PRAGMATICS

Presented By:
Faiza Liaquat
Hafsa Batool
Mahrukh Baig
Umara Shaheen

Presented To:
Sir Nazir Malik
Beyond the Linguistic Meaning
Pragmatics
Definitions and Scope
Steve Campsall on pragmatics
 Pragmatics is a way of investigating how sense can be made of
certain texts even when, from a semantic viewpoint, the text seems
to be either incomplete or to have a different meaning to what is
really intended.
(Steve Campsall)
Ex:
Consider a sign seen in a children’s wear shop window:
“Baby Sale – lots of bargain” .

 The extra meaning is there, not because of the semantic aspects of

the words themselves, but because we share certain contextual
knowledge with the writer or speaker of text.
George Yule on pragmatics
 Pragmatics is the study of intended speaker meaning.

 Pragmatics is the study of invisible meaning, or how we

recognize what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or
written.

Speakers and writers must be able to depend on a lot of

shared assumptions and expectations.
 If you see this sign you would normally
understand that you can park your car
this place, that is a heated area, and that
there will be an attendant to look after
car.

 This sign does not even have the word

car on it. Well, you use the meaning of
the words, in combination, and the
context in which they occur and you try
to arrive at what the writer of the sign
intended this message to convey.
If you see that sign, you normally understand that,
this store has not gone into the business of selling
children over there; but rather than it is advertising
clothes for babies. The word clothes does not
appear, but our normal interpretation would be that
the advertiser intended us to understand his
message.
Thomason on pragmatics

pragmatics allows us to investigate how

“meaning beyond the words” can be
understood.
(Thomason 1977)
 Pragmatics (Yule 1996)
 Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning.

 Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning.

 Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated

than is said.

 Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative

distance.
 Pragmatics is the theory of ‘meaning-is-use’.

 Pragmatics is a field of linguistics concerned with the

meanings that sentences have in particular contexts where
they are uttered.

 Out of context: ‘There's a car coming’ = ‘a car is coming’.

 In a particular context: ‘There's a car coming’ = ‘be warned
not to step onto the road, a car is coming’.
 In another context: ‘There's a car coming’ = ‘The car is
coming, put the food on the table’.
 Pragmatics is the study of ‘implicatures’ as
opposed to 'literal meanings'.

Ex:
Bob: are you coming to the party?
Jane: You know, I’m really busy.

 Jane response pragmatically implicates her attention

(that she won’t come to the party), which Bob can
infer via his past experience from countless other
conversations.
 “Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the
ways in which context contributes to meaning.”
(Wikipedia)

Meaning depends not only on:

 verbal knowledge of the speaker and listener

 beliefs of the speaker and the relations between the speakers

 but also on the situational context and culture of the

words.
 People tend to behave in fairly regular ways when it comes
to using language.
 People are member of social groups and follow general
patterns of behavior expected within the group.
Ex:
Routine responses of question, “How are you?” is “Okay”
or “Fine”.
but in Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia people generally
answered with a phrase that had the literal meaning of
“Praise to God”.
 Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics
 Syntax is the study of the relationships between linguistic
forms, how they are arranged in sequence and which
sequences are well-formed.

 Semantics is the study of the relationships linguistic forms

and entities in the world i.e. how words literally connect to
things.

 Pragmatics is the study of the relationships between

linguistic forms and their users.
In this three-part distinction, only pragmatics allows
humans into analysis
 Studying language via pragmatics
 Advantage:
We can talk about people’s indented meanings, their
assumptions, their purposes or goals, and the kinds of
actions (e.g. request) that they are performing when they
speak.

 Disadvantage:
Human concepts are extremely difficult to analyze in a
consistent and objective way.
 To illustrate this consider the following example:

 Two friends having conversation may imply some

things and infer some others without providing any
clear linguistic evidence that we can point to as the
explicit source of ‘the meaning’ of what was
communicated.

