1c 2a 3a 4b 5a 6b 7a 8b 9b 10b 11c 12b 13 c 14c 15a 16c 17a 18c 19b 20b

1 .-

Pragmatics mainly deals with...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) abstract idealizations

b) prescriptive rules

c) meaning in context

2 .-

What is the most probable meaning of John's underdetermined utterance, if we take into
account an emotional context in which John likes Mary very much and is jelous of her
relationship with her boyfriend?

Mary: I love my boyfriend! He is so cute!!

John: Yeess! He is super-cute!

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) John does not like Mary's boyfriend

b) John likes Mary's boyfriend

c) John thinks Mary's boyfriend is cute

3 .-

The Anglo-American School views pragmatics as...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) a core component of a linguistic theory

b) the study of pure linguistic data

c) a macro-discipline covering all aspects of language

4 .-

B's utterance in the following exchange (in a situation in which A knows that B loves
travelling to attractive islands) is an example of...

A: Would you like to come to the Bahamas with us?

B: Is the Pope Catholic?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) a direct acceptance of a request

b) a conventionalized ironic answer

c) a grammaticalized marker

5 .-

In order to avoid falling into improper generalizations, instead of the term "culture",
nowadays some scholars (such as Scollon, Scollon and Jones 2012) use the term...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) discourse system

b) illiterate culture
c) super-culture

6 .-

What type of illocutionary act is realized by Jenny's utterance in the following

exchange:

Ethel: How could you possibly do that to me?

Jenny: I swear that I will never do it again!

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Representative

b) Commissive

c) Directive

7 .-

The act of choosing and pronouncing certain words and arranging them with a given
sense and reference is called...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Locutionary act

b) Perlocutionary act

c) Illocutionary act

8 .-

What would be a very possible perlocutionay act produced by the following utterance
(said by a shop-assistant to her client):
This dress matches the color of your beautiful eyes. In fact you look like a Queen in it!

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) showing her the dress

b) convincing her to buy the dress

c) complimenting her

9 .-

Which of the following illocutions is normally associated with the exclamative clause
type of the indicative mood?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) eliciting information

b) expressing emotion

c) asserting

10 .-

William gets into the house and leaves the door open. It is very cold and so his mother
says: The door!!!! What type of speech act is the mother carrying out with her
utterance?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Making a wish
b) Requesting

c) Asserting

11 .-

Specify the usage of 'there' in the following exchange:

A: Where's my pen?

B: (pointing to the table) There! Don't you see it?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) symbolic

b) non-deictic

c) gestural

12 .-

Searle (1975) used the concept of Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID) to
refer to...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) implicit subjects

b) Explicit performative verbs and their subject

c) non-explicit speech acts

13 .-

The pronoun she in the following utterance is an example of...

She is beautiful; she is loved by all of us: Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only
Maryl Streep!!!

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) anaphoric reference

b) esphoric reference

c) cataphoric reference

14 .-

Which Gricean Maxim is flouted by B in the following exchange?:

A: Isn't he marvellous?

B: If he is marvellous, I'm the King of France.

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Maxim of Relevance

b) Maxim of Quantity

c) Both a) and b)

15 .-
The demonstrative that in the following exchange is an example of...

A: Let's buy this book

B: That is not the book I wanted to buy!

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Discourse deixis

b) Place deixis

c) Social deixis

16 .-

The word again in the utterance Johnny has failed the exam again presupposes that he
failed the same exam in the past at least once. What type of presupposition is this?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Existential

b) Factive

c) Connotation

17 .-

The utterance I have two sisters tends to trigger the implicature that the speaker has no
more than two sisters. What type of implicature is this?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Generalized Conversational Implicature

b) Particularized Conversational Implicature

c) Particularized Conventional Implicature

18 .-

Which of the following properties is NOT a property of conversational implicatures?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Cancellability

b) Calculability

c) non-cancellability

19 .-

Which of Horn's (1984) principles is the following? Make your contribution necessary.
Say no more than you must.

