pragmatic
TRANSCRIPT
PRAGMATICS:Meaning and content, and the intention to communicate.
* Pronouns and discourse* Deixis* Maxims of Conversation
Presented by:Hanin, Aisyah, Shaimimey
“Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social
interaction and the effects of our choice on others.”
(David Crystal)
“Pragmatics is all about the meanings between the lexis and the grammar and
the phonology…Meanings are implied and the rules being followed are
unspoken, unwritten ones.”
(George Keith)
• The study of what the speakers mean, or ‘speaker meaning’, is called
pragmatics. In many ways, pragmatics is the study of ‘invisible’ meaning, or
how we recognize what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or written.
• Pragmatics is the study of meaning of words, phrases and full sentences, but
unlike semantics which deals with the objective meanings of words that can
be found in dictionaries, pragmatics is more concerned with the meaning of
words in fact convey when they are used, or with intended speaker meaning
as it is sometimes referred to.
When a diplomat says yes, he means ‘perhaps’;
When he says perhaps, he means ‘no’;
When he says no, he is not a diplomat.
When a lady says no, she means ‘perhaps’;
When she says perhaps, she means ‘yes’;
When she says yes, she is not a lady.
Voltaire (Quoted, in Spanish, in Escandell 1993)
Physical context:• This encompasses what is physically
present around the speakers/hearers at the time of communication. What objects are visible, where the communication is taking place, and what is going on, etc.
Examples:• I want that book. (accompanied by
pointing)• Be here at 9:00 tonight. (place/time
reference)
Linguistics context:• What has been said before in the
conversation. The “history” of things said so far.
• Also known as co-text.
Examples:• I can’t believe you said that!
• If my mom heard you talk like that, she’d wash all your mouths out with soap!
You’ll have to bring it back tomorrow because she
isn’t here today.
???...
The word ‘deixis’ is a technical term (from Greek)for one of the most basic things
we do with utterances, which means ‘pointing’ via language.
Any linguistic form used to accomplish ‘pointing’ is called a deictic expression.
Deictic expressions are also known as indexical.
A speech event includes at least two persons:
• 1st person = the speaker
• 2nd person = addressee
If the two persons do not only refer to themselves while talking, there is a 3rd
person that does not has to take part in the conversation.
The pronouns for the 1st person : I – my – mine
The pronouns for the 2nd person : you – your – yours
Definite and specific pronouns : this, that, those or these
Indefinite and specific pronouns : somebody, something, who, what
Indefinite and non-specific pronouns : someone, something, nobody,
nothing
Concerns the locations relative to anchorage points in the speech event.
Locations can be specified relative to other objects.
Example: The station is two hundred yards from the college.
Locations can be specified relative to the location of participants.
Example: It’s two hundred yards away.
Some pure place-deictic words: here and there (adverbs); this and that
(demonstrative pronouns)
-Symbolic usage of here: pragmatically given unit of space that includes the
location of the speaker.
Example: I’m writing to say I’m having a marvelous time here.
Adverbs: here and there (contrast on a proximal/distal dimension)
-here: proximal (near) - there: distal (more distant)
Example: Bring that here and take this there.
Demonstrative pronouns are more clearly organized in a proximal/distal
dimension.
-this: the object in a pragmatically given area close to the speaker’s
location.
- that: the object beyond the pragmatically given area close to the speaker’s
location.
Directions: to the left from; to the right from
Motion verbs- signs of place deixis
-Come vs. go makes distinction between the direction of motion.
He’s coming – he is moving towards the speaker’s location.
He’s going – he is moving away from the speaker’s location.
I’m coming – the speaker is moving towards the location of the
addressee.
proximal 'now' indicates both the time coinciding with the
speaker's utterance and the time of the speaker's voice
being heard (the hearer's now)
• distal 'then' applies to both past and future time relative
to the speaker's present time
Examples:
November 22nd, 1963? I was in Scotland then.
Dinner at 8:30 on Saturday? Okay, I'll see you then
• all deictic expressions depend on knowing the relevant utterance time (Fillmore 1971).
– time the utterance was made = coding time (CT)– time the utterance is heard/read = receiving time (RT)
Deictic Simultaneity: CT = RT (normal verbal utterance situation)
• complication in written messages and pre-recordings of media programs
Back in an hourFree beer tomorrow In this case a decision has to be made about whether the deictic center remains on the speaker (and CT) or is projected on the addresse (and RT)
•Temporal events can be treated as objects that move toward
or away from us
Example:
i. This program is being recorded today, Wednesday April
1st , to be relayed next Thursday
ii. This program was recorded last Wednesday April 1st, to
be relayed today
iii. I write this letter while chewing peyote
iv. I wrote this letter while chewing peyote
choice of verb tense expresses temporal deixis:
o present tense is proximal:
Example: I live here now
o past/future are distal:
Examples: I lived there then
I will be in London by then
o conditional/unlikely event also treated as deictically
distant
Example: I could be in Hawaii (if I had a lot of
money)
Reference:
An act by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to
enable a listener (or reader) to identify something. These
are called referring expressions.
