Language in Use

Outline
 Introduction
 Context
 Deixis, reference, anaphora
 Speech Acts
 Cooperative principle in conversations
 Politeness
 Aims
To know what is pragmatics and its main
concern;
To have a general idea about context and the
notions of deixis, reference and anaphora;
To understand the Speech Act theory, the
Cooperative Principles in Conversation and
Politeness Principles in Conversation.
 Definition of Pragmatics

The study of language in use.

The study of meaning in context.
The study of speakers’ meaning,
utterance meaning,
& contextual meaning.
 Introduction
 Pragmatics is the study of how speakers of a
language use sentences to effect successful
communication. It studies the following topics:
deixis, speech acts, indirect language, conversation,
politeness, cross-cultural communication, and
presupposition. (Dai & He, 2002: 84)
Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning,
contextual meaning, how more gets
communicated than is said, the expression of
relative distance. (Yule, 2000, p. 3)
What’s the differences between
Semantics and Pragmatics?
 The origin

Semantics

Context considered Context unconsidered

Pragmatics Traditional semantics

 Think over: Meaning’s
meaning
• He meant to write.  Intended

• A green light means go.  Indicate

• Health means everything.  has importance
• What’s the meaning of life?  Point
• What does it mean to you?  Convey
 refer to in the world
• What does ‘ghost’ mean?
• Semanticists take meaning to be an
inherent property of language, pragmatics
regard meaning as something that is
realized in the course of communication.
Pragmatics is concerned with the interpretation of
linguistic meaning in context. It is the study of how
speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful
communication.
A: I have a fourteen-year-old son.
B: Well, that’s all right
A: I also have a dog.
B: Oh, I’m sorry.
Pragmatics is different from
traditional semantics in that
it studies meaning not in
isolation but in context.
 Sentence meaning vs.
Utterance meaning
Today is Sunday.
It can be
1. an answer for “what day is it today?”
2. statement
3. complaint
4. reminder
5. criticism (reproach)
 Context

Linguistic Extra-linguistic
knowledge knowledge
 Linguistic knowledge
1. Knowledge of the language they use
2. Knowledge of what has been said before
 Extra-linguistic knowledge
1. Knowledge about the world in general
2. Knowledge about the specific situation
3. Knowledge about each other
Context & language use

Context determines the hearer’s interpretation of

what is said to him.
Context governs the speaker’s use of language.
Q: Any examples?
 Sentence meaning vs.
utterance meaning

• Sentence: abstract units of the language system.

• Utterance: units of language in use.
• Utterance: if we think of a sentence as what people
actually utter in the course of communication, it
becomes an utterance.
Sentence meaning
• What does X mean?
• Sentence: a grammatical concept, abstract,
self-contained unit in isolation from context
• Sentence meaning: abstract, intrinsic property,
decontexualized
 Utterance meaning
• What do you mean by X?
• Utterance: sth. a speaker utters in a certain
situation with a certain purpose
• Utterance meaning: concrete, context-dependent
• Speakers’ meaning
 Speaker’s meaning

(A father is trying to get his 3-year-old

daughter to stop lifting up her dress to
display her new underwear to the assemble.)
• Father: We don’t DO that.
• Daughter: I KNOW, Daddy.
You don’t WEAR dresses.
1. A: Are you going to the seminar?
B: It’s on linguistics.
2. A: Would you like some coffee?
B: Coffee would keep me awake.