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) The Q Principle

b) The R Principle

b) The M principle

20 .-

Levinson's neo-Gricean approach to meaning is mainly a theory of...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) utterance-token meaning

b) preferred interpretation

c) entailment
 PRAGMÁTICA DE LA LENGUA INGLESA

PEC nº 1 (Units 1-3)

After studying Units 1, 2 and 3, check the most appropriate answer in each case
(questions 1-20)

1. “Appropriateness” in Pragmatics is assessed in assessed in relation to:

a) only the literal meaning of the words uttered

b) the users of language and the people addressed
c) the grammatical rules of the language in question

2. Consider the following exchange:

A: Julia is intelligent
B: Yes, but Cindy is intelligent AND pretty

B’s comment (also considering the stress on “AND”) will most surely make the listener
infer that:

a) Julia is also pretty.

b) Cindy is not intelligent
c) Julia is not pretty.

3. Peter’s daughter’s disappointment when she noticed the sign Pet mince at the local
butcher’s shop (thinking that they had made mince out of a pet, instead of the intended
interpretation-that it was mince for pets-) is due to:

a) the indeterminacy or under-determinacy of utterances.

b) her inability to understand utterances.
c) the fact that the butcher intended to be ironical.

4. Which is the most suitable context for the utterance “I’ve got a flat tyre” to mean “I
can’t give you a lift”?

a) in a garage, to the mechanic.

b) to my friend, who has no car and needs to go out.
c) to my friend, who is showing me his brand new Mercedes Benz.

5. The concept of “Accommodation” refers to:

a) the background knowledge interlocutors share in order to interpret an utterance

b) the need to assemble all words and expressions together in an utterance
c) the proper use of grammatical rules in an utterance
6. The term “speech act” has come to refer exclusively to:

a) the locutionary act

b) the perlocutionary act
c) the illocutionary act

7. Specify the type of act realized by the utterance “Welcome to America” in the
following exchange:

Tom (an American) is talking with his Spanish friend (Julio), who has come to the U.S. to study
at a prestigious university:

Julio: You know, I went to a restaurant for the first time in America and honestly, I didn’t like
the food, but was impressed by the enormous portions they serve here, though.

Tom: Welcome to America, my friend!

Tom’s utterance is:

a) a genuine welcome
b) a warning
c) an invitation

8. Specify the type of act performed by the utterance “I’ll take you to the movies
tomorrow.” (said by a man to his girlfriend):

a) a greeting
b) a promise
c) a request

9. Consider a classroom situation, where Billy has interrupted the teacher many times,
and when he does it once more the teacher says: “Oh, it’s you again, Billy”. The act
performed by the teacher’s utterance is:

a) an expression of irritation
b) an apology
c) a request

10. What kind of request would the utterance “Can you give me another cookie, Mom?”
be (uttered by a ten-year-old boy to his Mom)?:

a) direct
b) indirect
c) conventionally indirect

11. The study of speech acts reveals that:

a) there is a one-to-one correspondence between form and function

b) there is not a one-to-one correspondence between form and function
c) the function of utterances does not depend on pragmatic phenomena
12. The process of referring is essentially…

a) pragmatic
b) syntactic
c) phonological

13. Specify the type of deixis encoded in the word in bold type:

Jessica, please bring me my glasses.

a) time deixis
b) discourse deixis
c) place deixis

14. Specify the type of usage of the demonstratives in bold type:

A: Is this the one you want? (with a pen in his hand)

B: No, it’s not that one, but this one (pointing to A’s pen and taking another one).

a) symbolic
b) non-deictic
c) gestural

15. An implicature is a meaning that…

a) is conveyed but not explicitly stated.

b) is stated explicitly.
c) is never understood by the hearer.

16. The difference between entailments and non-natural meaning (Meaning -nn) is
that…

a) unlike meaning -nn, entailments are variable and depend on the context.
b) unlike entailments, meaning -nn is variable and depends on the context.
c) there is no difference between one and the other.

17. Specify which of the Gricean Maxims is flouted by B in the following exchange
(considering that B’s name is Ptolomy V Epiphanes):

A: What’s your name?

B: I was named after the fifth King of the Ptolemaic period in Egipt.

a) Maxim of Quality.
b) Maxim of Relevance.
c) Maxim of Quantity.

18. Specify which of the Gricean Maxims is flouted by B in the following exchange:

A: He was convicted for medical malpractice and abuse of professional power.

B: My goodness! What a GOOD doctor indeed!
a) Maxim of Quality.
b) Maxim of Relevance.
c) Maxim of Quantity.

