semantics and

pragmatics

28/11/08

semantics

� It is the branch of linguistics which

studies meaning as it is encoded in

the language system.

� Its keyword is reference, that is the

relationship between a word and what

it points to in the real world

different types of meaning

� Propositional meaning (or denotation)

� Expressive meaning (or connotation)

� Presupposed meaning

� Evoked meaning

(Cruse, 1986)

denotation and

connotation

� denotation is the relation between a

word or an utterance and what it

refers to or describes in a real or

imaginary world

� connotation relates to the speaker’s

feelings or attitude to a word or

utterance

presupposed meaning

� It arises from co-occurrence restrictions, i.e. restrictions on what other words or expressions weexpect to see before or after a particular unit. Thereare two types of restrictions: selectional and collocational.

� Selectional restrictions are a function of the propositional meaning of a word (ex.: for the adjective‘studious’ we expect a human subject)

� Collocational restrictions are semantically arbitraryrestrictions which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of a word (ex.: to pay a visit)

evoked meaning

� It arises from dialect and register variations.

� A dialect is a variety of language which has currencywithin a specific community or group of people. It can be classified on geographical, temporal or social basis

� Register is a variety of language that a language userconsiders appropriate to a specific situation. Registervariation arises from variation in field, tenor and mode (Halliday). The field of discourse refers to what is goingon; the tenor of discourse refers to the relationshipbetween the participants in the discourse; the mode ofdiscourse refers to the role that the language is playing(a lecture, a speech, instructions, orders, etc.) and toits medium of transmission (spoken, written, written tobe spoken)

pragmatics

� It is the branch of linguistics which studiesthe use of language in communication.

� It involves the relationship betweensentences and the contexts and situationsin which they are used

� It involves the study of how the interpretation and use of utterances dependon knowledge of the world, how speakersuse and understand speech acts, how the structure is influenced by the speaker/hearer relationship.

Speech acts theory

� There are three acts related to anyutterance: the locutionary act; the illocutionary act (or illocutionary force); the perlocutionary act (or perlocutionary effect)

� the locutionary act is the utterance itself

� the illocutionary force is the purpose of the utterance

� the perlocutionary effect is the effect of the utterance on the hearer

(Austin, 1962)

direct and indirect speech

acts

� Speech acts are direct whenever there is a

direct relationship between a structure and

its function (ex. a question to make a

request: ‘can you open the window?’)

� Speech acts are indirect whenever there is

an indirect relationship between a structure

and its function (ex. a declarative to make a

request: ‘it’s hot here’)

the cooperative principle

� It is assumed that the participants in a conversationare cooperating to make sense of what they say.

� The cooperative principle follows four maxims: quantity, quality, relation, manner

� quantity: make your contribution as informative as isrequired and not less informative than is required

� quality: say what you know it’s true or what you believeto be true

� relation: be relevant to the conversation

� manner: avoid obscurity of expression, avoidambiguity, be brief, be orderly

(Grice, 1975)

politeness

� Grice suggested to add a fifth maxim: ‘be polite’

� Politeness involves being tactful, generous, modest, sympathetic; in the case of linguisticinteractions politeness involves paying attentionnot to threaten the other’s face, i.e. his/her self-image

� There are positive face wants and negative face wants: the former refer to the need to beaccepted and treated as members of the samegroup; the latter refer to the need to beindependent, not to be imposed by the others

Different approaches

� Say nothing approach: I need a pen and I

look for something in my bag and expect my

neighbour offers me one

� Off record approach: I need a pen and I say

‘I’ve forgotten my pen’ (indirect speech act)

� On record approach: I need a pen and I ask

my neighbour for it ‘lend me a pen, please’

or ‘will you lend me a pen?’ (direct speech

act)