The History of Pragmatics

The History of Pragmatics

BySidra Shahid

IntroductionThe pragmatic principles people accept by in one language are often different in another. Cross-linguistics(relatingtodifferent languages)and cross-cultural studies reported what is considered polite in one language is sometimes not polite in another. Pragmatics is a new branch of linguistics, research on it can be dated back to ancient Greece and Rome where the term pragmaticus is found in late Latin and pragmaticos in Greek, both meaning fit for an action.

Classical PragmaticsFar-side Pragmatics: Beyond Saying

1- Austin, Searle, and Speech Acts2-Grice and Conversational Implicatures3- Bach, Harnish, and a Unified Theory

Austin, Searle, and Speech Acts

We can use words to do different things such as the meaning of anything is not only restricted to the literal meaning of word, but what one intends to do with them and the social setting in which the linguistic activity occurs.

For Example:

I'll be there to pick you up at sixIs to promise to pick her listener up at that time.The ability to promise and to fulfill that promise is possibly depended on the existence of a social practice or set of conventions about what a promise is .Austin especially emphasized the importance of social fact and conventions in doing things with words.

Grice and Conversational ImplicaturesIts main emphasize was on what the speaker literally says when using them, and what the speaker means or intends to communicate by using those words.

For example:-I ask you to lunch and you reply, I have a one o'clock class I'm not prepared for.You have conveyed to me that you will not be coming to lunch, although you haven't literally saidso but you intend for me to figure out that by indicating a reason for not coming to lunch.

Bach, Harnish, and a Unified Theory

Like Austin, but unlike Searle, Bach and Harnish argue for the concept of locutionary acts.

Locutionary act is a speech act (Aspeech actin linguistics is a statement that has performative functionin language and communication).

For Example:

Don't go into the water.In this sentence there is a warning to the listener not to go into the water. If the listener notices the warning the speech-act has been successful.

I warn you to stop smoking.

Near-side Pragmatics

Kaplan on Indexical and DemonstrativesPragmatic Puzzles of ReferentialismStalnaker on Context and Content

Kaplan on Indexical and Demonstratives

Indexical means points to something and Demonstratives means indicative or suggested evidence.Paradigmatic examples of indexicals are I, here, today he , there , yesterday,

Both Ali and Aliha utter I am hungry, Aliha says that she is hungry, whereas Ali says that he is hungry.

Pragmatic Puzzles of Referentialism

Referentialism is a theory of language that claims that the meaning of a word or expression lies in what it points out in the world.

Widow denotes widows and means the attributes of being female, and of having been married to someone now dead.

Hespherus is visible in the eastern sky and Phosphorus is visible in the eastern sky.

For exampleHesperus is visible in the eastern sky. Phosphorus is visible in the eastern sky.

Stalnaker on Context and Content

one will assume or presuppose from the context and content.For Example:Hiba knows the sea is salty.One will assume or presuppose, that the sea is salty

The Queen of England has many necklaces.one will assume or presuppose that queen has many necklaces.

Contemporary pragmatic theory

Two models of Linguistics CommunicationRelevance theory Principles of relevance Implicated evidences and conclusion

Levinson's theory of utterance-type meaningLiteralists, Minimalist, contextualists and other.

3 stages of developmentThere are three stages in the development of pragmatics.The 1st stage occurred in 1930s. The term Pragmatics was used at a the 1st time. It was the branch of Semiology/semiotics= the study of signs.

Pragmatics

In 1938, Carnap said that pragmatics should focus on relationship between users, words and reference relationship.In 1940, Charles Morris divided semiology into 3 parts: syntactics/syntax, semantics and pragmatics.Then, the 2nd stage: From 1950 to 1960: 3 philosophers: Austin, Searle and Paul Grice established their theory of Speech act and implicature theory.

The 3rd Stage: in 1977, Jacob L. Mey published the 1st Journal of Pragmatics in Holland.In 1983, Levinson wrote his book Pragmatics whereas Geoffrey Leech wrote his Principle of pragmatics.In 1988,the set up of International Pragmatics Association (IPrA). This was a year which noted as a year when pragmatics turned into an independent discipline.

Schools of PragmaticsThere are two schools of pragmatics: Br. And Am.school and European School.British and American school had a focus on sentence structure and grammar: deictic expression, conversational implicature, presupposition, speech and conversational structure. It was called : Micro-pragmatics.

The European school had a wider focus. It focused on macro-pragmatics scope like conversational analysis, cultural anthropology, social linguistics and psycholinguistics in the process of communication.