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DR. ANSA HAMEED Pragmatics (2)
DR. ANSA HAMEED
Pragmatics (2)
Previously….
Pragmatics???
Importance of Context???
TheoriesSpeech Act Theory
Today’s Lecture
Theories: 2. Relevance theory 3. Cooperation theory 4. Argumentation theory
Pragmatics & Discourse Analysis
2. Relevance Theory
Meaning is not merely a matter of decoding grammar. It is also a matter of knowing which of the many inferences that one can draw from an utterance are relevant.
Relevance is a matter deeply tied to context, point of view, and culture.
2. Relevance Theory
lExample: Sentence 1. May have multiple meanings 2-4. What does it mean? Try to fill in the blanks.
1. Lung cancer death rates are clearly associated with an increase in smoking
a. increased smoking = people smoke moreb. increased smoking = more people smokec. increased smoking = ____________________d. the same people are smoking and dyinge. the people smoking and dying are not all ___________f. the situation being talked about is real (because)g. the situation being talked about is hypothetical ( )
3. Cooperation Theory
COOPERATION THEORY
The way in which people try to make conversations work.
3. Cooperation Theory: Maxims
There are four subprinciples within this theory called maxims
Quantity. (quantity of information) Quality (be truthful) Relevance/Relation (be relevance) Manner (be clear)
3. Cooperation Theory: Maxims
The Maxim of Quantity Be only as informative as required for current
conversational purposes. The Maxim of Quality
Say only what you believe to be true and adequately supported.
The Maxim of Relation Be relevant.
The Maxim of Manner Be clear: be brief and orderly and avoid obscurity and
ambiguity.
3. Cooperation Theory: Maxims
1. Maxim of quantity
Make your contribution as informative as required for the current purposes of the exchange.
Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
3. Cooperation Theory: Maxims
2. Maxim of quality
Try to make your contribution one that is true.
Do not say what you believe to be false.Do not say that for which you lack adequate
evidence.
3. Cooperation Theory: Maxims
3. Maxim of Relevance Be relevant
Example: A Well, how do I look? B Your shoes are nice.
3. Cooperation Theory: Maxims
4. Maxim of Manner Avoid obscurity of expression Avoid ambiguity Be brief Be orderly
Example: A Does your dog bite? B No. A [Bends down to stroke it and gets bitten] Ow! You said your dog doesn’t bite. B That isn’t my dog.
3. Cooperation Theory: Maxims
Infringing a maxim: Fail to observe a maxim because of their imperfect linguistic
performance (a child or a foreign learner): nervousness; drunkenness; excitement; cognitive impairment; incapability of speaking clearly.
Example: Bush said Gates would not routinely attend Cabinet meetings but
would take part in sessions where intelligence was necessary for making decision.
When not observing Maxims…..Implicatures
By observing the cooperative principle, interlocutors are able to work out what is meant from what is said.
l Utterances do not always carry their literal meaning.l Non-literal meaning must be inferred from context and the
cooperative principle.l Non-literal interpretations are referred to as implicatures.l Implicature is a special type of inference in which the
hearer makes the assumption that the speaker is NOT breaking one of the conversational maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and manner.
When not observing Maxims: Face Theory
In order to explain why in many cases people express themselves implicitly and indirectly by flouting the four maxims of the cooperative principle, Brown and Levinson (1978) advanced the Face Theory. Leech (1983:132) developed the face theory further and formulated the politeness principle.
When not observing Maxims: Face Theory
According to this theory, everybody has face wants, i.e. the expectation concerning their public self-image. In order to maintain harmonious interpersonal relationships and ensure successful social interaction, we should be aware of the two aspects of another person's face, i.e. the positive face and the negative face .
3. Cooperation Theory
Limitations of the Cooperative Principles:
Different cultures, countries, and communities have their own ways of observing and expressing maxims for particular situations.
There is often an overlap between the four maxims. It can be difficult to say which one is operating and it would be more precise to say that there are two or more operating at once.
4. Argumentation Theory
ARGUMENTATION THEORY
Interdisciplinary study of how humans do reach conclusions through logical reasoning
Argumentation includes debate and negotiation which are concerned with reaching mutually acceptable conclusions.
