2014-04-03
Sources
" Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, Nina
Hyams. 2003. An introduction to language.
Introduction to linguistics  Chapter 5: The meaning of language, pp. 207-211
" Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia
Lecture 6: Pragmatics (1)
of language, p. 120.
Semantics vs. pragmatics Semantics vs. pragmatics
" Semantics studies the meaning that can be " Pragmatics: the study of meaning, as it
determined from a sentence, phrase or word. depends on context (speaker, situation).
" Pragmatics describes:
 The choice of language in social interaction.
" But in a conversation, we follow a large
 The effect of this choice on others.
number of social rules,
 e.g. we don t tell jokes during a funeral. " Speakers use different grammatical
constructions and vocabulary in different
contexts.
Pragmatics Basic terminology
" Social norms that influence the choice of " Speech event  a communicative exchange.
language include:
" Utterance  a stretch of speech preceded and
 Norms of formality (formal and informal lg);
followed by silence or a change of speaker
 Norms of politeness.
 Sentence  the term used when discussing
grammar.
" The lg used when talking to others reflects " Discourse  a continuous stretch of spoken
social class, status, degree of intimacy, etc. language larger than a sentence.
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Context: types Context: types
" Linguistic context  the discourse that " Situational context  the external world that
precedes the phrase or sentence to be influences meaning:
interpreted.
 e.g. the meaning of the sign bank depends on its
physical location.
 e.g. bank has different meanings depending on
other words in an utterance:
 I keep all my money in this bank vs.
 People were sunbathing on the river bank.
Context Deixis
" In a language, there exist words and phrases
" It's impossible to fully analyse the meaning of
that cannot be fully understood without
a sentence without its context, e.g.:
additional contextual information.
" Flying planes can be dangerous.
" Such expressions are called deixis [ ]
 Context helps to disambiguate this sentence:
(from Greek 'pointing') or deictic expressions.
1. Pilots must be well trained because the act of
" The interpretation of deixis depends fully on
flying planes can be dangerous;
situational context,
2. Flying planes (= planes that are flying) can be
 and is always interpreted only with the reference
dangerous for migrating birds.
to the speaker.
Deixis: types Deixis: types
" Place deixis: to understand it we need to
" Person deixis: we need to know who the speaker,
know the place of the utterance, e.g.:
hearer and other participants are to interpret it,
e.g.:  Bring that here and take this there.
 Pronouns: I hate him  who I and him refer to? " Other deictic expressions showing spacial
relations:
" Time deixis: we need to know the time of
 come/go,
speaking to understand such expressions as, e.g.:
 bring/take,
 now, then, recently, last Thursday.
 this place/that place
 BIG SALE NEXT WEEK  if this notice is undated, you
won t know when the sale is or was.  yonder mountains, etc.
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Anaphora vs. cataphora Anaphora vs. cataphora
" Deixis includes words that refer backwards or " Cataphora (cataphoric reference) [ ] 
forwards in utterances. refers to something within a text that has not
yet been identified, e.g.:
" Anaphora (anaphoric reference) [ ] 
 in "He was very cold. David promptly put on his
refers to something within a text that has
coat"
been previously identified, e.g.:
 in "Susan dropped the plate. It shattered loudly"
 we don t know who "he" is until the individual is
also referred to as "David".
the word "it" refers to the phrase "the plate".
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