To perform an act of reference, we can use proper
nouns, noun phrases (definite and indefinite) and
pronouns.
a) Proper nouns:‘Mercedez-Benz’ ‘Sunway
Lagoon’
b) Noun phrases (definite) : ‘The school bus’ ‘The
badminton player’
c) Noun phrases (indefinite) :‘A vehicle’ ‘A girl’
d) Pronouns:‘It’ ‘He, him’
We can also refer to things when we are not sure what to call
them.
Examples:
i.The blue thing
ii.That icky stuff
Invent names:
Example: Mr Kawasaki
(a man who always drove his motorcycle fast
and loud through his neighborhood )
The choice of one type of referring
expression rather than another seems
to be based, to a large extent, on what
the speaker assumes the listener
already knows.
For successful referencereference to occur, we must also recognize the role of
inferenceinference..
What are inferences?What are inferences?
Inference:
Additional information used by listener to create a
connection between what is said and what must be
meant.
Listener makes inferences about what is said in
order to arrive at an interpretation of the speaker’s
intended meaning. The choice of one type of
referring expression rather than another seems to be
based on what the speaker assume the listener
already know.
Examples:
Situation: students are studying linguistics
Student 1: Can I look at your Chomsky?
Student 2: Sure, it’s on the shelf
Inference: If Chomsky is the name of a writer of a book, then
Chomsky must be used to identify a copy of a book by that writer.
Situation: a nurse comes to a doctor’s room
Nurse: The hernia in room 5 wants to talk to you
Doctor: Sure, let’s go there
Inference: If hernia is a name of a disease, then hernia must be
referred to a patient suffering hernia.
Practices:
Make an inference to interprete each of these
utterance.
A boy: We saw Shakespeare in London
Waiter: The ham sandwich left without paying
Dentist: My eleven-thirty canceled so I had an early
lunch
Teacher: Picasso is in the museum
A girl: Jennifer is wearing Calvin Klein
In English, initial reference is often indefinite. The definite noun phrases and
the pronouns are examples of subsequent reference to already introduced referents, generally known as anaphoric reference,
or anaphora. In technical terms, the second or subsequent expression is the anaphora
and the initial expression is the antecedent.
1. After the initial introduction of some entity, speakers will use various expressions to maintain reference:
Example:
“In the film, a man and a woman were trying to wash a cat. The man was holding the cat while the woman poured water on it. He said something to her and they started laughing”
• a man the man he a man the man he • a woman the woman she a woman the woman she • he + she they he + she they
Anaphoric reference
2. When the interpretation requires us to identify an entity, and no linguistic expression is presented, it is called zero anaphora, or ellipsis.
The use of zero anaphora clearly creates an expectation that the listener will be able to infer who or what the speaker intends to identify
Example:
“Peel an onion and slice it. Drop the slices into hot oil. Cook for three minutes.”
3. The connection between an antecedent and
anaphoric expression can also be created with the use of
other nouns that are related to the antecedent by inference.
Example:
We found a house to rent, but the kitchen was very small
I caught a bus and asked the driver if it went near the
downtown area.
We have used the term ‘inference’ to
describe what the listener (or reader)
does. When we talk about an
assumption made by the speaker (or
writer), we usually talk about a
‘presupposition’
•What a speaker (or writer) assumes it true or known
by a listener (or reader) can be described as
presupposition.
Examples:
o Your brother is waiting outside
o Why did you arrive late?
o When did you stop smoking?
Discourse analysis is about how we make sense
of what we read, how we can recognize well-
constructed text as opposed to those that are
jumbled or incoherent, how we understand speakers
who communicate more than they say, and how we
successfully take part in that complex activity called
conversation .
The word ‘discourse’ is usually defined as
‘language beyond the sentence’ and the analysis of
discourse is typically concerned with the study of
language in text and conversation.
• Trains collide, two die (newspaper headline)
• No shoes, no services (on shop windows in summer)
• My Town, My natal was in a small town, very close to Riyadh capital of Saudi Arabia. The distant between my town and Riyadh 7 miles exactly. The name of this Almasani that means in English Factories. It takes this name from the peopl’s carrer. In my childhood I remember the people live. It was very simple. Most the people was farmer. (sample essay by a student learning English)
• Ties or connection that exist within texts• Also known as cohesive ties • Example:
My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he could.
That car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my
college education. Sometimes I think I’d rather had the convertible.
father – he – he – hemy – my – ILincoln – ita Lincoln convertible – that car – the convertiblebought – saving – penny- worth a fortune – sold – payonce – nowadays - sometimes
However, by itself, cohesion would not be sufficient to enable us to make sense
of what we read. It is quite easy to create a highly cohesive text that has a lot of
connections between the sentences, but is very difficult to interpret. Note that the
following text has connections such as Lincoln-the car, red-that colour, her-she,
letter-a letter
My father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car driven by the police was red. That
colour doesn’t suit her. She consists of three letters. However, a letter isn’t as fast as a
telephone call.
It becomes clear from this type of example that the ‘connectedness’ we
experience in our interpretation of normal texts is not simply based on
connections between words. There must be some other factors that leads us to
distinguish connected texts that make sense from those that do not.
