Pragmatics presentation

Pragmatics Definitions and Background

Presented to Sir Kashif RaoPresented by Rabia Mansoor Sahar Rauf KCWU, LHR.

Introduction

Subfield of Linguistics and SemioticsStudies the ways in which context contributes to meaningWord pragmatics comes from Latin pragmaticus - fit for

action Term first appeared in linguistic philosophy in 1930’s, by

C.W. Morris, Wittgenstein & Austin Developed as subfield of linguistics in the late 1970’sPublication of Journal of Pragmatics, publishing of

Pragmatics by Levinson and International Pragmatics Association in 1988 are the three important incidents that mark the recognition of Pragmatics as an independent discipline in Linguistics.

Definition 1

Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning

Example‘The chicken is ready to eat’‘Sherlock saw the man with binoculars’

Definition 2

Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning

Example:(Shop window)Baby Sale – lots of bargain

Definition 3

Pragmatics is the study of implicatures; how more get communicated than is saidExample: Do you know where I can get some gas?There’s a gas station around the corner.

Example: The book is lying on that table (close distance)

The book is lying on the table next to the wall painted red in the lounge. (long distance)

Definition 4

Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance

Pragmatics (contextual meaning)

Pragmatics is the

study of the

expression of

relative distance

Syntax

• Study of relationship between linguistic forms, how they are arranged in sequence and which sequence are well-formed

• Without any world of reference or any user of the forms

• Example: Cat drinks the milk (SVO)

Semantics

• Study of the relationship between linguistic forms and entities in the world

i.e. how words literally connect to the things

• Semantic analysis – establish relationship between verbal description and state of affairs in the world as true or not

• Example: The dog hopped over the mat and played with the ball

Pragmatics

• Study of relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those forms - (humans).

• Example: Get me a cup of coffee

Advantages of Pragmatics in language studying

• People’s intended meaning• Their assumptions • Their purposes or goals• And kind of actions Example: Have you got any cash on you?

deep meaning – Can you lend me some money, I don’t have much on me

Disadvantages• Difficult to reach to true meaning • We can not get into the mind of the other

person• Every individual has his or her own approach

of interpreting • Level of understanding varies

Example: Red rose. Are you Punjabi?

Regularityin

Pragmatics

Regularity derives from the fact that people are members of social groups and follow general patterns of behavior expected from within the group.

It is a use of regular patterns of language.

In a new, unfamiliar social setting we are often unsure about what to say and worry that we might say the wrong thing.

Example:In Saudi Arabia questions about one’s health should not be answered with details, instead a phrase 'Praise to God’ is pragmatically appropriate.

People within a linguistic community have similar basic experiences of the world and sharea lot of non-linguistic knowledge. e.g.

I found an old bicycle lying on the ground. The chain was rusted and the tires were flat. There is no need to ask why chain and tires are mentioned (knowledge about bicycles)

Vague Example:

I found an old bicycle. A bicycle has a chain. The chain was rusted. A bicycle also has tires. The tires were flat.This is an example of odd impression, one would assume more is communicated than is said and also gives the impression that other person do not have basic knowledge.In this example, the use of linguistic forms is not inaccurate but one should be careful that the meaning conveyed through pragmatics should not be offensive.

A pragmatic regularity is a kind of pragmatic implication (i.e., carried by the act of using a particular expression in a particular context, as opposed to being constitutive of what is semantically expressed) So,

WHAT IS COMMUNICATED with a use of a sentence (in context) is a function of two factors:

WHAT IS SEMANTICALLY EXPRESSEDWHAT IS PRAGMATICALLY IMPLICATED

Semantic Expression

Speaker’s Intention

Communication

Paradigmatic examples of pragmatic regularities include: 1. Gricean generalized conversational implicatures (GCIs) (e.g.,

‘X is meeting a woman this evening’) 2. Rhetorical uses of interrogatives (e.g., ‘Who do you think you

are?’) 3. Certain kinds of standardized irony (e.g., ‘Way to go,

Einstein!’).

