Course 1 – Deixis 16.10.

2023

Origins:
-modern usage of the term is attributed to the philosopher CHARLES MORRIS (1938),
who defined it as the study of the relationship of the linguistic forms and the users of the forms;
-CARNAP (1938) defines it as the study of aspects of language that requires reference to
the user of the language.

More up-to-date trends tend to form into one of the two tendencies:
 Speaker meaning
 Utterance interpretation

One way of the two approaches is to look at the level of meaning: ABSTRACT, CONTEXTUAL
(utterance), THE FORCE OF THE UTTERANCE.
 Abstract meaning – is concerned with what a word phrase or sentence would mean
 Contextual meaning – can be defined as a sentence-context pairing, and is the first
component of speaker meaning
 The force of the utterance – refers to the speaker’s communicative meaning

Deixis – means pointing via language; any linguistic form used to do this “pointing” is called
“deixis impression”.
1. PERSONAL DEIXIS – it concerns the person involved in the utterance, such as:
a. The person directly involved (1st person/SPEAKER)
b. The person not directly involved (those who hear the utterance, but are not
directly addressed/ 2nd person)
c. The person mentioned in the utterance (3rd person)

2. SPATIAL DEIXIS – it indicated the relative location of people and things: THIS,
THESE, HERE, THAT, THOSE
3. TEMPORAL DEIXIS – it concerns itself with the various times involved in and referred
to an utterance: NOW, THEN, TONIGHT, YESTERDAY…
4. SOCIAL DEIXIS – concerns itself with the aspects of sentences, which reflect certain
realities of participants or the social situation, in which the speech event occurs; they
show how different social rankings via language take place.
There are two kinds of socially dating information that are encoded in languages:
- RELATIONAL SOCIAL DEIXIS: my husband, my teacher…
- ABSOLUTE SOCIAL DEIXIS: mr. President, Your Royal Highness…
5. DISCOURSES – it refers to the use of expressions within an utterance;
-Discourse deixis, also referred to as text deixis, is deictic reference to a portion of
a discourse relative to the speaker's current “location” in the discourse and the utterance
itself.
Example: I bet you haven’t heard this story. -this refers to an upcoming portion of
the discourse; That was an amazing account. -that refers to a prior portion of the
discourse.
 -Distinction must be made between discourse deixis and anaphora, which is when
an expression makes reference to the same referent as a prior term, as in: Matthew is an
incredible athlete; he came in first in the race. -"he" is not deictical because its
denotative meaning of Matthew is maintained regardless of the speaker, where or when
the sentence is used.
-However, there are cases where an expression can be both deictic and anaphoric
at the same time: I was born in Romania and I have lived here/there my whole life. –
here/there function anaphorically in their reference to Romania, and deictically because
choosing between `here` and `there` indicates whether the speaker is or not in Romania.

Tip to easier distinguish between the deictic and anaphoric:

-when an expression refers to a second linguistic expression or a piece of discourse, it is
discourse deictic;
-when the former expression refers to the same item as does a prior linguistic expression,
it is anaphoric.
Course 2 – IMPLICATURE 30.10.2023

The term “implicature” accounts for what a speaker can imply, suggest or mean as distinct from
what the speaker literally says.

It is speaker who communicates via implicatures and it is listeners who recognize those
communicated meaning via inference.

Implicatures are primary examples of more being communicated than is said but in order for
them to be interpreted, some basic cooperative principle must first be assumed to be in operation.

