with the goals of the conversation.

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Gricean Maxims

• Set of observations about the norms or rules of
  conversation that people (generally follow).
• Herbert Paul Grice, a British philosopher
  (1913-1988)
• Maxim a succinct formulation of a fundamental
  principle, general truth or rule of conduct.

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• A. Maxim of Quality
• 1. Do not say what you believe to be false.
• 2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate
  evidence.

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• B. Maxim of Relevance
• Be relevant.

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• Maxims of Quantity
• Make your contribution as informative as is
  required.
• Do not make your contribution more informative
  than is required.

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• Maxims of Manner
• Avoid obscurity of expression.
• Avoid ambiguity.
• Be brief.
• Be orderly.

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Maxims can be violated

• by a non-cooperative speaker
• or by a speaker who is flouting a maxim
  conspicuously violating the maxim to achieve a
  certain effect.

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What happens to a conversation when a maxim is
violated?
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• (1) Someone you dont recognize comes up to you
  on the Oval and says to you Hey, hows it
  going. That class is really hard, isnt it?
  How would you react? What would your assessment
  of the speaker and the situation be? Think of as
  many possibilities as you can.
• (2) Why meaning does Phil intend to convey in his
  answer in the following conversation? What maxim
  does he flout? What effect does he achieve? Can
  you think of other expressions like when hell
  freezes over?
• John Are you ever going to talk to Mary again?
• Phil Ill talk to Mary again when hell freezes
  over.
• (3) Language Files, p. 233, Exercise 2
• (4) Do people value all of the maxims equally?
  What would your reaction be to a friend
  violating the Maxim of Quality versus the Maxim
  of Manner or the Maxim of Quantity?

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What happens to a conversation when a maxim is
violated?

• Depends which maxim.
• People generally assume that others are acting
  according to the Maxims can be violated to
  achieve a certain effect.

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