Language in Context

Pragmatics, Metaphor and Framing

Meaning

Semantics –meaning derived from linguistic knowledge ( from the words themselves)

Pragmatics – aspects of meaning that cannot be predicted by linguistic knowledge alone, relies on social and contextual cues.

What do we mean by context?

All features of a situation that are relevant to how an utterance is produced an understood.

Context guides meaning

A: What’s your stepmother like?B: she’s a woman and she’s married to

my father.

Pragmatic meaning

Pragmatic meaning depends on Inference

Entailments are directly retrievable from the linguistic form of the utterance

Pre-suppositions are closely linked to the words and grammatical structures + our knowledge of the way language is conventionally interpreted.

Entailment

The race was won in 21.38 seconds

Hussein Bolt won the race.

Thus H. Bolt can run …….

Pre-supposition

Anti-oxidants help to fight cancer.Tea contains 10% anti-oxidants

Thus tea…

Pre-supposition

Ayla managed to stop in time.Also presupposes:• Ayla tried to stop in time• Ayla intended to stop in time• Ayla had the ability to stop in time

Ian forgot to buy the pizzaAlso presupposes• Ian intended to buy pizza • Ian ought to have bought pizza• Ian had the ability (money) to buy pizza

Form versus function

Can you take out the trash?Yes I am capable of doing so?

Not a question but a request/ command

‘its cold in here’

Semantic meaning =The temperature is

below a comfortable level e.g. 75 degrees

Pragmatic meanings=• Turn the heat up• Get me a sweater• Shut the window

Children & meaning.

There’s a breeze in my mouth (sucking a mint)

I can’t die this spider (stomping on spider)

Daddy (when seeing postman)

Literalness

SLP: so you like ice-cream what are your favorite

flavours?

Child: Hamburger…fish…and chips

Literalness

A father is trying to get his 3 year old daughter to stop lifting her dress up and showing her new underwear to the guests

Father: we don’t DO thatGirl: I KNOW Daddy you don’t wear a dress.

Literalness

A 3 year old comes in the front door

Mom: wipe your feet pleaseHe removes his shoes and socks and

carefully wipes his feet on the doormat.

Literal Truth w/o Context

The chemical dihydrogen monoxide Is a major component of acid rain Can cause burns in its gaseous state Is found in patients with terminal cancer Decreases the effect of automobile

brakes Contributes to soil erosion

Language as social action

Pragmatics

“Study of understanding intentional human action” (Green, 1989)

IntentionsWishesbeliefs

Dennet: Mindreading

• Take the intentional stance.• Adopt a theory of mind.• Concepts include:• Knowledge, beliefs, desires, intentions.

A Theory of Mind

• To have a theory of mind is to use mentalistic constructs in order to predict and explain the behavior of other individuals.

• Allows us to “read the minds of others”

Prediction and Explanation

• Prediction: Knowing someone’s desires makes it easy to anticipate his/her emotions.

• Explanation: Knowing someone’s intentions is central to properly interpreting his/her behavior.

Speech Acts

Social actions accomplished through language

form functions

It’s cold in here statement requeststatement comment

Speech acts

locution – actual form of the utterance or their literal semantic meaning.

illocution (illocutionary force) speakers intentions /what the speaker is actually doing with their words e.g. requesting action

perlocution – the uptake or actual outcome e.g. is the window opened therefore the perlocutionary effect is defined by hearer reaction

Speech Acts

How we do things with words (Searle, 1971 Austin, 1975)

Social actions accomplished through use of language.

Language as appropriate behavior. Appropriateness dependent on context.

Speech acts

Dependent upon ‘felicity’ conditions or those factors that must be in place for a speech act to be legitimate.

e.g.

Felicity conditions (appropriacy conditions)

I’ll buy you an ice-cream tomorrow (for this speech act to be a promise)

• The speaker has said they will carry out an action at some future date.

• The speaker intends to do the action.• The speaker believes he can do the action.• The speaker would not have done the action in the normal course of

events. • The speaker believes the hearer wants him to do the action.• The speaker intends to be placed under an obligation to do an

action.If these felicity conditions are not true then the speech act is not a

promise but a “lie”.

Communication requires:

An intention to communicate some information/ or emotion to another person.

An understanding that, - the other person should be able to recognize

that intention.- that while the other person may understand the

intention they may also have goals and beliefs that are different to the speaker (theory of mind)

Features of context.

Roles and status of participants.

Time and place of utteranceEnvironmental conditionsSocial setting formal / informal)Subject matter serious, casualPurpose [goals] interpersonal

instrumental identity

Dichotomy between words & actions

Actions speak louder than words!

Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you

Easier said than done!

While we can study the meaning and structure of language independently we need to look at pragmatic meanings in relation to their context and the speaker’s intentions

J: I just love your new hair cutM: ???{does she mean it}

Meaning

Emergent feature of interaction and also dependent on internal context i.e. what happens in the conversation.

Grice

Cooperation Principle =All things being equal there is a basic

framework that conversations appear to follow

We can describe this in terms of Grice’s Maxims

Conversational ImplicatureGrice suggested that if you analyze

conversations there is an implicit formula of participant cooperativity.

Conversational implicature

Grice talks about conversational implicature

– an inference that unlike entailments and presuppositions cannot be made from the utterance alone, not linked to actual words

Conversational implicature

Conversational implicature is dependent on both the context of the utterance and the shared knowledge between speaker and hearer.

Grice’s Maxims

RELEVANCE [relation] • Make sure that whatever you say is

relevant to the conversation at hand.QUALITY• Do not say what you believe to be false.• Do not say something for which you do not

have adequate evidence.

Grice’s Maxims

QUANTITY• Make your contribution as informative as is

required for the current purposes of the conversation.

• Do not make your contribution more informative than necessary.

MANNER [CLARITY]• Do not make your contribution obscure,

ambiguous or difficult to understand.• Be brief, be orderly

Speakers regularly flout Grice’s maxims to generate implicatures (implied meanings)

Speakers in our culture are typically less than direct in their interactions

Why ?

Violating maxims

Violating – not necessarily deliberate that the speaker has not given enough information or been ambiguous. e.g. intercultural conversations

Flouting –openly flouting a maxim leads to a deliberately generated conversational implicature. e.g. To be sarcastic, diplomatic, covering your back

Recap- Pragmatics

Study of language use in its social & cultural context.

Types of inference• Entailment – directly in the words• Pre-supposition – linked to language• Implicature –implied meaning

Speakers intentionsListeners interpretations.

(interlocutor = participants in a conversation)