Chapter 2 : Pragmatics

1- Introduction to Pragmatics (Origin)

The sub-field of linguistics called pragmatics, which looks at meanings of utterances in

context, is often discussed in contrast with the sub-filed called semantics, which is the study

of meaning as part of the language system. Semantics focuses on the meanings of signs, and

the relationship between these meanings, and includes the study of meanings of chunks of

text. However, when these utterances are interpreted with reference to the context, including

the setting, speakers, background knowledge, and so on, this falls into the realm of

pragmatics.

Pragmatics begins in the semiotics of Morris (1938) and semantics of Carnap (1961).

Carnap proposed that pragmatic research necessarily referred to the speaker, whereas

semantic and syntactic research would not.

Pragmatics as a modern branch of linguistic inquiry has its origins in the philosophy of

language. Its philosophical roots can be traced back to the work of the philosopher Charles

Morris, Rudolf Carnap, and Charles Peirce in the 1930’s. Influenced by Peirce (1938) for

example, Morris presented a threefold division into syntax, semantics, and pragmatics within

semiotics (the theory of signs). According to this typology, syntax is the study of the formal

relation of one sign with another, semantics deals with the relation of signs to what they

denote, and pragmatics addresses the relation of signs to their users and interpreters.

Pragmatics (related definitions)

“The study of contextual meaning communicated by a speaker or writer and interpreted by a

listener or reader” (George Yule).

“The study of the relation of signs to interpreters” (Charles Morris)

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“The study of the relations between linguistic forms and its users (…) Only pragmatics allows

humans into the analysis, their assumptions, purposes, goals, and actions they perform while

speaking” (George Yule).

Areas of Pragmatics (George Yule)

Pragmatics is:

1. The study of speaker meaning : What people mean by their utterances rather than

what the words or phrases might mean by themselves.

2. The study of contextual meaning: Importance of the context: the circumstances and

the audience or public.

3. The study of how more gets communicated than said: The inferences made by

listeners or readers in order to arrive at an interpretation of the intended meaning. A

great deal of what is unsaid is recognized as part of what is communicated. The study

of “invisible meaning”.

4. The study of the expression of relative distance: The closeness or distance of the

listener or reader determines how much needs to be said.

Context (linguistic, physical & general knowledge).

Linguistic knowledge: refers to the context within the discourse, that is, the relationship

between the words, phrases, sentences and even paragraphs, for example, we can’t get the

exact meaning of the sentence “He is a bachelor” without the linguistic context to make clear

the exact meaning of the word.

physical & general knowledge: It is about objects surrounding the communication, place and

time of the communication, what is going on around, etc.

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 2- Speech Act Theory (SAT)

It is one of the most influential theories in pragmatics that is concerned with the ways by

which words perform actions in addition to conveying meaning. The SAT was first introduced

by Austin (1962) in his book How to Do Things with Words and later developed by Searle

(1969, 1975). In his articulation of the theory, Austin (1962) contended that, in language, “to

say something is to do something”(p.108), for example, when we say “would you lend me

your book, please?”, the speaker is not only producing an utterance in English but also

performing an act (request) which is called a speech act

According to Austin (1962), a speaker produces three types of acts: locutionary, illocutionary

and perlocutionary.

The locutionary act is equivalent to uttering a certain sentence with a certain sense and

reference (meaning). An illocutionary act refers to what is performed “such as informing,

ordering, warning, etc. i.e. utterances which have a certain (conventional) force” (Austin,

1962,p.108). A perlocutionary act is what we bring about or achieve by saying something,

such as convincing, persuading, surprising, etc.

Speech acts

 Speech acts are verbal actions that accomplish something such as greeting, requesting,

complimenting, etc.

 A speech act is something expressed by an individual that not only presents

information but performs an action as well.

Searle’s Taxonomy of Speech Acts

1- Representatives: commit the speaker (in varying degrees) to something’s being the

case, to the truth of the expressed proposition. Assertives are expressed by verbs such

as: to report, to conclude, to state, to tell, to predict, to inform, to agree, etc.

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 2- Directives: are attempts by the speaker to direct the hearer to do something.

Directives include acts such as: orders, commands, requests, and so on.

3- Commissives: commit the speaker to doing a future action. Examples of these include

acts such as threatening, promising, swearing, etc.

