DRT 16 sy of Language Pragmatics In many ways, pragmatics isthe study of “invisible” meaning, or how we recognize ‘what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or writen In order for that to happen, speakers (or writers) must be able to depend on alot of shared assumptions and expectations when they try to communicate. The investigation of those assumptions and expectations provides us with some insights into how more is always being communicated than is said, Driving by a parking garage, you may see a large sign lke the one in the picture. You read the sign knowing what each ofthe words means and what the sign as a whole ‘means, However, you don't normally think that the sign i advertising a place where you can park your “heated attendant.” (You take an attendant, you heat him/her up, and this is where you can park him/her.) Altematively the sign may indicate a place ‘where parking will be caried out by attendants who have been heated. ‘The words inthe sign may allow these interpretations, but we would normally understand that we can parka car in this place, that it's a heated area, and that there Figure 10.1,Figure 102 ‘ ‘ill bean attendant to look after the car. So, how do we decide thatthe sign means this ‘ahen the sign doesn't even have the ward car on? We must use the meanings ofthe ‘words, the context in which they occur, and sone preexisting knowledge of what would bea ikely message as we work toward a reasonable interpretation of what the producer of the sign intended ito convey. Our interpretation of the “meaning” of the sign isnot based solely onthe words, but on what we hnk the wer intended 10 communicate, on he other picture, assuming thing re normal an ths store has not gone into the sins of sling young ciden, we can eoguize an avertisement for 2 eof lothes for those abies and odes. The word clothes dosnt appear inthe message, pat we cn bring that dea to ourinferpreaion fhe message a we workout what he saver intended sto understand, We are avy involved in creating ante pretation of what we read and heat. examples, we emphasized the infence of context. ind is described as linguistic context, also ‘he set of other words used in the same pire or sean The suroundng cert aba song fet on wa we nk rd eobaby means. nthe last caper, weidentfed the word banks homo aegefoen vitae tan nemeaning How do weastal KO Which ESE tended parear etn? Wermaly do soon he basis of ings cme In our discussion of the last twoen here is called ocess here is called Infereney enero ereaea connection the listener has to, Fie ee a 8 syewuay mabe ston en nes se" TSN (0 pep refering back to them (te pope. Ht) video abou bay washing a puppy i smal bat. epost srgglng av suing ob 6781) 8 When he et go, it jumped out ofthe bath and ran au. tntistype of eee eins, the second or subsequent referring expen is an example of anaphora (referring back"). The first mention is called the ante. cedent, So, in our example, a boy, a puppy and a small bath are antecedents and Ty ‘puppy, the boy, he, it andthe bath are anaphoric expressions. “Anaphora canbe defined as subsequent reference to an already introduced ent, Mostly we use anaphora in text to maintain reference. The connection between a. ‘antecedent and an anaphoric expression is created by use ofa pronoun (tt) or a phrase with the plus the antecedent noun (the puppy), ot another noun that is related tothe 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 thee examples, | We found a house torent, but the kitchen was very smal. Teaught a bus and asked the driver if it went near the downtown area, Jn the fict example, we must make an inference lke “if X is @ house, then X has ‘etchen” in order to interpret the connection between antecedent a house and anapht expression the kite, Inthe second example, we must make an inference ike “itKis? bys then X has a driver" in order to make the connection between a bus and tei: We have used te erm “inference” here to describe what the listener (rr oes, When we lk abot an assumption made bythe speaker (r write), we sl! {alk about a “presupposition, *io presupposition ‘When we use a referring expression like this, hc‘or Shakespeare, we ws innan a pals WHA adalat s ew ma ee design our linguistic messages onthe basis of large cle assumptions about what our jiteners already know. Some ofthese assumptions may be mistaken, ofcourse, but mostly they're appropriate. What a speaker (or writer) assumes is true or known by a Jistener (ot readet) can be described as a presupposition. iisomeone tells you Your brother is waiting outside, theres an obvious presupposition that you have a brother. f you are asked Why did you arrive late, there isa presuppo- sition that you did ative late. And if you are asked the question When did you stop smmoking?, there are at least two presuppositions involved. In asking this question, the speaker presupposes that you use to smoke ad that you no longer do so. Questions like this, with builtit presuppositions, are very useful devices for interrogators or tial Tawyrs. Ifthe! defendant is asked By the prosecutor, Okay, Mr. Buckingham, how fat were you going when you ran the red light, there is a presupposition that ‘Mr. Buckingham iin fac run the red light. fhe simply answers the How fast part of the question, by