Chapter 8 Pragmatics
Language in Use
I What is Pragmatics
? Pragmatics is the study of language usage
from a functional perspective and is
concerned with the principles that account
for how meaning is communicated by the
speaker (writer) and interpreted by the
listener (reader) in a certain context,
I What is Pragmatics
? It can be also defined as the study of how
speakers use the sentences of a language to
effect successful communication.
Pragmatics is different from
traditional semantics in that it
studies meaning not in
isolation but in context.
Example:
? Cats drink the cream,
Semantic meaning,"Domestic felines
consume the liquid fat of milk,"
Mike,What happened to that bowl of cream?
Annie,Cats drink cream.
Pragmatic meaning,"That bowl of cream
was probably eaten by our cat."
I What is Pragmatics
? In other words,semantics focuses on the
meaning that comes from linguistic
knowledge,while pragmatics concentrates on
those aspects of meaning that cannot be
predicted by linguistic knowledge alone and
takes into account our knowledge about the
physical and social world.
Sentence Meaning Utterance Meaning
It is the abstract
c o n t e x t -
i n d e p e n d e n t
e n t i t y c a l l e d
s e m a n t i c
p r o p o s i t i o n,
It is context-dependent.
It is the product of
sentence meaning and
context,Therefore,it
is richer than the
m e a n i n g of t h e
s e n t e n c e,
I What is Pragmatics
? Pragmatics also differs from syntax in that
pragmatics is concerned with the
appropriateness of naturally occurring
utterances,For example,the four
utterances in the following dialogue are all
syntactically incomplete,but pragmatically
they are all "appropriate" in the particular
context.
I What is Pragmatics
? Jane,Coffee?
? Steve,Sure.
? Jane,White?
? Steve,White.
? Like pragmatics,text analysis is also
concerned with language used in particular
contexts,It is the linguistic analysis of
naturally occurring connected spoken or
written texts,In other words,it is the
study of linguistic units larger than
sentences or clauses,
2,Speech Act Theory
J,L,Austin
II Speech Act Theory
? As pointed out by the British philosopher
Austin in 1962,sentences are not always
uttered just to say things,but rather,they
are used to do things,Based on this
assumption,Austin advanced the Speech Act
Theory,which is now generally viewed as one
of the basic theories of pragmatics,
II Speech Act Theory
? All linguistic activities are related to speech
acts,Therefore,to speak a language is to
perform a set of speech acts,such as
statement,command,inquiry and
commitment,
? That is to say,we are performing various
kinds of acts when we are speaking.
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
t r u e or f a l s e,
Austin made the primary
distinction between two types
of utterances,constative and
p e r f o r m a t i v e,
Constative vs,Performative
The constative
u t t e r a nc e is
verifiable and it
is either true or
f a l s e,
The performative
utterance is used to
perform an action,
so it has no truth
v a l u e,
Examples
? A Wedding Oath
? Minister,We will now begin the exchange of vows,
John,do you swear to serve as Gina’s One True
Love,to love,honor,and obey,and especially obey?
? John,I do,
? M,Gina,do you swear to serve as John’s One True
Love and bed partner,with all this implies?
? G,Oh yes I DO."
? M,John,do you swear to perform your duties as
Gina’s house-husband for as long as you can stand
to?
? J,I do,
? M,Gina,do you swear to love John in all carnal and
spiritual ways for as long as you can bear to?
? G,[sings] I ding dong diddly-do!
“I do.”
as uttered in the course of a
marriage ceremony.
,I name this ship Elizabeth.”
---as uttered when smashing the bottle
against the stern.
,I give and bequeath my
watch to my brother.”
--- as occurring in a will.
,I bet you sixpence it will
rain tomorrow.”
--- as uttered when making a bet.
According to Austin,while
making an utterance,a speaker is
p e r f o r m i n g t h r e e a c t s
simultaneously,a locutionary act,
an illocutionary act,and a
p e r l o c u t i o n a t r y act.
A locutionary act is the act of saying
something; it is an act of conveying
literal meaning by means of syntax,
l e x i c o n a n d p h o n o l o g y,
An illocutionary act is the act
performed in saying something;
its force is identical with the
s p e a k e r ’ s i n t e n t i o n,
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
u t t e r a n c e,
? Among these kinds of speech acts,
pragmatists are most interested in
illocutionary act,This is because
illocutionary act conforms to the speaker's
intention and is thus the focus for the study
of verbal communication.
? A locutionary act may have different
illocutionary forces in different contexts,In
other words,an utterance may be
interpreted as a direct or indirect speech
act,
? For example,the utterance of "Don't you think it's
too stuffy in here?" may be interpreted (a)
literally as an inquiry for the addressee's opinion
of the air condition in the place where the
sentence is uttered,(b) as an indirect statement
describing the stuffy atmosphere in the place
where the utterance occurs,and (c) as an indirect
request for the addressee to open the window or
to turn on the air-conditioner,
? Similarly,an illocutionary act can be performed by
different locutionary acts,For example,the
illocutionary act of asking the addressee to open
the door may take,among many others,the
following three different locutionary acts,
? a,Command,Open the door please.