Her: So---did you?

Him: Hey---who wouldn’t?
 How does Pragmatics Work?
 Imagine you are shopping downtown with a friend.
As you pass a well known pizza place, your friend
longingly stares to the people outside eating pizza
and remarks
“Hey, I am really hungry!”

What would be your reaction?

 Taken out of context, your friend has simply provided a
piece of information – that she is feeling hungry.
 In terms of meaning she wants to communicate, however, it
is likely he intends to get something else across.
 You might interpret her remarks as a request to make a food
stop and respond by saying
“Me too – Let’s get some pizza”.
 Note that in this case your interpretation of what your
friend means goes beyond what she has literally said.
 How does Pragmatics Work?
 We can illustrate how pragmatics works by an example from football. It
sometimes happens that a team-mate will shout at you: “Man on!”
 Semantic analysis:
For example, it can elicit different lexical meanings of the noun “man”
(mankind or the human race, an individual person, a male person
specifically) and the preposition “on” (on top of, above, or other
relationships as in “on fire”, “on heat”, “on duty”)
 Structural meaning:
This phrase works in longer sequences such as the “first man on the
moon”, “a man on the run” or “the man on top of the Clapham
omnibus”.
None of this explains the meaning in the context of the football game. This
is very complex, but perhaps includes at least the following elements:
 Your team-mate has seen another player's movement, and thinks that you
have either not seen it, or have not responded to it appropriately.
 Your team-mate wants you to know that you are likely to be tackled or
impeded in some way.
 Your team-mate wants you to respond appropriately, as by shielding the
ball, passing it to an unmarked player, laying it off for another team-mate
and so on.
 Your team-mate has an immediate concern for you, but this is really
subordinated to a more far-sighted desire for you, as a player on his team,
to protect the ball or retain possession, as this will make his team more
likely to gain an advantage.
 Your team-mate understands that your opponent will also hear the
warning, but thinks that this hearing will not harm his team's chances as
much as your not being aware of the approaching player.
 Your team-mate foresees that you may rebuke him (and the other players
on our team collectively) if no-one, from a better vantage point, alerts
you to the danger.
 How does Pragmatics Work?
 You ask a friend how English literature class was. She rolls
her eyes, shrugs emphatically and responds
“Literature? Oh, you know, it was fantastic!”
 It is obvious that your friend is being ironic – saying the
opposite of what she actually means.
 But how do we figure this out?
 Apparently there are clues in the utterances and in the facial
expressions of speakers which allow us to notice irony.
These clues are not contained in the words themselves –
they are in the context.
 Context
 Suppose one of you says, 'Let's have chocolate now!'
 Now is sometime in Ramadan.
 The place where she is making the statement is in this
laboratory.
 The person who says the statement is a female, Arab, and
Muslim student.
 The statement is uttered in the presence of a teacher, who is
meant to uphold a certain set of rules of conduct.
 Within the context of Ramadan, this statement would be
outrageous, but within other contexts it would have been a
welcome invitation, wouldn’t it?The statement has more
than one meaning depending on its time context.
 This statement might have been made by a bold
student challenging your feelings in Ramadan, or
by a person wanting to celebrate  The meaning
of the statement depends in part on the person
who said it and on her intention.
 The word ‘chocolate’ may give the connotation
of ‘celebration’.
 The meaning of the statement is determined in
part by the setting and the linguistic context it
was uttered in.
 There are two types of context:

(1) physical context or setting, which includes who made

an utterance, to whom, when, where, and in what conditions

(2) linguistic context or co-text, which is the words within

which an utterance is made, all the words and their
implications are co-text of an utterance.
Linguistic Context
The word (bank) is a homonym ,a form with more than
. one word
If the word (bank) is used in sentence together with words
like steep or overgrown we have no problem deciding
which type of bank is meant. It means shore “the land
”.around a river
When you hear someone say that she has get to the bank to
cash a check. We know from the linguistic context which
type of bank is intended. The mean of the bank here is the
place where people put money inside for saving.
 •physical context:

If you see the word

BANK On the wall of a building
in a city ,the physical location
will influence your
Interpretation.