4. Argumentation Theory
Typically an argument has an internal structure, comprising the following
a set of assumptions or premisesa method of reasoning or deduction anda conclusion or point.An argument must have at least two premises
and one conclusion
Pragmatic Analysis
Pragmatic Analysis
PRAGMATIC ANALISYS 1. Related to the situation 2. Related to the context 3. Related to the people 4. Related to the information
Pragmatic Analysis
1 RELATED TO THE SITUATION
We adapt our conversation to different situations, depending on the place and the time where the speech occurs.
Pragmatic Analysis
2 RELATED TO THE PEOPLEDepending on who you are with and the relation between those people, the conversation will have different meaning.
Example: Ironic utterances with friends and with unknown people.
Pragmatic Analysis
3 RELATED TO THE CONTEXTWithin the people, there are clues in the context that allow us to notice that irony (to say the opposite of what it actually means)
Example: Facial expressions.
Pragmatic Analysis
4 RELATED TO THE INFORMATION
Presuppositions about the world-knowledge of hearers; i.e meanings that can be deducted by listeners because they already know about that information.
Pragmatics & DiscourseAnalysis
Pragmatics & Discourse Analysis
Pragmatics is the study of language usage from a functional perspective and is concerned with the principles that account for how meaning is communicated by the speaker (writer) and interpreted by the listener (reader) in a certain context.
Like pragmatics, text analysis is also concerned with language used in particular contexts. It is the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connected spoken or written texts.
In other words, it is the study of linguistic units larger than sentences or clauses.
Pragmatics & Discourse Analysis
Discourse Analysis can focus all theories related to Pragmatics to analyse discourses and at the same time it focuses certain features of text as well like:
CohesionReferenceSubstitution & EllipsisConjunctionTheme & Rheme
Pragmatics & Discourse Analysis
Cohesion:A text is not a collection of lexical items
and/or sentences in random. Instead, it must be semantically unified. In other words, it must have texture, i.e. the property that distinguishes a text from a non-text. The unity of a text can be achieved by a number of semantic and lexicogrammatical means, among which the most important is cohesion .
Pragmatics & Discourse Analysis
ReferenceReference refers to the semantic relation in
which a word or words are used to enable the addressee to identify someone or something. The word or words used for reference are called the reference item. The person(s) or thing(s) identified by the reference item are called the referent. Reference is a specific nature of information that is signaled for retrieval. The information to be retrieved is the referential meaning.
John has moved to a new house. He had it built last year.
Pragmatics & Discourse Analysis
Substitution & EllipsisSubstitution refers to the replacement of one
item by another and ellipsis the omission of an item. Unlike reference, which is a relation between meanings, substitution and ellipsis are a relation between linguistic items. Substitution and ellipsis are two closely related processes.
A: I ate two eggs and a cup of milk for my breakfast.
B: I ate the same.
Pragmatics & Discourse Analysis
ConjunctionConjunction in grammar refers to a word or
expression like and, but, or that connects words, phrases, clauses and/or sentences. As one of the major grammatical cohesive ties, however, this term is used to focus on the inter-clausal and inter-sentential levels. In other words, we concentrate on how the conjunctive expressions contribute to the cohesion of a text.
Pragmatics & Discourse Analysis
Theme and RhemeTheme can be defined as the element which serves as the
point of departure of the message conveyed by the clause. It is the ground from which the clause is taking off. In English, this element always takes the first position of a clause. The remaining part of the message, the part in which the Theme is developed, is called the Rheme .
Example:My parents gave me a new bicycleTheme Rheme
Recap
PragmaticsTheoriesPragmatic analysisPragmatics and Discourse AnalysisPragmatics as an important factor when it
comes to understanding the language in a deeply way as words do not have meaning by themselves.
References
Searle, J.R. ; Kiefer, F. & Bierwisch, M. (1980). Speech act theory and Pragmatics. Dordnecht; Holland.
Baena, E. ; Lacorte, M. (2002). Para entender la Pragmática. Ed. Gredos. Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: University Press. http://www.helsinki.fi/~pietarin/publications/Relevance%20theory-Pietarinen.pdf Falk, Julia. Linguistics and Language. 1978. Hocket, F. C. A Course in Modern Linguistics. New Delhi: Oxford.
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