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Lecture 8

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Lecture 8

Uploaded by

gulkhayo zaylobiddinova
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lecture 8

Pragmatics, speech act


theory. Discourse
analysis
Examples for pragmatics
 Can you explain the semantic and
pragmatic meaning of these sentences?

1. Will you crack open the door?


2. I heart you!
3. If you eat all of that food, it will
make you bigger!
4. “How are you?”
5. “I have two sons.”
Topics to be discussed
1. Pragmatics.
2. Speech act theory
3. Discourse analysis
What is Pragmatics?
 Pragmatics is the study of
invisible meaning.

Identifying what is meant but not


said.

J. L. Austin
Pragmatics. Origin, Definition,
History.
The term
'PRAGMATICS' was first
introduced by Charles
Morris, a philosopher.
He contrasts pragmatics with
semantics and syntax.
He claims that:
Pragmatics
One and the same word or sentence
may acquire different meanings in
communication. This type of meaning
is called pragmatic. The study of
the relationship between linguistic
units and the users of those units is
done by pragmatics.
Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the study of meaning in
context dependent on the intentions of
participants in a conversational exchange.

Not the meaning of single words as we saw


in semantics, but the intended meaning of
whole exchanges.
Context , intentions and shared knowledge
are the keywords. Also cultural implications
play an important role.
Can you understand the
meaning of this exchange?
A.: I have a 14 year old son
B.: Well that’s all right
A.: I also have a dog
B.: Oh, I’m sorry

Or
A.:- Have you seen Sam?
B.:- the black car is over there.

If we don’t have a context or some


knowledge about a situation, the meaning
can be ‘invisible’.
Pragmatics
In our everyday life we perform or play quite a lot
of different roles – a student, a friend, a
daughter, a son, a client, etc. When playing
different roles our language means are not the
same – we choose different words and
expressions suitable and appropriate for the
situation. We use the language as an instrument
for our purposes. For instance,
(a) What are you doing here? We're talking
(b) What the hell are you doing here? We're
chewing the rag
have the same referential meaning but their
pragmatic meaning is different, they are used in
different contexts.
Similarly, each utterance combines a
propositional base (objective part) with
the pragmatic component (subjective
part). It follows that an utterance with the
same propositional content may have
different pragmatic components:
Speech act theory
We often think that the role of
language is to explain, inform,
describe, and say sth about the
world.

Language – also used to do


things, such as promise, bet,
request, threaten, warn,
apologize, swear (in court), etc.
Speech act theory
Speech acts are simply things people
do through language - for example,
apologizing, instructing, menacing,
explaining something, etc.
Speech Act theory says that when we
speak we are also 'acting in the world'.
What we say has a descriptive meaning,
but it may also have an effect on those
around us, causing them to act, or think,
or respond in particular ways to what we
say.
Speech act theory
The term 'speech act' was coined by the
philosopher John Austin and developed by
another philosopher John Searle.
John Austin
 His first step was to show that some utterances are
not statements or questions but actions. He
reached this conclusion through an analysis of
what he termed 'performative verbs'. Let us
consider the following sentences:
 I pronounce you man and wife
 I declare war on France
 I name this ship The Albatros
 I bet you 5 dollars it will rain
 I apologize
 The peculiar thing about these sentences, according
to J. Austin, is that they are not used to say or
describe things, but rather actively to do things.
Performatives
That is why J. Austin termed them as
performatives and contrasted them to
statements. Thus by pronouncing a
performative utterance the speaker is
performing an action. The performative
utterance, however, can really change things
only under certain circumstances.
In order to declare war you must be someone
who has the right to do it. Only a priest (or
a person with corresponding power) can
make a couple a husband ad wife. Besides,
it must be done before witnesses and the
couple getting married must sign the register.
Performatives
Explicit Implicit
A sentence which A sentence which
contains a verb that does not contain a
names the speech act performative verb
Promise, advise,
order, request, warn,
bet, declare, name,
affirm, pronounce, etc
I warn you that I won’t
I won’t let you in
let you in next time if
you are late again next time if you are
I order you to stop. late again
Stop!
Speech acts
Speech acts
Speech acts
1) LOCUTIONARY ACT - producing a
meaningful linguistic expression, uttering a
sentence.
2) ILLOCUTIONARY ACT - we form an
utterance with some kind of function on mind,
with a definite communicative intention or
illocutionary force. The notion of illocutionary
force is basic for pragmatics.
3) PERLOCUTIONARY ACT - the effect the
utterance has on the hearer. Perlocutionary
effect may be verbal or non-verbal.
E.g. I've bought a car - Great!
It's cold here - and you close the window.
John Searle’s classification
of speech acts
It was John Searle, who studied
under J. Austin at Oxford, who
proposed a detailed classification of
speech acts. His speech act
classification has had a great impact
on linguistics. It includes five
major classes of speech acts:
declarations, representatives,
expressives, directives and
commissives:
John Searle’s classification of
speech acts
G.Potcheptsov’s classification of
speech acts
Another classification of speech acts was
introduced by G.Potcheptsov. It is based
on purely linguistic principles. The main
criterion for pragmatic classification of
utterances is the way of expressing
communicative intention. This
classification includes six basic speech
acts:
constatives, promissives, menacives,
performatives, directives and
questions.

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