Chapter 10: Pragmatics

Introduction to Linguistics

LANE 321

Content adapted from Yule (2010) Copyright © 2014 Haifa Alroqi

 Pragmatics

• Semantics is the study of:

• Conceptual meanings
• Lexical relationships

• However, there are other aspects of meaning that depend more on:

• Context
• The communicative intentions of speakers.

• Communication clearly depends on not only recognizing the

meaning of words in an utterance, but recognizing what speakers

mean by their utterances.
• The study of what speakers mean is called pragmatics.
 Invisible meaning

What does this mean?!

Fall Baby Sale

 Invisible meaning

• Are they selling babies?

• We understand the message although the word ‘clothes’ is not

there.
 Context

There are different kinds of context

1. Linguistic context (co-text)
• The co-text of a word is the set of other words used in the same phrase
or sentence.
• The surrounding co-text has a strong effect on what we think the word
probably means.
• Bank (a homonym)
• I need to withdraw some cash from the bank.
• Most of Ancient Egypt's historical sites are located along the banks
of the Nile River.
 Context

2. Physical context

The physical location will influence our interpretation

 Deixis

• Some very common words cannot be interpreted unless the physical

context of the speaker is known.

• Examples: here and there, this or that, now and then, yesterday, today

or tomorrow, as well as pronouns such as you, me, she, him, it, them.
 Deixis

• Some sentences are impossible to understand if we don’t know who is

speaking, about whom, where and when.

• You’ll have to bring it back tomorrow, because she isn’t here today.
• Out of context, this sentence is vague.

• It contains a large number of expressions that rely on knowledge of the

immediate physical context for their interpretation

• These expressions are technically known as deictic expressions, from the

Greek word deixis, which means “pointing” via language.

 Deixis

Deixis (deictic expressions): Using words such as this or here as a way of

“pointing” with language.
• We use deixis to point to:

• things (it, this, these boxes)

• people (him, them, those idiots) [Person deixis]
• location (here, there, near that) [Spatial deixis]
• time (now, then, last week) [Temporal deixis]
All these deictic expressions have to be interpreted in terms of which person,
place or time the speaker has in mind.
 Reference

Reference: an act by which a speaker/writer uses language to enable a

listener/reader to identify someone or something
• We can use:
• Proper nouns: (Chomsky, Ahmed)
• Nouns in phrases: (the cat, a writer, my friend, the war)
• Pronouns: (he, she, it)
• These words can be used to refer to many entities in the world
• We refer to things we’re not sure what to call them
• That blue thing
• That icky stuff
• We invent references: Mr. Kawasaki (p. 131), Miss Google.
 Inference

• A successful act of reference depends more on the listener's ability to recognize

what we mean than on the listener’s dictionary’s knowledge of the word we use.
• We can use names associated with things to refer to people

• Where’ s the caesar salad sitting?

• He’s sitting by the door.
• We can use names associated with people to refer to things
• Can I borrow your Chomsky? Sure it’ s on the table
• We saw Shakespeare in London.

An inference is additional information used by the listener to create a connection

between what is said and what must be meant.
 Anaphora

• We usually make a distinction between

• introducing new referents (a puppy)

• and referring back to them (the puppy, it)
• We saw a funny home video about a boy washing a puppy in a small bath.

• The puppy started struggling and shaking and the boy got really wet.

• When he let go, it jumped out of the bath and ran away.

• In this type of referential relationship,

• The 1st mention is called antecedent. (a puppy/ a boy, a small bath)

• The 2nd (subsequent) referring expression is an example of anaphora
("referring back"). (the puppy/ it/ the boy/ he/ the bath)
• Anaphora: a subsequent reference to an already introduced entity.
 Anaphora

• The connection between an antecedent & an anaphoric expression is created

by use of:

• A pronoun (it)
• Repetition of the noun with the (the puppy)
• Another noun that is related to the antecedent in some way (The little
dog ran out of the room).
• The connection between antecedents and anaphoric expressions is often
based on inference, as in these examples,
• 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.
 Presupposition

• Why did you arrive late?

• Presupposition = you arrived late.

• When did you stop smoking?

• Presupposition 1 = the speaker supposes that you used to smoke.

• Presupposition 2 = the speaker supposes that you no longer smoke.

• We design our linguistic message on the basis of assumptions about what our

listeners already know.

• What a speaker assumes is true or known by the listener can be described as a

presupposition
 Presupposition

• Questions like this, with built-in presuppositions, are very useful devices

for interrogators or trial lawyers.

• Okay, Mr. Buckingham, how fast were you going when you ran the red
light?

• Negation test

• My car is old
• My car isn’t old
• The underlying presupposition = (I have a car)/ It remains true although
the two sentences have opposite meanings. (constancy under negation)
 Speech acts

• Speech acts (e.g. requesting/ commanding/ questioning/ informing)

• We can define a speech act as the action performed by a speaker with an

utterance.
e.g.
• I’ ll be here at five.

You are not just speaking, you are performing the speech act of
‘promising’
 Direct and indirect speech acts

• We usually use certain syntactic structures with the functions listed

beside them in the following table

• When an interrogative structure such as Did you..?, Are they..?, Can we….?

is used with the function of a question, it is described as a direct speech act.

• When we don’t know something and we ask someone to provide the
information, we usually produce a direct speech (Can you ride a bicycle?)
 Direct and indirect speech acts

• Can you pass the salt?

• Is it the same syntactic structure as (Can you ride the bicycle?)

• Does it have the same function that (Can you ride the bicycle?) has (i.e.

asking about your ability?)?

• No, it’s a request not a question. (Indirect speech act)
 Direct and indirect speech acts

• Whenever one of the structures in the set is used to perform a function other

than the one listed beside it on the same line, the result is an indirect speech act.

• You left the door open (What structure? What function?)

• You left the door open (for someone who has just come in and it’s really cold

outside.)
• (= close the door) request but without using an imperative structure?
 Direct and indirect speech acts

• It is possible to have strange effects if one person fails to recognize another

person’s indirect speech act.

• Consider the following scene. A visitor to a city, carrying his luggage, looking
lost, stops a passer-by.
VISITOR: Excuse me. Do you know where the Ambassador Hotel is?
PASSER-BY: Oh sure, I know where it is. (and walks away)

• The passer-by is acting as if the utterance was a direct speech act instead of an
indirect speech act used as a request for directions.
• Could you open that door for me? Function = request not question

• Why do we use the indirect speech?

• It’s more polite. Open that door for me!

 Politeness

• In the study of linguistic politeness, the most relevant concept is ‘face’

• Your face, in pragmatics, is your public self-image. This is the emotional

and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to
recognize.
Politeness can be defined as showing awareness of and consideration of
another person’s face.
 Politeness

If you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self image,
that is called a face-threatening act.
• e.g. Give me that paper!

behaving as if you have more social power than the other person. If you
don’t actually have that power (your mom, a military officer), then you are
performing a face-threatening act.
If you say something that lessens the possible threat to another’s face, it can
be described as a face-saving act.
• Indirect speech act (Could you pass me that paper?) removes the

assumption of social power.

 Negative and positive face

• Negative face: the need to be independent, free from imposition

• A face-saving act that emphasizes a negative face will show concern about imposition:

• I’m sorry to bother you…

• I know you’re busy but…
• If you’re free,…

• Positive face: the need to be connected, to be a member of the group

• A face-saving act that emphasizes a person’s positive face will show solidarity and
draw attention to a common goal:
• Let’s do this together…
• You and I have the same problem, so
Homework: All study questions/ pp. 137

Thank you