Pragmatics

Pragmatics

1. The study of 'invisible' meaning, or how we recognize what is meant even when it isn't actually said or written.

2. Context

   • Linguistic (co-text)
     • The set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence.
   • Physical
     • Our mental representation of the aspects of what is physically out there that we use in arriving at an interpretation.
     • Time and place.

3. Deixis

   • Bits of language that we can only understand in terms of the speaker´s intended meaning.
   • Person deixis, spatial deixis, temporal deixis.
     • It, here, now.

4. Reference

   • An act by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a listener (or reader) to identify soomething.
   • Proper nouns, nouns, or pronouns.

5. Inference

   • Additional information used by the listener to create a connection between what is said and what must be meant.

6. Anaphora

   • Subsequent reference to an already introduced entity.
   • A puppy - The puppy

7. Presupposition

   • What a speaker assumes is true or known by the listener.

8. Speech acts

   • Describe actions such as 'requesting', 'commanding', 'questioning' or 'onforming'.

9. Direct and indirect speech acts

   • Direct
     • When we use a syntactic structure with its respective function.
   • Indirect
     • Whenever one of the syntactic structures is used with a function that is not proper from that structure.

10. Politeness

    • Showing awereness of and consideration for another person's face.