19. The metric that determines the well-formedness of utterances is…

a) grammaticality
b) lexicalization
c) optimality

20. The utterance “Boys will be boys” (which flouts the Gricean Maxim of Quantity) is
an example of:

a) euphemism
b) tautology
c) entailment

RESPUESTAS:

1. b
2. c
3. a
4. b
5. a
6. c
7. b
8. b
9. a
10. c
11. b
12. a
13. c
14. c
15. a
16. b
17. c
18. a
19. c
20. b
% Realizado:

100.00%

Obligatorias:

0.0%

Observaciones:
La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:
24/05/2016 23:55:00.

Nota:

­
Secciones:

Preguntas

1 .­
(Im)politeness in Linguistics deals with...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) the manifestation of good manners.

b) behavior that implies being nice to everyone all the time.

c) strategies for maintaining or changing interpersonal relations.

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.
2 .­
The most influential and prominent approach to the study of politeness
has been...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Spencer Oatey's (2000)

b) Brown & Levinson's (1987)

c) Arndt & Janey's (1979, 1983)

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

3 .­
What is the Maxim within Leech's General Strategy of Politeness being
followd by Susan in her reply to Doris?
Doris: Let's ask the waiter for the bill.
Susan: Let me pay for our lunch, Doris. It's my treat!
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Approbation

b) Modesty

c) Generosity

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.
4 .­
Brown & Levinson’s approach to politeness is considered to belong to…
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) the face­saving view of politeness

b) the social­norm view of politeness

c) the conversational­contract view of politeness

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

5 .­
According to Brown & Levinson, their strategies of politeness…
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) do not apply to all cultures

b) are universal

c) are not related to linguistic behavior

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

6 .­
What is the strategy of politeness being used by William according to
Brown and Levinson’s taxonomy?
William's car has broken and he has to travel to Oxford (from London)
this afternoon, so when he meets his friend Owen, he says to him:
Owen, I had to take my car to the garage because it broke down
this morning. Would you mind lending me your car to go to
Oxford this evening?
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) off record
b) on record with negative politeness

c) bald on record

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

7 .­

What is the strategy of politeness being used by Bert according to Brown

and Levinson’s taxonomy?
Bert and Millie are in the woods and suddenly Bert sees a snake behind
Millie, so he says: DON'T MOVE, MILLIE!!
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) on record with negative politeness
b) off record

c) bald on record

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

8 .­
Which of the following combinations of the sociological variables Power,
Distance and Ranking of imposition of the particular culture (P,D, & R)
would be the most probable in the following exchange?
Tom (to his sister): Give me your tablet for a second. I need to
check something on the internet.
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) D low, P low, R moderate

b) D high, P moderate, R moderate

c) D moderate, P high, R high

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

9 .­
Following Culpeper's (1996) taxonomy of impolite acts, say what type of
impoliteness is found in A's utterance, in a situation in which A wants to
ridicule B and make him feel ashamed:
A: Come on, why don't you tell them that you were dirty poor
when you were a child and that you lived in a cave?
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Sarcasm or mock politeness

b) Withhold politeness
 c) Negative impoliteness

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

10 .­
Following Kaul de Marlangeon's taxonomy of impolite acts, say what type
of impoliteness is found in A's comment:
Fiona realizes she has made a big mistake in her History exam:
Fiona: Gosh! How can I be so stupid!
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Involuntary omission of politeness

b) Self­impoliteness

c) Involuntary impoliteness

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

11 .­
Within the relational work perspective on (im)polite behavior, over­polite
behavior is...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
 a) positively marked

b) negatively marked

c) neutral

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

12 .­
According to Sperber & Wilson (1989), an assumption is relevant in a
context if and only if...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) it has some contextual effect in that context.

b) the context is known to the speaker.

c) there is a lot of cognitive effort involved.

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

13 .­
According to Relevance Theory, in order to understand ostensive
messages or stimuli, hearers...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
 a) ask all kinds of relevant questions.

b) engage in acts of inferential communication

c) have to share the same cultural background.

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

14 .­
Suppose your friend asks you if you want to go to a party with her next
Saturday. Which of the following answers on your part would be the most
relevant (according to Relevance Theory)?

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) It would be lovely; yes, let's go together.

b) I don't work on Saturdays.

c) My answer is positive, unless the square root of 2050 is not 45.28.