4- Expressives: express the psychological state of the speaker. They can be expressed by

verbs such as to thank, to apologize, to welcome, to congratumate,etc.

5- Declarations: when the speaker declares (asserts) something so as to bring about a

change in reality such as: declare war, declare marriage, etc.

Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

Direct Speech Acts

An utterance is seen as a direct speech act when there is a direct relationship between the

structure (declarative, interrogative, imperative) and its communicative function (statement,

question, command).

The following examples show that the form corresponds with the function:

a) A declarative is used to make a statement (you wear a seat belt).

b) An interrogative is used to ask a question (Do you wear a seat belt?).

c) An imperative is used to make a command (Wear a seat belt).

Direct speech acts therefore explicitly illustrate the intended meaning the speaker has behind

making that utterance.

Indirect Speech Acts

Searle stated that an indirect speech is one that is performed by means of another. That means

that there is an indirect relationship between the form and the function of the utterance.

The following examples show that the form does not correspond with the function.

a) A declarative is used to make a request (You are standing in front of the TV).

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 b) An interrogative is used to make a request (Could you pass the salt?).

The speaker does not explicitly state the intended meaning behind the utterance. It is the

hearer’s task to analyze the utterance to understand its meaning.

3- Grice’s Cooperative Principle

Definition

A principle proposed by Paul Grice in 1975, he maintained that the overriding principle in

conversation is the cooperative principle whereby those involved in communication assume

that both parties will normally seek to cooperate with each other to establish agreed meaning.

Grice says that when we communicate, we assume without realizing it that we, and the people

we are talking to, will be conversationally cooperative. We will cooperate to achieve mutual

conversational ends.

Maxims of Conversation

Grice lists four maxims that follow from the cooperative principle: quantity, quality, relation,

and manner.

The maxim of quantity: requires you to make your contribution as informative as is

required.

The maxim of quality: requires you not to say what you believe to be false or that for which

you lack adequate evidence.

The maxim of relation: is the simple injunction: be relevant.

The maxim of manner: requires you to avoid obscurity of expression and ambiguity (and to

be brief).

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 4- Deixis

Definition

Deixis is a technical term derived from the Greek word meaning ‘pointing’ via language. It is

concerned directly with the relationship between the structure of a language and the context in

which the language is used. It is the phenomenon whereby features of context of utterance or

speech event are encoded by lexical or grammatical means in a language. Deictic expressions

are also sometimes called ‘indexicals’ which include :1) demonstratives, 2) first and second

person pronouns, 3) tense markers, 4) adverbs of time and place, and 5) motion verbs.

Deixis is an important part of pragmatics that can’t be ignored in terms of language use,

because its interpretation depends on the context and the speaker intention.

Deictic vs. Non-deictic Expressions

Deictic expressions are words whose meaning shifts depending on the point of view of the

speaker. Examples of deictic terms include “ this/that”, “here/there”, “I/you”, and “my/your”

“now, then”, etc. However, the ‘non-deictic use’ is an expression for which we don’t need

context to understand, because it is not referring to a specific thing, for example: “I do this

and that”, the “this” and “that” do not refer to anything specific.

Basic Categories of Deixis

1) Person Deixis

It deals with the grammatical categories of people involved in an utterance. It includes the

speaker, the addressee, and referents which are neither the speaker nor the addressee.

Person deixis is commonly expressed by pronouns, possessive affixes of three kinds:

a) First person deixis (I, we): which refers to the speaker or a groups of speakers.

b) Second person deixis (you): which refers to the addressee or a group of addressees

c) Third person deixis (he, she, it, and they): which refer to other participants in the

context of situation, neither the speaker nor the addressee.

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 2) Place (Spatial) Deixis

Words and phrases used to point to a location, such as “here”, “there”, “near that” are called

spatial deixis. Place deixis is an expression used to show the location which is relevant to the

location of a participant in the speech event. The relative location of people and things is

being indicated. It is usually expressed in “this”, “that”, “those”, “here”, and “there.

3) Time (Temporal) Deixis

Time deixis is concerned with the ending of temporal points and spans relative to the time at

which an utterance is produced in a speech event. It refers to the expressions that deal with the

time of speaking. Time expressions are represented by adjectives of time such as: yesterday, ,

now, then, etc.