They are just simply common patterns of usage which regularly convey a certain implicature, independent of what is semantically expressed.

Generalized conversational implicatures (GCIs)

1. X is meeting a woman this evening. 2. X went into a house.

[1] would normally implicate that the person to be met was someone other than X’s wife, mother, sister, and [2] would normally implicate that the house is other than X’s own. Based on such cases, it might be said that a lack of familiarity, ownership is commonly communicated by the use of the indefinite article ‘a’.

3. X broke a finger. 4. X has been sitting in a car all morning.

This claim rests only on the following assumptions: (i) [3] would normally implicate that X broke X’s own finger(ii) [4] is completely neutral as to whether or not the car was

X’s own There is nothing remotely non-literal or non-standard

about these latter uses of ‘a’. Hence [1] and [2] here is a pragmatic matter (i.e., carried by the speaker’s use of the indefinite article in this particular context, as opposed to a matter of what is semantically expressed by ‘a’).

GCIs are cancelable

“I am meeting a woman this evening, and she is my mother.”

So, this phenomenon instanced by [1] and [2] is a case wherein something communicated (with a use of an expression, in context) seems to be pragmatically implicated, not semantically expressed.

Consider the following:

Why are you so lazy?

• The use of this (in context) semantically expresses a question about the cause of, or explanation for, the addressee’s laziness. Literal uses of it are thus relatively rare (e.g. a therapist might literally ask this of her patient). •What is more common is that speakers use this question rhetorically – i.e., to pragmatically implicate that the addressee is lazy. In general, and as is typical of rhetorical uses of questions, while what semantically expresses is interrogative.

Rhetorical Questions

Consider an utterance of the following, in a context in which a mistake or accident has just occurred:

Way to go, Einstein!

There is a non-literal, mocking use of a famous name. So, there is communicative regularity.

That’s why this is ‘standardized’ irony – as an empirical matter, non-literal, mocking uses of such expressions are epidemic.

“Wear these bangles, Juggia. Wear these bangles and put henna on your palms”

The utterance occurs in the novel by Khushwant Singh's ‘Train to Pakistan’. This utterance is directly addressed to Juggut Singh by Malli. The implicit force of the above utterance is intermingled with cultural assumptions. In Indian context, when someone wants to comment on somebody's inability, effeminacy, or to insult someone severely, the expressions such as 'wear the bangles' or 'put henna on your palms' are used. 'Bangles’ and 'henna' are closely associated to women and women are considered to be delicate objects of beauty and not the bravery. Thus, the speaker using elements of beautification i.e. 'bangles' and 'henna‘ implicitly compares Juggut Singh with a woman and challenges his bravery.

Reference to immediate context

Activity

What about January? (Intended meaning)

Consider the following conversation:

A: When should we do it?

B: January??

A: January!?!B: January.

A: January...

B: January!

TaskTry to think of an appropriate situational context and of the possible intended meanings hidden behind the word "January".

The pragmatics wastebasket

• Unnecessary things to be excluded or knocked off in the ‘wastebasket’

• Example the duck ran up to Mary and licked her

Syntactic Approach

• Concerned with the rules that determines the correct structure

• Put to wastebasket the incorrect onesAs:Up duck Mary to the ran

Missing elementAnd _ licked her‘it’

Semantics Approach

• Meaning• Truth-conditions• Example:P&QOrQ&PThe duck licked Mary and ran up to her

Pragmatics Approach

• Interpret order of mention as a reflection of order of occurrence

References

• Nagane, Dhanaji. "A Study of Speech Acts in Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan." Indian Streams Research Journal 1.12 (2012).

• George Yule. “Pragmatics”.Oxford University Press, 06-Jun-1996.

• Sullivan, Arthur. "On Pragmatic Regularities." Philosophical and Formal Approaches to Linguistic Analysis (2012): 491.