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

15 .­
Explicatures are...
 (una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) explicitly encoded in utterances.

b) implicitly communicated.

c) part of the non­propositional meaning of utterances.

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

16 .­
The aspect of explicature which would allow us to realize that in the
sentence "John is looking for his glasses", by "glasses" the speaker refers
to John's spectacles and not to his drinking vessels is called...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Higher order explicature

b) Enrichment

c) Disambiguation

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

17 .­
Consider the B’s utterance in the exchange below:
A: Believe me. You’re the only woman in my life.
B: That’s what they all say!
The interpretation of B’s utterance as meaning “you’re a liar” would
be...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) a higher level explicature
b) an explicature
c) an implicature

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

18 .­
The interpretation by a woman of the utterance “I’d like you to have
dinner with me tonight” (said by her friend) as an invitation is…
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) a higher­level explicature

b) an implicature

c) an explicature

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.
19 .­
Procedural meaning...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) is the same as truth­conditional meaning

b) does not encode concepts

c) is similar to conceptual meaning

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.

20 .­
From the Relevance Theory viewpoint, we can say that the mood of a
clause...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) is all we need to interpret it appropriately.

b) is the unequivocal clue to understand it correctly.

c) underdetermines how it will be interpreted.

Nota:

­
Observaciones:

La corrección de la prueba estará disponible a partir de la siguiente fecha:

24/05/2016 23:55:00.
% Realizado:

100.00%

Obligatorias:

0.0%

Observaciones:
Correct!

Nota:

10.00
Secciones:

Preguntas

1 .­
(Im)politeness in Linguistics deals with...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) the manifestation of good manners.

b) behavior that implies being nice to everyone all the time.

c) strategies for maintaining or changing interpersonal relations.


Correct!

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!
2 .­
The most influential and prominent approach to the study of politeness
has been...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Spencer Oatey's (2000)

b) Brown & Levinson's (1987)


Correct!
c) Arndt & Janey's (1979, 1983)

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

3 .­
What is the Maxim within Leech's General Strategy of Politeness being
followd by Susan in her reply to Doris?
Doris: Let's ask the waiter for the bill.
Susan: Let me pay for our lunch, Doris. It's my treat!
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Approbation

b) Modesty

c) Generosity


Correct!

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:
Correct!

4 .­
Brown & Levinson’s approach to politeness is considered to belong to…
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) the face­saving view of politeness


Correct!
b) the social­norm view of politeness

c) the conversational­contract view of politeness

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

5 .­
According to Brown & Levinson, their strategies of politeness…
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) do not apply to all cultures

b) are universal


c) are not related to linguistic behavior

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!
6 .­
What is the strategy of politeness being used by William according to
Brown and Levinson’s taxonomy?
William's car has broken and he has to travel to Oxford (from London)
this afternoon, so when he meets his friend Owen, he says to him:
Owen, I had to take my car to the garage because it broke down
this morning. Would you mind lending me your car to go to
Oxford this evening?
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) off record
b) on record with negative politeness


Correct!
c) bald on record

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

7 .­

What is the strategy of politeness being used by Bert according to Brown

and Levinson’s taxonomy?
Bert and Millie are in the woods and suddenly Bert sees a snake behind
Millie, so he says: DON'T MOVE, MILLIE!!
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) on record with negative politeness
b) off record
 c) bald on record


Correct!

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

8 .­
Which of the following combinations of the sociological variables Power,
Distance and Ranking of imposition of the particular culture (P,D, & R)
would be the most probable in the following exchange?
Tom (to his sister): Give me your tablet for a second. I need to
check something on the internet.
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) D low, P low, R moderate


Correct!
b) D high, P moderate, R moderate

c) D moderate, P high, R high

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

9 .­
Following Culpeper's (1996) taxonomy of impolite acts, say what type of
impoliteness is found in A's utterance, in a situation in which A wants to
ridicule B and make him feel ashamed:
A: Come on, why don't you tell them that you were dirty poor
when you were a child and that you lived in a cave?
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Sarcasm or mock politeness

b) Withhold politeness

c) Negative impoliteness


Correct!

