Pragmatics

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Pragmatics
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Pragmatics can be defined as the study of how
speakers use the sentences of a language to
effect successful communication.
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Pragmatics is different from traditional
semantics in that it studies meaning not in
isolation but in context.
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Semanticists take meaning to be an inherent
property of language, pragmaticists regard
meaning as something that is realized in the
course of communication.
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Sentence Meaning Utterance Meaning
It is context-dependent. It is the product of
sentence meaning and context. Therefore, it is
richer than the meaning of the sentence.
It is the abstract context-independent entity
called semantic proposition.
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2. Speech Act Theory
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Speech act theory originated with the British
philosopher John Austin in the late 50s.
According to this theory, we are performing
various kinds of acts when we are speaking.
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Before the speech act theory was advanced, it was
believed that the business of a statement is
either to describe or to state. It must be either
true or false.
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Austin made the pimary distinction between two
types of utterances constative and performative.
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Constative vs. Performative
The performative utterance is used to perform an
action, so it has no truth value.
The constative utterance is verifiable and it is
either true or false.
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(92) I do. as uttered in the course of a
marriage ceremony.
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(93) I name this ship Elizabeth. ---as uttered
when smashing the bottle against the stern.
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(94) I give and bequeath my watch to my
brother. --- as occurring in a will.
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(95) I bet you sixpence it will rain
tomorrow. --- as uttered when making a bet.
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According to Austin, while making an utterance, a
speaker is performing three acts simultaneously
a locutionary act, an illocutionary act, and a
perlocutionatry act.
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A locutionary act is the act of saying something
it is an act of conveying literal meaning by
means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.
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An illocutionary act is the act performed in
saying something its force is identical with the
speakers intention.
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A perlocutionary act is the act performed by or
resulting from saying something it is the
consequence of, or the change brought about by
the utterance.
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Searle also made his contribution to the study of
illocutionary speech acts. He specified five
types of illocutionary speech acts 1)representati
ve
2)directive
3)commissive
4)expressive
5)declaration
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The illocutionary point of the representatives is
to commit the speaker to somethings being the
case, to the truth of the expressed proposition.
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I guess that he has come. I think that the film
is moving. I am certain that he has come.
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Directives are attempts by the speaker to get the
hearer to do something.
Open the door! Dont you think its a bit stuffy
here?
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Commissives are those illocutionary acts whose
point is to commit the speaker to some future
course of action. When speaking, the speaker puts
himself under obligation.
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I promise to love you!
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Ill bring you this book.
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The illocutionary point of expressives to to
express the psychological state specified in the
propositional content such as apologizing,
thanking, congratulating,welcoming etc.
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Im sorry for the mess I have made. Its very
kind of you to have thought of me.
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The point of this declaration is to bring about
the correspondence between the propositional
content and reality. I declare the meeting
open. I appoint you chairman of the committee.
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I fire you!
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Principles of Conversation The co-operative
principle
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In making conversation, Grice holds that thee is
a general principle which all participants are
expected to observe. Make your conversational
contribution such as required at the stage at
which it occurs by the accepted purpose or
direction of the talk exchange in which you are
engaged.
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The maxim of quantity 1. Make your contribution
as informative as required (for the current
purpose of the exchange). 2. Do not make your
contribution more informative than is required.
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The 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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The maxim of relation Be relevant.
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The maxim of manner 1. Avoid obscurity of
expression. 2. Avoid ambiguity. 3. Be brief. 4.
Be orderly.
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When we violate these maxims, in some situations,
conversational implicature will arise.
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A Do you know where Mr. X lives? B Somewhere in
the southern suburbs of the city. (said when it
is known to both A and B that B has Mr. Xs
address.)
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A Would you like to come to our party tonight?
B Im afraid Im not feeling so well today.
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A The hostess is an awful bore. Dont you
think? B The roses in the garden are beautiful,
arent they? (said when it is known to both
A and B that it is entirely possible for B to
make a comment on the hostess)
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A Shall we get something for the kids? B
yes. But I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M. (said when it is
known to both A and B that B has no difficulty in
pronouncing the word ice-cream).