Pragmatics

Pragmatics

1. And Discourse Analysis : Similarities: both study context, text and function. Examples: Text- Relevance Theory, Function- Speech Act theory Differences: Discourse Analysis has emphasis on structure of the text. Pragmatics gives more importance to the social principles of discourse. Examples: Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle

2. Context: - situational context, background knowledge context, co-textual context

   • Language and context: Refering expressions- I, you, we. Referent - the entity it is refered to. Deixis: person - I, you, he, she, etc, place - (demonstrative adverbs) there, here ( demonstrative adjectives and pronouns) that, this, those, these , time - next day, then, now.
     • Referring to the context outside: exophoric reference- I, David, Referring to the context inside: cohesion - endophoric reference - we. Two types of endophora: anaphora - the dog ... it, cataphora - it ... the dog. Other forms of grammatical cohesion are ellipsis and substitution. Forms of lexical cohesion : repetition, synonyms, superordinates and general words: thing, stuff, place, person, do, happen.
       • Language and structure: ET (Exchange theory) CA (Conversation Analysis) 5 levels of structure in ET: act, move, exchange, transaction and lesson. CA managed though turn-taking, in a Transition relevance Place (TRP). Not waiting TRP - interruption, overlaps. Pauses = attributable silence. Adjacency pairs have a first part creating an expectation of a particular second part ( question + answer, offer + acceptance, greeting + greeting, proposal + acceptance) CA examines also pre-sequence, insertion sequences, opening and closing sequences.

3. Speech Act Theory: The action performed when the utterance is produced can be analysed on 3 levels: Locution act, illocutionary force, perlocutionary effect. The performative hypothesis says that behind every utterance there is a performative verb - to order, to warn, to admit, to promise. Those are explicit performatives, but there are implicit, such as I`ll be back - I promise, I warn...

   • Speech Acts classified in the following macro-classes: Declarations - I bet, declare, resign, pronounce, baptise, Representatives - the words state the case - describing, claimng, onsisting, predicting , Commissives - words commit to future action - promising, offering, threatening, refusing, volunteering, Directives - the words are making the hearer do something - commanding, requesting, inviting, forbidding, suggesting , Expressives - the words state what the speaker feels - apologising, praising, regretting, congratulating
     • Felicity conditions - must be met for speech acts to be appropriately and successfully performed. Such as : the context recognised by all parties, ppropriate place to talk about it, the roles of the participants are recognised, the persons have the right intentions, (Austins model) Is it possible, do they genuinely want it,is it of the best interest (Suarles model)
       • Indirect Speech Acts. Here form and function are not directly related.
         • Speech Acts and society:Speech acts have social and cross-cultural dimensions. But they also have limitations. f.e. overlap, fillers - You know, feedback, backchannels, incomplete responses.
           • Two main macro functions of talk: transactional - give information, and interactional functions - be social, friendly.

4. Cooperative principle has 4 maxims: the maxim of quantity, of quality, of relation and of manner. The meaning conveyed by speakers and recovered as a result of the hearers inferences is known as the conversational implictature.

   • Flouting the maxims - when speakers appear not to follow the maxims but expect hearers to appreciate the meaning implied: 2I think you would be happier in a larger - or a smaller - college."
     • Flouting quantity - gives more or less info than wanted. Flouting quality - by hyperboles, exaggerations, metaphors, irony, banter. Flouting relation - s.o. is ringing. i am in the bath.Flouting manner - avoiding 3rd person to understand. We can also violate the maxims, when we say white lies, etc.
       • To ways to fail to fulfill a maxim: to infringe it and to opt out_ I cannot give you that information.
         • Limitations of the cooperative principle-
           • The Relevance theory - contextual effects- adding new info, strengthening existing info, weakening old info, processing effort - speaker assumes info as accessible, accessibility, explicature - propositions are explicitly communicated.

5. Politeness Theory