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

10 .­
Following Kaul de Marlangeon's taxonomy of impolite acts, say what type
of impoliteness is found in A's comment:
Fiona realizes she has made a big mistake in her History exam:
Fiona: Gosh! How can I be so stupid!
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Involuntary omission of politeness

b) Self­impoliteness


Correct!
c) Involuntary impoliteness

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

11 .­
Within the relational work perspective on (im)polite behavior, over­polite
behavior is...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) positively marked

b) negatively marked


Correct!
c) neutral

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

12 .­
According to Sperber & Wilson (1989), an assumption is relevant in a
context if and only if...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) it has some contextual effect in that context.


Correct!
b) the context is known to the speaker.

c) there is a lot of cognitive effort involved.

Nota:

0.50
0.50

Observaciones:

Correct!

13 .­
According to Relevance Theory, in order to understand ostensive
messages or stimuli, hearers...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) ask all kinds of relevant questions.

b) engage in acts of inferential communication


Correct!
c) have to share the same cultural background.

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

14 .­
Suppose your friend asks you if you want to go to a party with her next
Saturday. Which of the following answers on your part would be the most
relevant (according to Relevance Theory)?

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) It would be lovely; yes, let's go together.


Correct!
b) I don't work on Saturdays.

c) My answer is positive, unless the square root of 2050 is not 45.28.

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

15 .­
Explicatures are...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) explicitly encoded in utterances.


Correct!
b) implicitly communicated.

c) part of the non­propositional meaning of utterances.

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

16 .­
The aspect of explicature which would allow us to realize that in the
sentence "John is looking for his glasses", by "glasses" the speaker refers
to John's spectacles and not to his drinking vessels is called...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) Higher order explicature

b) Enrichment
 c) Disambiguation


Correct!

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

17 .­
Consider the B’s utterance in the exchange below:
A: Believe me. You’re the only woman in my life.
B: That’s what they all say!
The interpretation of B’s utterance as meaning “you’re a liar” would
be...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) a higher level explicature
b) an explicature
c) an implicature 
Correct!

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!
18 .­
The interpretation by a woman of the utterance “I’d like you to have
dinner with me tonight” (said by her friend) as an invitation is…
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) a higher­level explicature


Correct!
b) an implicature

c) an explicature

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!

19 .­
Procedural meaning...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) is the same as truth­conditional meaning

b) does not encode concepts


Correct!
c) is similar to conceptual meaning

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!
20 .­
From the Relevance Theory viewpoint, we can say that the mood of a
clause...
(una única respuesta correcta) .5
a) is all we need to interpret it appropriately.

b) is the unequivocal clue to understand it correctly.

c) underdetermines how it will be interpreted.


Correct!

Nota:

0.50
Observaciones:

Correct!
2016-2017

Pec 2 PRAGMATICS

1 .- The conversational-contract view of politeness is the perspective adopted by...

a) Brown & Levinson

b) Fraser & Nolen
c) Arndt & Janney

2 .- The most influential and prominent approach to the study of politeness has been...
a) Spencer Oatey's (2000)
b) Brown & Levinson's (1987)
c) Arndt & Janey's (1979, 1983)

3 .- Lakoff's (1973) three Rules of Politeness are...

a) Be honest, b) Tell the truth, c) Give options
b) Don't interrupt, b) Don't curse, c) Be nice
c) Don't impose, b) Give options, c) Make A feel good

4 .- Within Leech's (2014) General Strategy of Politeness, B's reply in the following ex-
change constitutes an example of the Maxim of...
A: I'm sorry I missed your talk this morning.
B: No problem at all!

a) Obligation
b) Generosity
c) Sympathy

5 .- According to Brown & Levinson, their strategies of politeness…

a) do not apply to all cultures

b) are universal
c) are not related to linguistic behavior

6 .- What is the strategy of politeness being used by Cheryl according to Brown and Levin-
son’s taxonomy?
Susan: Come on in! Let's join the rest of the guests in the garden.
Cheryl: Yes, sure. This house of yours is indeed beautiful!

a) off record
b) bald on record
c) on record with positive politeness

7 .- What is the strategy of politeness being used by Alan according to Brown and Levinson’s
taxonomy?
Shirley: I'm not going out today. I feel like staying at home and reading.
Alan: Would you mind lending me your car, then? My car is broken and I need to do
some errands.

