Introduction to Linguistics for Students of English PRAGMATICS - PRAGMATICS is the relation between language and its context of use

(and the study of this relation): meanings which are absent from the form of language may be inferred from the context. - it is the study of the aspects of meaning and language use that are dependent on the speaker, addressee, and other features of the context of utterance - the pragmatic aspect of an utterance can be determined on the basis of the type of defect it contains, if any. E.g.: Pragmatic defect: The sun is big but I don't think so./ Come there! Metaphoric defect: Max is a pig. (and Max is, e.g. really fat, dirty etc.) Ironic defect: Max is a pig. (and Max is really small and tidy etc.) Grammatical defect: Max on sitting the chair. Semantic defect: I broke the dress. Q: Which of the above mentioned defects are language specific and which are universal? Which defects do the following utterances show? You're really smart (told to someone who is not smart at all). Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. They is complete wrong. I hereby play. He is a really tough nut to break. (said about a stubborn person) - CONTEXT is of basic importance for eliciting pragmatic meaning: co-text (linguistic context) and physical context; Cf. The bank is steep and overgrown. BANK ( a sign on the wall of a city building) - DEIXIS (Gr. pointing) by language: deictics are morphemes with variable referential meaning. This variation is determined by the specific context. Ex.: the definite article 'the'. Deictic usage requires the hearer to use paragmatics to infer the referent: personal deictics (personal pronouns which may distinguish person, number, gender, grammatical relation); spatial deictics (demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those and some frequent adverbs: here, there); temporal dictics (adverbs of time: now, then, today, yesterday); definitness (the definite article the, demonstratives and personal pronouns (possessives). Q: What are the deictic expressions in the following utterance: I'm busy now so you can't do that here. Come back tomorrow.

- REFERENCE VS. INFERENCE: an act by which a speaker uses language to enable a listener to identify something (a referent) is called reference whereas when there is any additional information used by the listener to connect what is said to what must be meant we talk of inference. Q: What kind of inference is involved in interpreting these utterances: Professor: Bring your Plato to class tomorrow. Nurse: The broken leg in room 5 wants to talk to the doctor.

Introduction to Linguistics for Students of English - Anaphora is a subsequent mentioning (a referring expression) of the original referent (an antecedent): Q: What are the anaphoric expressions in: Dr Dang gave Mary some medicine after she asked him for it. I was waiting for the bus, but he just frove by without stopping. - INFERENCE: cognitive process to complement the semantic model in discourse by its presuppositions and entailments listeners use inferences - PRESUPPOSITION: something the speaker assumes to be the case speakers have presuppositions - ENTAILMENT: what logically follows from what is asserted in utterance sentences have entailments E.g. a.) Some of Sues in-laws are honest inference via cooperative principle: Some are dishonest b.) Mary's mother bought a car presupposition: Mary exists, has a mother, has only one mother, mother has money (all depends on speaker's beliefs) entailments: mother bought something, bought 1 commodity, somebody bought a car, somebody did something... (all independent from speaker's beliefs) Q: What is a presupposition and entailment of a speaker who says: a) Where did he buy the beer? b) I'm (not) washing the car c) We regret buying that car. - Grice: nonentailment relations a.) She is poor but honest contrast between poverty and honesty b.) John has good handwriting (recommendation letter for philosophy): he is not that good at philosophy c.) My cat is in the kitchen or in the basement I don't know for fact that she is in the kitchen - IMPLICATURE: assumptions about the speaker's adherence to the Cooperative Principle of Conversation (Grice 1975) : what is expressed is richer than what is said - concept of an "expected" amount of information in discourse - 4 sub-principles/maxims held together by the cooperative principle: make conversational contribution as required by accepted purpose/direction Grice maxims: 1.) quantity: make contribution as informative as is requested do not make it more informative 2.) quality: try to make a contribution that is true dont say what you believe to be false don't say for what you don't have adequate evidence

3.) relation: be relevant 4.) manner: avoid obscurity, ambiguity be brief and orderly

Introduction to Linguistics for Students of English

- SPEECH ACTS - people perform actions with utterances: e.g. You are welcome! - Common label: apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise, request - supported by circumstances of utterance = speech event; cf. cold day, speaker sips tea: That tea is cold" complaint hot day, speaker sips (ice-) tea : "That tea is cold" compliment - there is no 1:1 correspondence of utterance/action, circumstances are important - Direct speech acts: correspondence of form and function: Forms Did you eat the food? Interrogative Eat the food (please). Imperative You ate the food. Declarative Functions Question Command (request) Statement

- Indirect speech acts when one of the forms is used to perform a function other than in a corresponding direct speech act, e.g. Can you pass the salt? Question or ...? Q: Someone stands betw. you and a TV set. Which is a direct and which an inderst speech act? a) Move! b) You're in the way. c) Could you sit down? d) Please get out of the way. Further readings: Dirven, Rene and Marjolijn H. Verspoor (2004). Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics (Cognitive Linguistics in Practice). John Benjamins Publishing Co. O'Grady, William, M. Dobrovolsky, F. Katamba (2001) Contemporary Linguistics : An Introduction. St. Martin's Press. pp.296-312. Yule, George. The Study of Language. CUP. pp.112-123.