UNIT 5: Pragmatics and Discourse

Analysis
PART 2: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

PROFESORADO DE INGLÉS
CIENCIAS DEL LENGUAJE

Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis

Prof. Valeria Roldán

•
5. MAXIMS of the COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

1- QUANTITY:
Make your contribution as INFORMATIVE as
required.
Do NOT make it more informative than required.

2-QUALITY
Make your contribution TRUE.
Do NOT say what you believe is false.
Do NOT say that for which you lack adequate
evidence.
5. MAXIMS of the COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

3- RELATION:
Be relevant.

4- MANNER:
Be perspicuous:
Avoid obscurity of expression
Avoid ambiguity.
Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)
Be orderly.
These maxims should be recognized as
unstated assumptions we have in
conversations
However, there are certain expressions speakers
use to mark that they may be in danger of
NOT fully adhering to the principles.

HEDGES: cautious notes about how an utterance

should be taken when giving information.
 EXAMPLES OF HEDGES:
• Hedges of QUALITY:
“ As far as I know, they’re married.”
“I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw a
wedding ring on her finger.”
“I’m not sure if this is right, but I heard it was a
secret ceremony.”
“He couldn’t live without her, I guess”
 HEDGES OF QUANTITY:
“ As you probably know, I’m terrified of bugs”

“ So, to cut a long story short, we grabbed our

staff and run”

“I won’t bore you with all the details, but it was

an exciting trip”
 HEDGES OF RELEVANCE
• “ I don’t know if this is important, but…”

• “This may sound like a dumb question, but…”

• Not to change the subject, but…”

• “ Oh, by the way…”
• Well, anyway…”
 HEDGES OF MANNER
“This may be a bit confused, but…”

“I’m not sure if this makes sense, but…”

“I don’t know if this is clear at all, but…”

 CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE

• The basic assumption in conversation is that,

otherwise indicated, the participants are
adhering to the cooperative principle and the
maxims.

• The following examples show a speaker

conveying more than he said via
conversational implicature
 a: “I hope you brought the bread and cheese.”
b: “Ah, I brought the bread.”
• Speaker B assumes that A infers
that what is not mentioned was not brought.
a: “Do you like ice-cream?”
b: “Is the Pope catholic?”
 CONVENTIONAL IMPLICATURES

• In contrast to the previous implicatures, these

ones are NOT based on the cooperative
principle’s maxims.
• They do NOT have to occur in conversation
and don’t depend on special contexts for
interpretation.
• They are associated with SPECIFIC WORDS and
result in additional conveyed meanings.
 For example: the English conjunctions
BUT and AND
The interpretation of any utterance with the
word BUT will imply an implicature of
CONTRAST and with AND an ADDITION.
“Mary suggested black, but I chose white”.
• The words EVEN and YET also have
conventional implicature.
• Even implies contrary to expectation.
• Yet implies that the present situation is
expected to be different at a later time.
 6. SPEECH ACTS and EVENTS

• Actions performed via utterances are called

Speech Acts.
In English they are commonly known as: apology,
compliment, complaint, invitation, promise, or
request and apply to the speaker’s
communicative intention.
• The circumstances surrounding the utterance are
called the Speech Event and it’s their nature that
determines the interpretation of an utterance as
performing a particular speech act.
 For example:
“This tea is really cold!”

This utterance can be interpreted as a complaint

or as a praise, depending on the
circumstances. (If it is winter or summer, a
cold or a hot day, etc.)
 SPEECH ACTS

1- The locutionary act: the basic act of

utterance which produces a meaningful
linguistic expression.
If you have difficulty in producing a meaningful
utterance (because it’s a foreign language or
you’re tongue-tied), then you might fail to
produce a locutionary act.
Aha WHAT
??
mokofa
 2. ILLOCUTIONARY ACT
• The communicative force of an utterance. We
form an utterance with some kind of function
in mind:
❖ An offer, a statement, a promise, a threat, etc.

3. THE PERLOCUTIONARY ACT:

The effect of an utterance
Take the next utterance and state the
illocutionary act/force.

“ I’ll see you later”

The same locutionary act can represent
different illocutionary forces:
❖ A prediction

❖ A warning

❖ A promise
 How can the speaker assume that the
intended illocutionary force wil be
recognized by the hearer?

❖ IFIDs: Illocutionary Force

Indicating Devices

❖ Felicity Conditions
 IFIDs Felicity Conditions
The most common IFIDs Certain expected or appropiate
are performative circumstances for a speech
act to be recognized as
verbs: verbs that
intended.
explicitly name the
i.e: “ I sentence you to six
illocutionary act being months of prison”
performed. If the speaker wasn’t a judge in a
court, this performance
i.e: “I promise you would be infelicitous or
inappropiate.
that…”
“I warn you that…”
“I predict that…”
OTHER IFIDs Other Felicity
▪ Word orderconditions ▪ General
▪ Stress Conditions: on the
▪ Intonation participants, for
i.e: “You’re going!” (I tell example, that they can
you) understand the same
language, and that
they aren’t play-acting
“You’re going?”( I or being non-sensical.
request confirmation) • Content
Conditions: for
“Are you going?”( I ask example, a promise
you if) must be about a future
event.
 Preparatory Conditions: specific requirements
prior to an utterance in order for it to count as a
particular speech act.
Sincerity conditions: requirements on the
genuine intentions of a speaker.
For example: for a promise, the speaker
genuinely intends to carry out the future
action.
 The essential Condition:
A requirement that the utterance commits the
speaker to the act performed.