a) on record with negative politeness

b) off record
c) bald on record

8 .-Which of the following combinations of the sociological variables Power, Distance and
Ranking of imposition of the particular culture (P,D, & R) would be the most probable in the
following exchange?
A middle-aged woman to a stranger in the street: Excuse me, Sir. I'm very sorry to
bother you with this, but I've been robbed and now I do not have any money or
credit cards to return to my home by train. I feel terribly embarrased to ask you for
this, but I'm in a desperate situation. I'll give you my phone number and address
and I promise I will give you the money back once I can get back to normal and ac-
cess my bank account.

a) D low, P low, R moderate

b) D high, P moderate, R high
c) D moderate, P high, R high

9 .- Following Culpeper's (1996) taxonomy of impolite acts, say what type of impoliteness is
found in B's utterance:
A: Why won't you listen to me?
B: Because you're stupid. Shut your fricking mouth up!

a) Sarcasm or mock politeness

b) Bald on record impoliteness
c) Negative impoliteness

10 .- Following Kaul de Marlangeon's taxonomy of impolite acts, say what type of impolite-
ness is found in John''s
comment:
John and Mary are married and they are having an argument:
Mary: How can you say that to me???
John: Well, I'm sorry Your Majesty! Will her Royal Highness ever accept a criticism?

a) Formally polite act with an impolite purpose

b) Self-impoliteness
c) Involuntary impoliteness

11 .- Within the relational perspective on (im)polite behavior, the unmarked behavior is what
Watts (2003) calls...

a) Appropriate behavior
b) Political behaviour
c) politic behavior

12 .-Sperber & Wilson's (1989) Theory of Relevance shows agreement with Grice's claim that
an essential freature of most communicative behavior is...

a) acceptability
b) intentionality
c) evidentiality

13 .- According to Relevance Theory, in order to understand ostensive messages or stimuli,

hearers...

a) ask all kinds of relevant questions.

b) engage in acts of inferential communication
c) have to share the same cultural background.

14 .- According to Sperber and Wilson, the greater the difficulty for the hearer in working out
what someone means...

a) the more relevant the speaker's utterance will be

b) the longer time the hearer will remember it
c) the less relevant the speaker's utterance will be

15 .- Explicatures are...

a) explicitly encoded in utterances

b) implicitly communicated.
c) part of the non-propositional meaning of utterances.
16 .-Which is the main aspect and process of explicature by means of which we understand
that when the inspector on a train says "Tickets, please!", what s/he means is "Could you
show me your tickets, please?"?

a) Higher order explicature

b) Enrichment
c) Reference assignment

17 .- From a relevance theoretical point of view, what kind of implicature would be the fol-
lowing:

Julian: Have you gone to the Plaza de las Ventas in Madrid?

Johnathan: I hate bull-fights!
Implicature: Plaza de las Ventas is a bull-fight ring

a) an implicated premise
b) an syllogism
c) an implicated conclusión

18 .-The interpretation by Sally's boyfriend of Sally's utterance “I have a work lunch tomor-
row at 12 pm” as a rejection of his own previous invitation for lunch is...

a) a higher-level explicature
b) an implicature
c) an explicature

19 .- Procedural meaning...

a) is the same as truth-conditional meaning

b) does not encode concepts
c) is similar to conceptual meaning

20 .-The most salient explicature for the noun phrase baby powder in "I will buy some baby
powder later when I go to the shopping mall" is that it refers to a kind of powder...

a) made from babies

b) for babies' skin
c) made by babies
1B 2B 3C 4A 5B 6C 7A 8B 9B 10A 11C 12B 13B 14C 15A 16B 17A 18B 19B 20B
 PEC 1 CURSO 2019/2020

 Preguntas
1 .-

Pragmatics mainly deals with...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

b) prescriptive rules.

a) abstract idealizations.

c) meaning in context.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

2 .-

What type of reference can you see in the phrase in bold type?

 That smell is unbearable!

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

b) esphoric

c) exophoric

a) homophoric

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

3 .-
 The Anglo-American School views pragmatics as...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

b) the study of pure linguistic data.

a) a core component of a linguistic theory.

c) a macro-discipline covering all aspects of language.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

4 .-

B's utterance in the following exchange (in a situation in which A knows that B loves
travelling to attractive islands) is an example of...

 A: Would you like to come to the Bahamas with us?