Our understanding of much we read and hear is tied

to the physical context ,particularly the time and
.place ,in which we encounter linguistic expression
 Deixis
Definitions:
 The word ‘deixis’ is a technical term (from Greek) for one of the most
basic things we do with utterances, which means ‘pointing via
language.’
(George Yule)
 “Deixis concerns ways in which the interpretation of utterance
depends on the analysis of that context of utterance.”
(Stephen C. Levinson)

 Deixis is any word that cannot be interpreted without reference to

physical context: the speaker, addressee, time, and place of utterance.
Ex:
you’ll have to bring that back tomorrow, because they
aren’t there now.

 Out of context, this sentence is extremely vague. It contains

a larger number of expressions (you, that, tomorrow, they,
here, now) which depend for their interpretation on the
immediate physical context in which they were uttered.
 These cannot be understand in terms of speaker’s intended
meaning.
 These are technically known as deictic expressions.
Deictic Expression
 Any linguistic form used to accomplish ‘pointing’ is
called a deictic expression.

 Deictic expressions are also known as indexicals.

 Deictic Expression
 Deictic expressions are meaningful in a given
context.
 They are among the first words acquired by
children.
 In order to be interpreted correctly, the speaker and
listener have to share the same context.
 They are particularly useful in face to face
communication.
 Deictic Expression
 What are the deictic expressions in the following
utterance?

I’m busy now you can’t do that here. Come back tomorrow.
 Types of Deixis
 Person Deixis: any expression used to point to a person
(me, you, him, them) is an example of PERSON DEIXIS.

 Space/Spatial/Place Deixis: words used to point to a

location (here, there) are examples of Place Deixis.

 Time/Temporal Deixis: the expression used to a time

(now, then, tonight, last week, yesterday) are examples of
Time Deixis.
 Person Deixis
 Person deixis operates on a basis three-part division,
exemplified by the pronouns for first person (‘I’),
second person (‘you’), and third person (‘he, she, it’).
 A speech event includes at least two persons:

- first person = speaker

- second person = addressee
 Usually the third person is not grammatically marked,
because the only two persons of importance are the
first person and the second person.
 Person Deixis
 Pronouns:

All languages have personal pronouns or at

least words, that refer to the participants of the
speech act.
 The pronouns of the first (I-my-mine) and
second person (you-your-yours) are deictic
(reference to the speaking person).
Itis also possible to have deictic
pronouns for the third person.

Definite and specific pronouns: this,

that, those, or these.
Indefinite and specific pronouns:
somebody, something, who, what.
Indefinite and non-specific pronouns:
someone, something, nobody, nothing.
 Space/Spatial/Place Deixis
 The concept of distance is relevant to spatial deixis, where the relative
location of people and things is being indicated.

 Some pure place-deictic words: here and there (adverbs); this and
that (demonstrative pronouns).

 Here = (near); there = (more distant)

 Demonstrative pronouns:
This = the object in a pragmatically given area close to the speaker’s
location.
That = the object beyond the pragmatically given area close to the
speaker’s location.
Ex:

I’m writing to say I’m having a marvelous

time here. (includes the location of speaker)

Bring that here and take this there. (away from

the location of speaker)
 Motion verbs:
come vs. go makes distinction between the
direction of motion.
 She’s coming = she is moving towards the
speaker’s location.
 She’s going = she is moving away from the
speaker’s location.
 I’m coming = the speaker is moving towards
the location of the addressee.
 Time deixis
Expressions referring to time:
five minutes ago
tomorrow
last week
next Monday
Choice of tense:
 present tense : He doesn’t know.
(this is nearer to the point of
reference)
 past tense: Yesterday I slept for 10 hours
(this communicates distance from
current time)
 Conditionals
if I won the lottery I would …
(this communicates distance from current reality)
 Time Deixis is relevant to various other deictic elements
in language:
Ex:
 Greetings:
Good morning (can only be used in the morning)
 Expressions:
the former president, my ex-roommate
REFERENCE AND