? b,Request,Would you please open the door?
? c,Statement,The doorbell is ringing.
Explain the Illocutionary force in the utterances
? [The daughter walks into the kitchen and
takes some popcorn.]
? Father,I thought you were practicing your
violin,
? Daughter,I need to get the stand.
? Father,Is it under the popcorn?
? Father,I thought you were practicing your
violin,(Criticism for his daughter’s not
practicing the violin)
? Daughter,I need to get the stand,(defence
for herself.)
? Father,Is it under the popcorn? (a denial of
the daughter’s excuse)
Searle also made his contribution to the
study of illocutionary speech acts,He
specified five types of illocutionary speech
acts:
1)representative
2)directive
3)commissive
4)expressive
5)declaration
T h e i l l o c u t i o n a r y p o i n t of t h e
representatives is to commit the speaker to
something’s being the case,to the truth of
t h e e x p r e s s e d p r o p o s i t i o n,
I guess that he has come.
I think that the film is moving.
I am certain that he has come.
Directives are attempts by the speaker to
get the hearer to do s omething,
Open the door!
Don’t you think it’s a bit
stuffy here?
Commissives are those illocutionary
acts whose point is to commit the
speaker to some future course of action.
When speaking,the speaker puts
h i m s e l f u n d e r o b l i g a t i o n,
I promise to love you!
I’ll bring you this book.
The illocutionary point of expressives to
to express the psychological state
specified in the propositional content
s uch as ap olog iz ing,t ha nking,
c o ng r a t u l a t i n g,w e l c o m i n g e t c,
I’m sorry for the mess I have made.
It’s very kind of you to have thought of
me.
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.
I fire you!
Principles of Conversation
The co-operative principle
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.
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.
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.
The maxim of relation
Be relevant.
The maxim of manner
1,Avoid obscurity of expression.
2,Avoid ambiguity.
3,Be brief.
4,Be orderly.
When we violate these maxims,in some
situations,conversational implicature will
arise.
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,X’s address.)
A,Would you like to come to
our party tonight?
B,I’m afraid I’m not
feeling so well today.
A,The hostess is an awful bore,Don’t
you think?
B,The roses in the garden are beautiful,
aren’t 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)
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”).
Language in Use
I What is Pragmatics
? Pragmatics is the study of language usage
from a functional perspective and is
concerned with the principles that account
for how meaning is communicated by the
speaker (writer) and interpreted by the
listener (reader) in a certain context,
I What is Pragmatics
? It can be also defined as the study of how
speakers use the sentences of a language to
effect successful communication.
Pragmatics is different from
traditional semantics in that it
studies meaning not in
isolation but in context.
Example:
? Cats drink the cream,
Semantic meaning,"Domestic felines
consume the liquid fat of milk,"
Mike,What happened to that bowl of cream?
Annie,Cats drink cream.
Pragmatic meaning,"That bowl of cream
was probably eaten by our cat."
I What is Pragmatics
? In other words,semantics focuses on the
meaning that comes from linguistic
knowledge,while pragmatics concentrates on
those aspects of meaning that cannot be
predicted by linguistic knowledge alone and
takes into account our knowledge about the
physical and social world.
Sentence Meaning Utterance Meaning
It is the abstract
c o n t e x t -
i n d e p e n d e n t
e n t i t y c a l l e d
s e m a n t i c
p r o p o s i t i o n,
It is context-dependent.
It is the product of
sentence meaning and
context,Therefore,it
is richer than the
m e a n i n g of t h e
s e n t e n c e,
I What is Pragmatics
? Pragmatics also differs from syntax in that
pragmatics is concerned with the
appropriateness of naturally occurring
utterances,For example,the four
utterances in the following dialogue are all
syntactically incomplete,but pragmatically
they are all "appropriate" in the particular
context.
I What is Pragmatics
? Jane,Coffee?
? Steve,Sure.
? Jane,White?
? Steve,White.
? Like pragmatics,text analysis is also
concerned with language used in particular
contexts,It is the linguistic analysis of
naturally occurring connected spoken or
written texts,In other words,it is the
study of linguistic units larger than
sentences or clauses,
2,Speech Act Theory
J,L,Austin
II Speech Act Theory
? As pointed out by the British philosopher
Austin in 1962,sentences are not always
uttered just to say things,but rather,they
are used to do things,Based on this
assumption,Austin advanced the Speech Act
Theory,which is now generally viewed as one
of the basic theories of pragmatics,
II Speech Act Theory
? All linguistic activities are related to speech
acts,Therefore,to speak a language is to
perform a set of speech acts,such as
statement,command,inquiry and
commitment,
? That is to say,we are performing various
kinds of acts when we are speaking.