 B: Is the Pope Catholic?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) a direct acceptance of a request.

c) a grammaticalized marker.

b) a conventionalized ironic answer.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

5 .-

In order to avoid falling into improper generalizations, instead of the term "culture",
nowadays some scholars (such as Scollon, Scollon and Jones 2012) use the term...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

c) discourse system

b) population

a) pragmatic system

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

6 .-

What type of illocutionary act is realized by the following statement?:

 I conclude that this is the most scary situation that this company has gone
through.

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Representative.

c) Directive.

b) Commissive.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

7 .-

The act of choosing and pronouncing certain words and arranging them with a given sense
and reference is called...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

c) Illocutionary act.

a) Locutionary act.
b) Perlocutionary act.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

8 .-

What would be a very possible perlocutionay act produced by the following utterance (said
by a mother to her daughter):

 The last time you were feeling so poorly you had to stay in bed for three days. Do you
think it is a good idea to book a trip for tomorrow?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) The daughter will get well in an hour

c) The daughter will not book the trip

b) The mother will feel offended

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

9 .-

Which of the following illocutions is normally associated with the exclamative clause type
of the indicative mood?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) eliciting information.

b) expressing emotion.
c) asserting.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

10 .-

The direction of fit of the following utterance is...

 I promise not to be late again this week.

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

b) words to world

a) world to words

c) both a and b

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

11 .-

Specify the usage of 'there' in the following exchange:

 A: Where's my pen?
 B: (pointing to the table) There! Don't you see it?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

c) gestural.

b) non-deictic.

a) symbolic.
Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

12 .-

Searle (1975) used the concept of Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID) to refer to...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

b) Explicit performative verbs and their subject.

c) Non-explicit speech acts.

a) Implicit subjects.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

13 .-

"They came, they saw, they conquered! I am proud to present the group 'The Blue
Whale'!" The pronoun they in this utterance is an example of...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) anaphoric reference.

c) cataphoric reference.

b) esphoric reference.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

14 .-

Which Gricean Maxim is flouted by B in the following exchange?:

 A: Isn't he the best?

 B: If he is the best, I'm the Queen of Sheba.

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

a) Maxim of Relevance.

b) Maxim of Quantity.

c) Both a) and b) are correct.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

15 .-

The demonstrative that in the following exchange is an example of...

 A: Let's buy this book

 B: That is not the book I wanted to buy!

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

b) Place deixis.

a) Discourse deixis.

c) Social deixis.

Nota:

Observaciones:
 16 .-

The word again in the utterance Johnny has failed the exam again presupposes that
he failed the same exam in the past at least once. What type of presupposition is this?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

b) Factive.

c) Connotation.

a) Existential.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

17 .-

The utterance I have two sisters tends to trigger the implicature that the speaker has no
more than two sisters. What type of implicature is this?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

b) Particularized Conversational Implicature.

c) Particularized Conventional Implicature.

a) Generalized Conversational Implicature.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

18 .-

Which of the following properties is NOT a property of conversational implicatures?

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

c) Non-cancellability.
a) Cancellability.

b) Calculability.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

19 .-

Bridging is a kind of reference that...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

b) looks directly backwards.

b) looks indirectly backwards.

a) looks indirectky forward.

Nota:

0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!

20 .-

Levinson's neo-Gricean approach to meaning is mainly a theory of...

(una única respuesta correcta) .05

c) entailment.

a) utterance-token meaning.

b) preferred interpretation.

Nota:
 0.05
Observaciones:

Correct!
PEC 1 PRAGMATICS 2013

QUE_95981155:

Correct!

“Appropriateness” in Pragmatics is assessed in relation to:

only the literal meaning of the words uttered

the users of language and the people addressed
the grammatical rules of the language in question

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95980026:

Correct!

Consider the following exchange:

A: Peter is handsome

B: Yes, but Paul is hansome AND intellligent

B’s comment (also considering the stress on “AND”) will most surely make the
listener infer that:

Peter is also intelligent

Paul is not handsome
Peter is not intelligent

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95982771:

Correct!
Peter’s daughter’s disappointment when she noticed the sign Pet mince at the local
butcher’s shop (thinking that they had made mince out of a pet, instead of the
intended interpretation-that it was mince for pets-) is due to:

her inability to understand utterances

the indeterminacy or under-determinacy of utterances
the fact that the butcher intended to be ironical

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95982960:

Correct!