ving a speed, he is behaving aif the presupposition is coect. Cne ofthe tests used to check for the presuppositions underlying sentences involves eating sentence with a particular presupposition and checking ifthe presupposition remain true, Whether you say My cara wnéck or the negative version My cars not a reck, the underiing presupposition (Zhav aca) remains true despite the fact thatthe tro sentences have opposite meanings, This i called the “constancy under negation” ttatforidentifyinga presupposition. Ifsoméone says, [used to reget marrying him, but doe’ reget marrying him, now, the presupposition (1 marid hi) remains constant eventhough thé verb reget changes from affirmative to negative. [Ponieh acta. cs oan We have been considering ways in which we interpret the meaning ofan utterance in terms of what the speaker intended to convey. We have not yet considered the fact that ve usally know how the speaker intends us to “take” (or “interpret the function of”) what is sad, In very general terms, we can usually recognize the type of “action” Performed by a speaker with the utterance. We use the term speech act to describe action such as “requesting,” “commanding,” “questioning” or “informing,” We can deline a speech act asthe action performed by a speaker with an utterance, Ifyou say, "be thereat sx you afe not just speaking, you sem to be performing the speech act ot" promising.”4s, we are using a syntactic structure bm a th nono een This ab eae! 2 0 eee ne of be sae in tet abe Hae POS tree ae tan te one ied bie on te sare fin, the rest Sn Indirect speech act. the door open has a declarative structure and, 28 a direct ‘The utterance You let poe act would be ned maa statement However, you say tio mio vio has jas come in (and realy cold outside), you would probaly wen that pronto close the dor You are not sing the imperative structure, You are nga declarative structure to make a request. I's another example ofan incre speech act. {sponsible to have strange effets if one person fils to recognize another person's Indirect speech act, Consider the following scene. A visitor to a city, carrying his fuggag, ooking ot, stops a passer-by. ‘vinrons Excuse me, Do you know where the Ambassador Hotel is? asset-vis Oh sure, I know where tt ts, (and walks avray) Sse y ren erences Wi 8c vi ee answers that question literally ({ know... )- That is the ae wlsinane mee ie ites me tePragmatics Te main reaton we ut ect speech act seems to be hy actions such ag requests, presented in an indirect way (Could you open tonsiered tobe more gentle or more polite nour en ame py that doot for me!). Exactly why they ate considered to be more Speech acts (Open complex social assumptions, Polite is based on some politeness a ‘We can think of politeness in general terms as havit modest and nice to other people. In the sty ota en me being, “face.” tt ice. i the most relevant concept is “face.” Your face, in pragmatics, is your public seltiage. This emotional and socal sense of self that everyone hasan ees eveyone eke recognize. Politeness can be defined as showing awareness and consideration ‘ another person's face. Ifyou say something that represents a threat to another person's self-image, that is called a face-threatening act. For example, if you use a direct speech act to get someone to do something (Give me that paper!), you are behaving as if you have ‘more social power than the other person. If you don't actually have that socal power (eg. you're not a military officer or prison warden), then you are performing aface- threatening act. An indirect speech act, in the form associated with a question (Could you pass me that paper?), removes the assumption of social power. You're only asking if it’s possible. This makes your request less threatening to the other person's face. ‘Whenever you say something that lessens the possible threat to anothers face it can be described as a face-saving act. . Negative and positiveface = _______— Wehave both a negative face and a postive face, (Note that “negative” dest mean * *postve.”) Negative fae isthe nee tobe “bad” here, it’s simply the opposite of ip nd eo imps Positive face i the need tobe connects © belong, to be a member of the group. $0, @ face saving ac tat emphasis Pom! negative face will show concer about imestion (sor) © tale in a“ You're busy, but.) A face-saving act that emphasizes @ Peo? poet s do this tagether- You ant show solidarity and draw attention to acommon goa (e's dothis Thave the same problem, s0...). Seas about the appropriate Janguage 10 atk polien one ature he net you tare rownep act tone me at Way of showing solidarity, and you ws dec ss der substan #0 aarerents[BF The Study of Language people whose culture is more oriented to indirectness and avolding direct then you will be considered impolite, You, in turn, may think of the others and unsure of whether they really want something ot are just asking about 88 Vape using this chair?). In either case, it is the pragmatics that Is miunternes unfortunately, more will be communicated than is said. wd, Understanding how successful communication works is actually a process of inter. preting not just what speakers say, but what they “intend to mean.” We'll explore other aspects of this process in the next chapter,