Pragmatics 1

Text
Discourse analysis
Text Linguistics

Meaning
Semantics

Situation and
context
Pragmatics

Sentences, clauses, phrases and words
Grammar (Morphology and Syntax)

Sounds and letter
Phonology, Phonetics , Graphology

 Morris (Carnap, and Peirce)
 Wittgenstein
 Austin
 Searle
 Grice

Charles Morris (1903 – 1979)
• Was concerned with the study of the
science of signs, which he called semiotic;
• Distinguished 3 branches of semiotics:
syntactics (or syntax),
which studies the formal relation among
different signs;
semantics,
the study of the relation between the signs
and the objects they denote; and
pragmatics, the study of the relation
of signs to their interpreters, i.e. people.


The word pragmatics derives from
the Greek word ‘pragma’, which means
'matter', 'thing', but also'action'
( Linke, Nussbaumer & Portmann,1996).
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When a diplomat says yes, he means
‘perhaps’;
When he says perhaps, he means ‘no’;
When he says no, he is not a diplomat.
When a lady says no, she means ‘perhaps’;
When she says perhaps, she means ‘yes’;
When she says yes, she is not a lady.
Voltaire (Quoted, in Spanish, in Escandell
1993.)

• Pragmatics: the study of meaning, as
communicated by a speaker and interpreted by
the a writer
• Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning

Syntax:
Study of the relation between linguistic forms, how they are arranged in
sequence, and which sequences are well-Formed
Semantics:
Study of the relationship between linguistic forms and entries in the world
Pragmatic:
Study of relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those
forms

THE SEMANTIC MEANING


The speaker feels pangs of
hunger

THE PRAGMATIC MEANING
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Request for lunch
A complaint
Request for a dessert
Request…

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Speaker meaning, rather than sentence meaning, can only
begin to be understood when context is taken into
consideration
Pragmatics also explores how listener and readers can
make inferences about what is said or written in order to
arrive at an interpretation of the user’s intended meaning

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Cindy and Linnea
Cindy: there is a bookstore over there
Linnea: no
Cindy: why not
Linnea: I‘m tired.

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Cindy: there is a bookstore over there. Let‘s go
inside.
Linnea: no, I don‘t want to go inside.
Cindy: why do you not want to go inside?
Linnea: I don‘t want to because I‘m tired.

Pragmatics is the study of invisible
meaning ,that is how to recognize ,the
underlined meanings which are not
apparently said or written.
For example, an advertisement shows the
following words:
HEATED
ATTENDANT
PARKING
from the apparent meaning, different
interpretations can be assumed like



On the basis of apparent meanings , we would normally
understand that you can park your car in this place, that is
heated area and that there will be an attendant to look
after the car.
We have inferred these meanings by taking into account
the context and combination of the words used by the
speaker or writer.

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In fact Pragmatics , is the study of investigation of such
assumptions and expectations which provide us with
the insights into how more gets communicated than is
said.
Thus , an important factor that should be taken into
account is social distance

First, grammatical studies look for rules while
pragmatic studies look for principles. Rules are black
and white, i.e. you are either right or wrong. For
instance, you have to say “He studies linguistics”; the –s
is required by a rule. Principles are not black and
white; you can obey them to some extent and violate
them to some extent. For example, one principle says
we should tell the truth and another says we should be
polite in our speech.

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Secondly, in grammar studies, we end up with
products while in pragmatics we always deal
with processes. In other words, after we have
analyzed a sentence grammatically, our job is
done; in a pragmatic inquiry, we deal with an
ever-unfolding process-as the discourse goes
on and on, the extra meaning of some words
become clearer and clearer.

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In cross-culture communication, errors
can be roughly classified into two kinds:
• linguistic error: errors in pronunciation, grammar,

vocabulary, etc
• pragmatic error (failure): errors in using the
language.
• Both kinds of errors may lead to
miscommunication.

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“Grammatical errors may be irritating
and impede communication, but at least,
as a rule, they are apparent in the surface
structure, so that H is aware that an error
has occurred. Once alerted to the fact
that S is not fully grammatically
competent, native speakers seem to have
little difficulty in making allowances for
it.

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Pragmatic failure, on the other hand, is rarely
recognized as such by non-linguists. If a non-native
speaker appears to speak fluently, a native speaker is
likely to attribute his/her apparent impoliteness or
unfriendliness, not to any linguistic deficiency, but to
boorishness or ill-will. While grammatical error may
reveal a speaker to be a less than proficient languageuser, pragmatic failure reflects badly on him/her as a
person.”

Why?
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In every society there are some things that are
simply not said or asked about and others that
are absolutely required in certain situations. It
is often assumed that every well-brought-up
person knows these rules of behaviour of
his/her own culture. And furthermore, most
people take their own behaviour pattern for
granted and are unaware that pragmatic
patterns are far from universal. Thus, pragmatic
failure has serious consequences.

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Americans tend to give compliments
more than most people of other nations.
Sometimes it is necessary for Americans
to give compliments but it may be totally
inappropriate to give compliments in
other cultures.

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A particular interesting example of this came about
when an American politician (Carter, J.) visiting France
happened to compliment one of the members of the
French government on the job he was doing. The
French were very annoyed and articles appeared in the
French press attributing all sorts of hidden implications
to the act and condemning it as interference in French
internal affairs. In reality, of course, the visiting
American politician had done no more than the typical
American would do when trying to be friendly to a
stranger: give a compliment.
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(Wolfson 1981:123)

Another example


A rich (Chinese) merchant went to London and
was entertaining some very important
European guests. He had the affair catered at a
famous hotel. In the Chinese manner, he said
that he was sorry that the food and drink were
not very fine. Some hotel employees overheard
these remarks and the management, feeling
quite insulted, preceded to sue the merchant
for defaming the character of the hotel.

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Woman (student): excuse me, where can I make
some Xerox copies?
Clerk: for?
Woman: (silence)
Clerk: are you an instructor?
Woman: No, a student
Clerk: we can only make Xerox copies for
instructores.
Woman: well, I ….OK. But where can I find a {pay}
Xerox machine? (the original intention)
Clerk: Oh, I see. Up the stairs, past the bookstore

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When we misjudge shared knowledge or
the perceptions of the other participants
in the interaction we might create an
instance of miscommunication. This can
happen among speakers of the same
language

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Pragmatics awareness is part of
metapragmatic competence; it refers to
the ability to analyze language use
(Sharwood-Smith, 1981: 162-63).
Pragmatic awareness is the prerequisite
for pragmatic acquisition, without which
pragmatic competence can hardly
acquired especially in FLL/SLL.



Understanding how people communicate
is actually a process of interpreting not
just what speakers say , but what they
intend to mean.

Spend a few minutes reflecting
on what we covered in this
presentation
1.What, if

anything, did you learn
that you didn’t know before?
2.What

is one ‘ah-ha’ you had?

Pragmatics 1

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Pragmatics 1