PRAGMATICSLanguage Applied in Different Settings

REPORTERS: VON AMERI J. ESCOBARRODEL TIMBREZAMARITIZ MALIONGAN

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What is PRAGMATICS?

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PRAGMATICS• A subfield of linguistics developed in the late

1970s, pragmatics studies how people comprehend and produce a communicative act or speech act in a concrete speech situation which is usually a conversation (hence *conversation analysis).

• Pragmatics, also known as social language, refers to an individual’s ability to use language for a variety of functions (i.e. to request, label, gain attention, greet/part, comment, ask for help, etc), vary language based on audience or setting, and follow rules for conversation. 3

DEFINITION AND BACKGROUND

4 Areas of Concern

1. Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning

2. Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning

3. Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than said

4. Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance

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• Using language for different purposes, such as– greeting (e.g., hello, goodbye)– informing (e.g., I'm going to get a cookie)– demanding (e.g., Give me a cookie)– promising (e.g., I'm going to get you a cookie)– requesting (e.g., I would like a cookie, please)

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Three Major Communication Skills

• Changing language according to the needs of a listener or situation, such as– talking differently to a baby than to an adult– giving background information to an unfamiliar

listener– speaking differently in a classroom than on a

playground

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• Following rules for conversations and storytelling, such as– taking turns in conversation– introducing topics of conversation– staying on topic– rephrasing when misunderstood– how to use verbal and nonverbal signals– how close to stand to someone when speaking– how to use facial expressions and eye contact

These rules may vary across cultures and within cultures. It is important to understand the rules of your communication partner.

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• Pragmatics includes the understanding and appropriate use of eye contact, facial expressions, and body language.

• Children and adolescents may be able to form lengthy sentences and articulate sounds clearly, but if they do not understand and/or have not mastered the rules for communication, there may be a language delay in the area of pragmatics.

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Theory Of Mind

• Theory Of Mind (TOM) refers to persons ability to form representations of other people’s mental states, and to use these representations to understand, predict and judge utterances and behavior

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Perspective Taking• Perspective taking refers to our ability to

relate with others, empathize with them and see things from their perspective. In order to do this we must be able to perceive what their motivations are as well as their feeling and thoughts. An example of this would be concluding that someone is upset by noticing tears in their eyes or that their eyebrows are furrowed.

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An individual with pragmatic problems may:

• say inappropriate or unrelated things during conversations

• tell stories in a disorganized way• have little variety in language use

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Individuals with PLI have particular trouble understanding the meaning of what others are saying, and they are challenged in using language appropriately to get their needs met and interact with others. Children with the disorder often exhibit:

• delayed language development

• aphasic speech (such as word search pauses, jargoning, word order errors, word category errors, verb tense errors)

• Stuttering or cluttering speech

• Repeating words or phrases• difficulty with pronouns or

pronoun reversal

• difficulty understanding questions

• difficulty understanding choices and making decisions.

• difficulty following conversations or stories. Conversations are "off-topic" or "one-sided".

• difficulty extracting the key points from a conversation or story; they tend to get lost in the details 12

• difficulty with verb tenses

• difficulty explaining or describing an event

• tendency to be concrete or prefer facts to stories

• difficulty understanding satire or jokes

• difficulty understanding contextual cues

• difficulty in reading comprehension

• difficulty with reading body language

• difficulty in making and maintaining friendships and relationships because of delayed language development.

• difficulty in distinguishing offensive remarks

• difficulty with organizational skills

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Speech Act Theory

• J.L. Austin claims that many utterances are equivalent to actions. Example:When someone says: “I name this ship” or “I now pronounce you man and wife”, the utterance creates a new social or psychological reality.

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Speech act theory broadly explains these utterances as having three parts or aspects: locutionary,

illocutionary and perlocutionary acts.

• Locutionary acts are simply the speech acts that have taken place.

• Illocutionary acts are the real actions which are performed by the utterance, where saying equals doing, as in betting, plighting one’s troth, welcoming and warning.