• The key to the concept of coherence (everything fitting together well) is not
something that exists in words or structures, but something that exists in people.
• It is people who ‘make sense’ of what they read or hear. They try to arrive at an
interpretation that is in line with their experience of the way the world is.
•Example:
HER: That’s the telephone
HIM: I’m in bath
HER: O.K
• English conversation can be described as an activity in which for the most part, two or more people take turns in speaking.
• Only one person speaks at a time and there tends to be avoidance of silence between speaking turns.
• If more than one participants try to talk at the same time, one of them usually stops, as in the following example
• Example:
A: Didn’t you [know wh-B: [But he must’ve been there by twoA: Yes but you knew he was going
Completion points:
• The speakers can mark their turns as complete:
i) by asking question
ii) by pausing at the end of a completed syntactic
structure like a phrase or a sentence
• The listeners can indicate that they want to take the
speaking turn:
i) by making short sounds, usually repeated
ii) use body shift or facial expressions to signal that
they have something to say
‘rudeness’ – if one speaker cuts in on another speaker‘shyness’ – if one speaker keeps waiting for an opportunity to take a turn and none seems to occur
• The participants characterized as ‘rude’ or ‘shy’ in this way may simply be adhering to slightly different conventions of turn-taking
• One way ‘to keep the turn’ is:i)don’t pause at the end of a sentence, make your sentence run on using connectors like and, then, so, but,…
ii) place your pauses at points where the message is clearly incomplete, and preferably ‘fill’ the pause with a hesitation marker such as er, em, ur, ah,…
Example 1:
Pauses (marked by …) are placed before and after verbs rather than at the end of sentences
A: that’s their favourite restaurant because they… enjoy French food and when they were… in France they couldn’t believe it that… you know that they had… that they had better meals back home
Example 2:
Speaker X produces filled pauses (with em, er, you know) after having almost lost the turn at his first brief hesitation
X: well that film really was… [wasn’t that he was good atY: [when di-X: I mean his other… em his later films were much more … really more in the romantic style and that was more what what he was… you know… em best at doingY: so when did he make that one
• Make your contribution as
informative as is required, but
not more, or less than is
required.
Example 1:
A girl: Do you have the time?A man: Yes, it’s 9:30
• One finds this normal because the maxim is observed• The man contribute only as much information as required-not excessive like: “it’s 9:30 at night, Greenwich Mean Time, 20 May 2009,…”- not inadequate like: “it’s night time”
Example 2:
Jenny: Liz, can I have John’s number?Liz: Yes
Despite her positive answer, we find Liz’s behaviour is weird because the maxim is violated.
Less information is provided than is required
• Do not say what you believe to be false
• Do not say that for which you lack of adequate evidences
Example 1:
Sophia : Jim, do you know where the Big Ben Clock Tower is?Jim : It’s in London
• This is normal because the maxim is observed.
Jim does not contribute what he believes to be false and to be unsubstantiated. (e.g: It’s in Hong Kong)
Example 2:
Mary: Jenny, how do you like this novel?Jenny: Oh, I like the red cover
• Jenny’s reply strange because the maxim is violated.
Jenny says something that evidently she does not believes in (she told a lie)
• Be relevant
• Example 1:
Waiter: How do you like your steak cooked?Customer: Medium rare, please.
• One finds this normal because the maxim is observed• The woman contributes what is relevant for the purpose of conversation.
• The maxim is violated if the answer given is irrelevant e.g: I like steak very much.
What nice weather!
• Be clear, brief and orderly
• Avoid obscurity of expression
• Avoid ambiguity
Example 1:
A: What did Laura do when she heard Lauri’s boat had arrived?B: Laura jumped and ran to the pier.
One finds this conversation normal because the maxim is observed
Example 2:
A: What did Laura do when she heard Lauri’s boat had arrived?B: Laura ran to the pier and jumped.
One find this conversation bewildering because the maxim is violated.
For each of the following conversational excerpts, name a maxim that has been violated and explain how.
1.I’m a millionaire (actually I’m penniless)
2. Don’t be silly. I love working 80 hours a week with no vacations
3. Dr. Kawashima received his Ph.D in 1986, his B.A in 1980, and his M.A in 1982.
4. John: When am I going to get back the money I lent you? David: Boy, it’s hot in here
5. Patient: What should I do to get rid of this awful headache, doctor/Doctor: Take some medicine
6. Customer: Excuse me, how much is this screwdriver?Seller: $9.95. The saw is $39.50, and the power drill there on
the table is $89.00
Book:
i)The Study of Language
Internet:
i)http://www.ling.ohio-state-edu/~kdk/201/spring02/slides/pragmatics-4up.pdf
ii)http://ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/~jilka/index.html
iii)www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/pragmatics.htm
iv)www.kwary.net/maxim-of-conversation
v)Drshadiabanjar.blogspot.com/2009/03/pragmatics-definitions-and-
backgrounds.html
vi)Drshadiabanjar.blogspot.com/2009/03/deixis-and-distance.html