The utterance changes my state from

non-obligation to obligation.
 Speech Act Classification
1- DECLARATIONS: speech acts that change the world via
an utterance. The speaker has to have a specific role, in
a specific context, in order to perform a declaration
appropiately.
• “I now pronounce you husband and wife” (Priest)
• “You’re out” (referee)
2- REPRESENTATIVES: speech acts that state what
the speaker believes to be the case or not.

Statements of fact, assertions, conclusions,

descriptions, etc.

• “The Earth is flat.”

• “Chomsky didn’t write about peanuts”.

3- EXPRESSIVES: speech acts that state
what the speaker feels.
They express psychological states and can be
statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes,
joy, or sorrow.

• “I’m really sorry!”

• “Congratulations!”
4- DIRECTIVES: speech acts used to get
someone else to do sth.
They express what the speaker wants. They are:
commands, orders, requests, suggestions.
They can be positive or negative.

• “Gimme a cup of coffee. Make it black”.

• “Don’t touch that”.
• “Could you lend me a pen, please?”
5- COMMISSIVES: speech acts used by speakers
to commit themselves to some future action.
They are: promises, threats, refusals, pledges,
etc.
• “ I’ll be back”.

• “We are going to get it right next time.”

• “We won’t do that”.

 DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS
• DIRECT: when there’s a direct relationship
between the structure (declarative,
interrogative, imperative) and its
communicative function (statement, question,
commnad/request.)

• INDIRECT: Indirect relation between the

structure and function.
 Example of indirect speech acts:
• “Move out of the way!” – (the only direct
command.)

• “Do you have to stand in front of the T.V?”(A

question functioning as an indirect command)

• “You’re standing in front of the T.V!”.( a

declarative functioning as an indirect request)
7. POLITENESS and INTERACTION
• A linguistic interaction is necessarily a social
interaction.
• We take part in a wide range of interactions,
mostly with strangers, where the social
distance determined by external factors is
dominant.
• However, there are other factors, like amount
of imposition or degree of friendliness, which
are often negotiated.
 POLITENESS
• “Polite social behaviour” within a culture. We
assume that participants in an interaction are
generally aware of such cultural norms and
principles of politeness.
Face: the public self-image of a person. It refers to
that emotional and social sense of self that
everyone has and expects the other sto recognize.
Politeness in an interaction can be defined as the
means employed to show awareness of another
person’s face.
Examples of social distance: respect or
deference
“Excuse, Mr. Buckingham, can I talk to you for a
second?”

Social closeness: friendliness,

camaraderie, or solidarity.
“Hey, Bucky, got a minute?”
Face Wants: A person’s expectations that their
pulic self-image will be respected.
• If a speaker says sth. that represents a threat
to another individual’s expectations, regarding
self-image, it’s described as a
face-threatening act.
• When someone says an utterance that avoids
a potential threat t a person’s face, it’s called
face-saving act.
Example
A: “I’m going to tell him to stop that awful noise right
now!!” (Face-threatening act)

B: “Perhaps you could just ask him if he’s going to stop

because it’s getting late and we need to sleep…”
(Face- saving act)
 Self and Other: Say nothing
Imagine you arrive at a lecture but you’ve
forgotten a pen to take your notes. You think
that teh person next to you may provide the
solution.
In this scenario, you’re going to be SELF, and the
person next to you OTHER.
You: (look in bag, rummage in, search in pockets)
The Other: “Here, use this.”
 That was called a “Say nothing
approach”
• Without uttering a word, you have the
intention that your problem will be
recognized.
• Many people prefer to have their needs
recognized by others wihout having to express
those needs in langauge.
• When those needs are in fact recognized,
more has been communicated than was said.
Say something: Off and On record
“Uh, I forgot my pen”
“Hmm, I wonder where I put my pen”
These statements are not directly addressed t
the other. The other can act as if they have not
even been heard.
Off record expressions: utterances not
directly addressed t another one.
 On record experssions: are direct
address froms.
“Give me a pen”
“Lend me your pen”
These are known as bald on record- they’re the
most direct approach, like the use of
imperatives.
Would you lend me a pen, please?” Here we use
mitigating devices, like would and please, that
soften the demand.
 Bibliography:

• Becker, A. y Bieswanger, D. (2006). Introduction to English

Linguistics. Stugtart: UTB Basics
• Brown, G. and Yule, G. (1993) .Discourse Analysis. Cambridge
University Press.
• Fromkin, V., Rodman R., y Hyams N. (2000). An Introduction to
Language. Thomsom-Heinle.
• Griffiths, P. (2006). An Introduction to English Semantics and
Pragmatics. Edinburgh University Press. Chapter 8: Pragmatics
• O´Grady, W., Dobrovolsky, M. y Aronoff, M. (1997). Contemporary
Linguistics. New York: St. Martin´s Press.
• Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.
• Yule, G. (2014). The study of language. Cambridge University Press.

This PPT has been adapted from

https://es.slideshare.net/anthonysalinas98/pragmatics-george-yule