H.P. Grice’s implicature

Grice introduced four conversational maxims and the Cooperative Principle. The
cooperative runs as follows “make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it
occurs, by the accepted purpose or the direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.”
In other words, the listener presumes that the speaker is being cooperative and is speaking
truthfully, informatively, relatively and exactly.
The four conversation maxims are:
1. QUANTITY – say just as much as necessary; make your contribution as informative as is
required
2. QUALITY – in a nutshell, TELL THE TRUTH; DO NOT say what you believe is false
or that you lack evidence of
3. RELATION – make your contribution RELEVANT/ BE RELEVANT
4. MANNER – avoid obscurity of expression, ambiguity, be brief, orderly

HEDGES - when making a statement, certain expressions can be used to indicate the degree of
certainty, concerning the information given.
Ex: as far as I know…, I might be mistaken…

Grice identified 5 ways of failing to observe a maxim: FLOUTING, VIOLATING (non-

observance of a maxim), INFRINGING (non-observing of a maxim due to imperfect linguistic
performance), OPTING OUT (a speaker cannot, for ethical reasons, reply normally as expected)
and SUSPENDING (when there is no expectations from the part of participants in
conversations).

1. A flout occurs when the speaker fails to observe a maxim at the level of what is said, with
deliberate intention of generating an implicature.
a. Quality – when someone is being ironic
b. Quantity – when someone doesn’t answer a question in full (usually to be
annoying)
c. Relevance – when someone pretends to mishear what has been said to change the
conversation
d. Manner – when speakers use many big words or technical jargon that they know
their listener won’t understand.
2. Violating of a maxim prevents and discourages the interlocutor from seeking for
implicatures.
a. Quality – when an individual purposely tells a lie
b. Quantity – when an individual secretly withholds information
Course 3 – REFERNCE & INTERFERENCE 13.11.2023

Words themselves do not refer to anything, people refer.

Reference is an act in which a speaker/writer uses linguistic forms to enable a listener/reader to

identify something.

Those linguistic expressions are called REFERRING EXPRESSIONS:

 Proper nouns (Sonia, Romania, USA)
 Noun phrases – definite (the author, the singer); indefinite (a man, a place)
 Pronouns (he, she, it)

Because there is no direct relationship between entities and words, the listener’s task is to infere
which entity the speaker intents to identify by using a particular expression.

For a successful reference to occur, we must also recognize the role of inference. The process
where additional information is needed to connect what is said to what is meant, is called
inference.

The co-text or the linguistic material limits the range of possible interpretations. The physical
environment or context has a powerful impact of how referring expressions are to be interpreted.

Presuppositions & Entailment

Presupposition is what the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance.
Entailment is what logically follows from what is asserted in the utterance.

Speakers have presuppositions while sentences have entailments.

Anaphora & Cataphora

Anaphoric reference:
 References to already introduced referents
 Need not be exactly identical to antecedents
 Ex: peel and slice six potatoes. (antecedent). Put them in cold water.

Cataphora:
 Reversal of anaphoric pattern
 Is less common
 Ex: I turned the corner and almost stepped on it. There was a large snake in the middle of
the path.

Attributive vs Referential

Whoever or whatever Definite person or thing in

fits the description the mind
Course 4 27.11.2023
! a predat un student de la master, nu am scris

Course 4 11.12.2023
Action performances via utterance are generally called “Speech Acts” (Austin & Searle). You
can use them to speak but also to perform.
Austin distinguishes between locutionary, ilocutionary and perlocutionary acts.
1. Locutionary acts is an utterance that produces the literal meaning.
2. Ilocutionary act is an utterance that has a social function in mind.
3. Perlocutionary act is an utterance that gives an effect to do something.

The theory of “Speech Acts” was further developed by John Searle, who classified locutionary
acts as followed:
1. Declarations – speech acts that change the world via utterances. The speaker has to have
a special institutional role.
a. Ex ‘I pronounce you husband and wife’ – you must be a priest/officiant to change
something
2. Representatives/Assertives – speech acts that state what the speaker believes in to be the
case or not.
a. Ex ‘the Earth is flat’ / it’s hot in here
3. Expressives – that state what the speaker feels
a. Ex I’m proud of you
4. Directives – that speakers use to get someone else to do something (they can be
commands/requests/orders/suggestions etc -POZITIVE/NEGATIVE)
a. Ex give me your pen/cup of tea, stop talking, don’t do that
5. Commisives – that speakers use to commit themselves to some future action
(promises/threats/refusals)
a. I commit myself to …