INFERENCE
Reference is an act by which a speaker
(or writer)uses language to enable a
listener (or reader)to identify
something.
Example: . one man who always went by
fast and loud on his motorcycle in my
neighborhood was locally referred to as “
Mr. Kawasaki ”. A brand name for a
motorcycle can obviously be used for a
person .
An inference is any additional information
used by the listener to connect what is
said to what must be meant. A listener may
Anaphor
a:
When we establish a referent (can I
borrow your book? ) and subsequently
refer to the same object (yeah ,it’s on
the table ), we have a particular kind of
referential relationship between book
and it.
o The second referring expression is an
example of anaphora.
o And the first mention is called the
antecedent.
In the last example : book is the
Anaphora can be defined as
subsequent reference to an already
introduced entity. Mostly we use
anaphora in texts to maintain
reference, as with other types of
reference ,the connection between
referent and anaphora may not
always be direct.
Example: I was waiting for the bus
,but he just drove by without stopping
.
The antecedent is bus and the
 Presupposition:
 Presupposition is a term developed in philosophy by P.
F. Strawson; thence into linguistics in the late 1960s.
 Presupposition is a relation between propositions
(statements) by which A presupposes B if, for A to be
true, B must be true.
 E.g., 'The King of Egypt is bald' is neither true nor false
unless the presupposition that 'There is a King of Egypt’
is true.
 E.g. ‘I'm sorry for thinking you were the cleaner’
presupposes that either the speaker or the addressee or
both view being a cleaner is bad.
 Presuppositio
n:
When a speaker uses referring
expressions in normal circumstances, she
is working with an assumption that the
hearer knows which referent is intended.
What a speaker assumes is true or is
known by the hearer can be described as a
Presupposition.
If someone tells you your brother is waiting
outside for you , there is an obvious
presupposition that you have a brother.
If you are asked why did you arrive late ?
One of the tests used to check for the
presuppositions underlying sentences
involves negating a sentence with a
particular presupposition and
considering whether the presupposition
remains true .
Example: my car is a wreck. The negative
version of this sentence is my car is not a
wreck .although these two sentences
have opposite meanings , the underlying
presupposition ,I have a car , remains
true in both
Context:
There are different kinds of context
to be considered :
1- linguistic context:also known as
co-text.
the co-text of word is the set of
other words used in the same
phrase or sentence.
This surrounding co-text has a
strong effect on what we think the
word mean.
Example:
The word (bank) is a homonym ,a
form with more than one word.
If the word (bank) is used in
sentence together with words like
steep or overgrown we have no
problem deciding which type of bank
is meant.it mean shore “the land
around a river”
When you hear someone say that she
has get to the bank to cash a check. We
know from the linguistic context which
type of bank is intended. The mean of
the bank here is the place where people
2-physical context:
If you see the the
word
BANK On the wall of
a
building in a city
,the
physical location will
influence your
Our understanding of much we read
and hear is
Interpretation. tied to the physical
context ,particularly the time and
place ,in which we encounter
linguistic expression.
 SPEECH ACT THEORY

Ask a
question Order

Apologis
e Advise

Request
Promise
”There’s a snake in the grass”
• Words in sentences like

There’s a snake in the grass

involve more than a description of the

world:

The speaker could be:

1. Informing that there is a snake in the grass
2. Threatening ...
3. warning the hearer that ...
4. expressing his/her fear that ...
• Language can be used not just for describing the thoughts
and beliefs, but also for performing different acts.
• ”Actions performed via utterances are generally called
speech acts.” (Yule 1996:47)