• Perlocutionary acts are the effects of the utterance on the listener, who accepts the bet or pledge of marriage, is welcomed or warned.

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LOCUTIONARY ACTS

In performing a locutionary act, we shall also be performing such an act as:

• asking or answering a question;• giving some information or an assurance or a

warning;• announcing a verdict or an intention;• pronouncing sentence;• making an appointment or an appeal or a criticism;• making an identification or giving a description; and

the numerous like."16

5 CATEGORIES OF ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS

• Declarations – the speaker alters the external status or condition of an object or situation, solely by making the utterance.

Example: “I now pronounce you man and wife”

• Representatives – here the speaker asserts a proposition to be true, using such verbs as: affirm, believe,conclude, deny, report.

Example: “I met your parents yesterday”

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• Commissives – here the speaker commits himself (or herself) to a (future) course of action, with verbs such as: guarantee, pledge, promise, swear, vow, undertake.

Example: “I will be there at 5 o’ clock”• Expressives – the speaker expresses an

attitude to or about a state of affairs, using such verbs as: apologize, appreciate, congratulate, deplore, detest, regret, thank, welcome.

Example: “I like your house very much”18

• Directives – here the speaker tries to make the hearer do something, with such words as: ask, beg, challenge, command, dare, invite, insist, request.

Example: “Don’t go to the party!”

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PERFORMATIVES

• These are speech acts of a special kind where the utterance of the right words by the right person in the right situation effectively is (or accomplishes) the social act.

• In some cases, the speech must be accompanied by a ceremonial or ritual action.

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Here are some examples from different spheres of human activity, where performatives are found at work.

These are loose categories, and many performatives belong to more than one of them:

• Universities and schools: conferring of degrees, rusticating or excluding students

• The church: baptizing, confirming and marrying, exorcism, commination (cursing) and excommunication

• Governance and civic life: crowning of monarchs, dissolution of Parliament, passing legislation, awarding honours, ennobling or decorating

• The law: enacting or enforcing of various judgements, passing sentence, swearing oaths and

plighting one’s troth21

• The armed services: signing on, giving an order to attack, retreat or open fire

• Sport: cautioning or sending off players, giving players out, appealing for a dismissal or declaring

(closing an innings) in cricket• Business: hiring and firing, establishing a verbal

contract, naming a ship• Gaming: placing a bet, raising the stakes in poker

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FELICITY CONDITIONS

• These are conditions necessary to the success of a speech act. They take their name from a Latin root – “felix” or “happy”.

• They are conditions needed for success or achievement of a performative. Only certainpeople are qualified to declare war, baptize people or sentence convicted felons.

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3 Kinds of Felicity Conditons

• Preparatory conditions include the status or authority of the speaker to perform the speech act, the situation of other parties and so on.

Example: In order to confirm a candidate, the speaker must be a bishop

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• Conditions for execution can assume an exaggerated importance. We are so used to a ritual or ceremonial action accompanying the speech act that we believe the act is invalidated, if the action is lacking – but there are few real examples of this.

• Sincerity conditionsAt a simple level these show that the

speaker must really intend what he or she says.

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• The conversational implicature is a message that is not found in the plain sense of the sentence.

• It is how hearers manage to work out the complete message when speakers mean more than they say.

Example: “Have you got any cash on you?”where the speaker really wants the hearer to understand the meaning:

“Can you lend me some money? I don’t have much on me.” 26

CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE

COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

• A principle of conversation that was proposed by Grice (1975).

Cooperative principle: Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.

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References:• George Yule: Pragmatics

Oxford University Presslink: https://abudira.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pragmatics__oxford_introductions_to_language_study__2.pdf

• Shaozhong Liu: What is Pragmatics?link: http://www.gxnu.edu.cn/Personal/szliu/definition.html

• Social Language Uselink: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/Pragmatics/

• Pragmatics © Copyright: Andrew Moore, 2001 link: http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/pragmatics.pdf

• Linguistics 103: Language Structure and Verbal ArtPragmatics and Speech Act Theory link: http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~rnoyer/courses/103/Ling10309Pragmatics.pdf

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