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
t r u e or f a l s e,
Austin made the primary
distinction between two types
of utterances,constative and
p e r f o r m a t i v e,
Constative vs,Performative
The constative
u t t e r a nc e is
verifiable and it
is either true or
f a l s e,
The performative
utterance is used to
perform an action,
so it has no truth
v a l u e,
Examples
? A Wedding Oath
? Minister,We will now begin the exchange of vows,
John,do you swear to serve as Gina’s One True
Love,to love,honor,and obey,and especially obey?
? John,I do,
? M,Gina,do you swear to serve as John’s One True
Love and bed partner,with all this implies?
? G,Oh yes I DO."
? M,John,do you swear to perform your duties as
Gina’s house-husband for as long as you can stand
to?
? J,I do,
? M,Gina,do you swear to love John in all carnal and
spiritual ways for as long as you can bear to?
? G,[sings] I ding dong diddly-do!
“I do.”
as uttered in the course of a
marriage ceremony.
,I name this ship Elizabeth.”
---as uttered when smashing the bottle
against the stern.
,I give and bequeath my
watch to my brother.”
--- as occurring in a will.
,I bet you sixpence it will
rain tomorrow.”
--- as uttered when making a bet.
According to Austin,while
making an utterance,a speaker is
p e r f o r m i n g t h r e e a c t s
simultaneously,a locutionary act,
an illocutionary act,and a
p e r l o c u t i o n a t r y act.
A locutionary act is the act of saying
something; it is an act of conveying
literal meaning by means of syntax,
l e x i c o n a n d p h o n o l o g y,
An illocutionary act is the act
performed in saying something;
its force is identical with the
s p e a k e r ’ s i n t e n t i o n,
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
u t t e r a n c e,
? Among these kinds of speech acts,
pragmatists are most interested in
illocutionary act,This is because
illocutionary act conforms to the speaker's
intention and is thus the focus for the study
of verbal communication.
? A locutionary act may have different
illocutionary forces in different contexts,In
other words,an utterance may be
interpreted as a direct or indirect speech
act,
? For example,the utterance of "Don't you think it's
too stuffy in here?" may be interpreted (a)
literally as an inquiry for the addressee's opinion
of the air condition in the place where the
sentence is uttered,(b) as an indirect statement
describing the stuffy atmosphere in the place
where the utterance occurs,and (c) as an indirect
request for the addressee to open the window or
to turn on the air-conditioner,
? Similarly,an illocutionary act can be performed by
different locutionary acts,For example,the
illocutionary act of asking the addressee to open
the door may take,among many others,the
following three different locutionary acts,
? a,Command,Open the door please.
? b,Request,Would you please open the door?
? c,Statement,The doorbell is ringing.
Explain the Illocutionary force in the utterances
? [The daughter walks into the kitchen and
takes some popcorn.]
? Father,I thought you were practicing your
violin,
? Daughter,I need to get the stand.
? Father,Is it under the popcorn?
? Father,I thought you were practicing your
violin,(Criticism for his daughter’s not
practicing the violin)
? Daughter,I need to get the stand,(defence
for herself.)
? Father,Is it under the popcorn? (a denial of
the daughter’s excuse)
Searle also made his contribution to the
study of illocutionary speech acts,He
specified five types of illocutionary speech
acts:
1)representative
2)directive
3)commissive
4)expressive
5)declaration
T h e i l l o c u t i o n a r y p o i n t of t h e
representatives is to commit the speaker to
something’s being the case,to the truth of
t h e e x p r e s s e d p r o p o s i t i o n,
I guess that he has come.
I think that the film is moving.
I am certain that he has come.
Directives are attempts by the speaker to
get the hearer to do s omething,
Open the door!
Don’t you think it’s a bit
stuffy here?
Commissives are those illocutionary
acts whose point is to commit the
speaker to some future course of action.
When speaking,the speaker puts
h i m s e l f u n d e r o b l i g a t i o n,
I promise to love you!
I’ll bring you this book.
The illocutionary point of expressives to
to express the psychological state
specified in the propositional content
s uch as ap olog iz ing,t ha nking,
c o ng r a t u l a t i n g,w e l c o m i n g e t c,
I’m sorry for the mess I have made.
It’s very kind of you to have thought of
me.
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.
I fire you!
Principles of Conversation
The co-operative principle
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.
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.
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.
The maxim of relation
Be relevant.
The maxim of manner
1,Avoid obscurity of expression.
2,Avoid ambiguity.
3,Be brief.
4,Be orderly.
When we violate these maxims,in some
situations,conversational implicature will
arise.
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,X’s address.)
A,Would you like to come to
our party tonight?
B,I’m afraid I’m not
feeling so well today.
A,The hostess is an awful bore,Don’t
you think?
B,The roses in the garden are beautiful,
aren’t 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)
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”).