• Request
• Apology
• Complaint
• Promise We
• Order
th do
• Warning wi ing
th
• Invitation wo s
• Greeting rd
s
Au
st
in
’s
bo
ok

1962
Austin (1962)

The action performed through an utterance

consists of three acts:

• Locutionary act – Production of a meaningful utterance

• Illocutionary act – The communicative function/

purpose of the utterance

• Perlocutionary act – Effect of the utterance upon the

listener
 I’ve already been
(I complain)
already
I’ve
waiting already
waiting I’ve
been
three weekswithin
already
waiting
three a been
week
three
for the computer, waiting
weeks
and
three
the weeks
I was told it wouldand
forfor the,
computer,
and for
been the
I
be
Icomputer,
was
was told
it and
delivered within abe
would
it wouldI was
told
told
deliveredit would
week. (so do a
computer be
within
be
delivered
delivered
week. within a
I’ve. it!) perlocutionary
something about act
week.
illocutionary act
locutionary act

utterance
I promise you that!

The illocutionary force of an utterance is

what it “counts as”.

 Word order
 Stress and intonation pattern
Perlocutionary force is the reaction of the
listeners: how people react to sentences

Telephonic conversation

A: Can I talk to Nancy?

B: No, she’s not here.
A: I’m asking can I talk to her?
B: I’m telling you--- SHE’S NOT HERE!
Austin’s Classification of Speech Acts
1- Constatives: All the speech acts except
declarations

2- Decalarations/ Performatives:
Speech acts that change the state of affairs in the
world

• I sentence you to ten years of hard labour.

• I sentence you to death
• I pronounce that they may be Man and Wife.
• You are under arrest.
• I declare war on Jordan.
 Felicity Conditions

“Felicity conditions are the expected or appropriate

circumstances surrounding the utterances for the
performance of a speech act to be recognized as
intended.”
(Yule 1996:50)
 Shut the window!

The felicity conditions would help us determine the

“communicative intention” of the speaker (speech-act).
 Felicity Conditions
 Authority (social status):
 Person
 Place
 Time
 Manner
 Sincerity:
 Verbal Sincerity
 Intonational Sincerity
 Behavioral Sincerity
 Content:
Content should match the function of the
utterance
 John Searle’s Speech Act Theory

J. Searle's (1975)
Speech Acts theory
is a development of
Austin's analysis of
Speech Acts.
 Searle’s Classification of Speech Acts
Searle suggested a five-fold classification of speech acts:

• Directives: Command, Request

• Commissives: Oath, Offer, Promise
• Representatives: Assertion, claim, conclusion
• Declaratives: Marriage, Baptism, Court-decisions
• Expressives: Apology, thanks, Congratulations
Structural Classification of Speech Acts
Structurally speech acts can be divided into:
Direct Speech Acts:
There is a direct relationship between structure
and function of the sentence.

Indirect Speech Acts:

There is an indirect relationship between structure
and function of the sentence.

The locutionary and the illocutionary acts coincide in direct

speech acts and do not coincide in indirect speech acts.
 I really don’t
expect you to
tell me your
age, but how
old are you?

Direct Speech Act

Consider the following example

Could you fill in

this form,
please?

Request
Which speech act is
Indirect Speech
being performed? Act
Voltaire (1778) says:

When a lady says no, she means ‘perhaps’;

When she says perhaps, she means ‘yes’;
When she says yes, she is not a lady.
 Politeness is commonly thought of as being tactful,
modest, and nice to others, but politeness, in linguistics, is
showing awareness of another person’s face.

 Face, in pragmatics, is the public self-image that every

member wants to claim for himself.
…Continued
 There are different kinds of politeness
associated with the assumption of relative
social distance and closeness.
Example:
a. Excuse me, Mr Buckingham, but can I
talk to you for a minute?
b. Hey, Bucky, got a minute?
 Face wants
 Face wants-------- individual’s expectations
concerning his/her public self-image
 Face-threatening act: If a person says
something that represents a threat to another
individual’s expectations regarding self-image,
it is described as a face threatening act.
 Face-saving act: Whenever you say something
that lessens the possible threat to another’s
face, it’s called a face-saving act.
…Continued
Example:
Husband: I’m going to tell him to stop that
awful noise right now!

Wife: Perhaps you could just ask him if he is

going to stop soon because it’s getting a
bit late and people need to get to sleep.
Two types of face: Positive and Negative
Positive Face: Belongingness Negative Face: Privacy
 The public self.  Invented by Brown and

 The positive consistent self-

Levinson
 The concept of the right
image or ‘personality’
to privacy.
crucially including the
 The basic claim to
desire that this self-image be
territories, personal
appreciated and approved by
preserves, rights to non-
interactants. distraction
 The want of every member  The want of every
that his wants be desirable ‘competent adult
to at least some others. member’ that his actions
be unimpeded by others.
Self and other: say nothing
 Many people seem to prefer to have their
needs recognized by others without having to
express those needs in language.
Example:
Self: (looks in bag)
Other: (offers pen) Here, use this.
Say something: off and on record
 Off record statements------- ‘hints’ or statements not
directly addressed to the other.
a. Uh, I forgot my pen.
b. Hmm, I wonder where I put my pen.
 On record statements------statements directly
addressed to the other as a means to expressing your
needs.
 Bald on record ------- the most direct approach using
imperative forms.
a. Give me a pen.
b. Lend me your pen.
……..Continued
 Mitigating devices------bald on record forms may be followed by
expressions like ‘please’ and ‘would you?’ which serve to soften the
demand.
 All imperative forms are not bald on record statements.
 Have some more cake.
 Bald on record expressions are associated with speech events
where the speaker assumes that he/she has power over the other.
 Interaction between social equals------- Face threatening act.
Positive and Negative Politeness Strategies
Positive politeness strategy leads the requester to appeal to a
common goal, and even friendship, via expressions such as:
a. How about letting me use your pen?
b. Hey, buddy, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me use your pen.
Negative politeness strategy--------expressions of apology for
the imposition or extended talk often with hesitations:
a. I’m sorry to bother you , but can I ask you for a pen or
something?
b. I know you’re busy, but might I ask you if– em –if you
happen to have an extra pen that I could, you know– eh–
may be borrow?
Strategies
 Solidarity strategy------- personal
information, use of nicknames, and shared
dialect and slang expressions.

 Deference strategy------ formal politeness,

impersonal, can include expressions that
refer to neither the speaker nor the hearer.
 ……..Continued
How to get a pen from someone else

say something say nothing

(but search in bag)

on record off record

(“I forgot my pen”)

face saving act bald on record

(‘Give me a pen’)

positive politeness negative politeness

(‘How about letting me use your pen?’) (I’m sorry to bother you , but can I ask you for a pen or something?)
Pre-sequences
Pre-request
(a)
Her: Are you busy? (= pre request)
Him: Not really. (= go ahead)
Her: Check over this memo. (=request)
Him: Okay. (=accept)
(b)
Him: Are you busy? (= pre-request)
Her: Oh, sorry. (=stop)
In short…..

 Politeness is a system of interpersonal

relations designed to facilitate interaction by
minimizing the potential for conflict and
confrontation inherent in human interchange.
 Conclusion
Pragmatics….
 covers things that semantics (hitherto) has
overlooked.

 is the study of the relationships between

linguistic forms and the users of those forms.

 gives insights into person-to-person interactions

 References
 Levinson, S.C.(1983) “Pragmatics”, Edinburgh:
Cambridge University Press

 Searle, J.(1972) “What is a Speech Act?”,

Giglioli, P.P. (ed) “Language and Social
Context”, Milan: University of Milan Press

 Yule, G.(1996) “Pragmatics”, New York: Oxford

University Press