Which is the most suitable context for the utterance “We’ve got a lot of homework
to do today” to mean “I can’t”?

to my mother, when she asks me about my school day

to my friend, who has come to do the homework with me
to my other friend, who's asking me to go and play with him

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95983047:

Correct!

The concept of “Accommodation” refers to:

the need to assemble all words and expressions together in an utterance

the proper use of grammatical rules in an utterance
the background knowledge interlocutors share in order to interpret an
utterance
0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95986174:

Correct!

The term “speech act” has come to refer exclusively to:

the locutionary act

the illocutionary act
the perlocutionary act

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95986539:

Correct!

Specify the type of act realized by the utterance “I promise” in the following
exchange:

Sally: I don't know why you called me so late last night.

Thomas: I didn't call you last night! what makes you think it was me?

Sally: I saw your number in the caller I.D.

Thomas: you're wrong. It wasn't me. I promise!

Thomas’s utterance is:

an assertion
a warning
a promise

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95984866:

Correct!

Specify the type of act performed by the utterance “I don’t think you’re fat!” (said
by a woman to her friend when the latter says she’s fat):

a greeting
a request
a compliment

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95986747:

Correct!

Consider a situation in which Billy has called his girlfriend (Abby) many times
during her work hours when she is extremely busy and needs to concentrate, and
when he calls her once more, Abby says: “Oh, it’s you again, Billy”. The act
performed by Abby’s utterance is:

an apology
an expression of irritation
a request

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95987870:

Correct!

What kind of reproach would the utterance “I wish I had an understanding

husband” be (uttered by a woman to her husband)?
*

direct
indirect
conventionally indirect

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95987877:

Correct!

The study of speech acts reveals that:

there is not a one-to-one correspondence between form and function

there is a one-to-one correspondence between form and function
the function of utterances does not depend on pragmatic phenomena

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95988597:

Correct!

The process of referring is essentially…

syntactic
phonological
pragmatic

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95988026:

Correct!

Specify the type of deixis encoded in the word in bold type ("that"):

A: Believe me. I didn't tell her the secret.

B: That's not true!!

time deixis
discourse deixis
social deixis

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95990060:

Correct!

Specify the type of usage of "there" in the following exchange:

A: Sam, pass me the salt, please.

B: There you go.

symbolic
non-deictic
gestural

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95991419:

Correct!

An implicature is a meaning that…

*

is stated explicitly.
is conveyed but not explicitly stated.
is never understood by the hearer.

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95991787:

Correct!

The difference between entailments and non-natural meaning (meaning -nn) is

that…

unlike meaning -nn, entailments are variable and depend on the context.
there is no difference between one and the other.
unlike entailments, meaning -nn is variable and depends on the context.

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95990352:

Correct!

Specify which of the Gricean Maxims is flouted by B in the following exchange:

A: What’s your name?

B: I bet you can't guess it.

Maxim of Quality
Maxim of Relevance
Maxim of Quantity
0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95990523:

Correct!

Specify which of the Gricean Maxims is flouted by B in the following exchange:

A: Our parents are leaving tomorrow.

B: I'll miss Mom.

Maxim of Quality
Maxim of Relevance
Maxim of Quantity

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95990651:

Correct!

The metric that determines the well-formedness of utterances is…

optimality
grammaticality
lexicalization

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

QUE_95994127:

Correct!
The utterance “I will go and powder my nose” (which flouts the Gricean Maxim of
Manner) is an example of:

euphemism
tautology
entailment

0.05 / 0.05 puntos

Respuesta correcta: 0.05 puntos

 PEC-2 2019/2020

1 .-
Lakoff’s (1973) three Rules of Politeness are...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) Be honest, b) Tell the truth, c) Give options

b) Don’t impose, b) Give options, c) Make the hearer feel good

c) Don’t interrupt, b) Don’t curse, c) Be nice

2 .-

Within Leech’s (2014) General Strategy of Politeness, A’s comment (a student to her
teacher) in the following exchange constitutes an example of the Maxim of...

 A: I’m so silly, I am sorry I didn’t manage to get the task done in time.

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) Modesty

b) Approbation

c) Sympathy

3 .-The most influential and prominent approach to the study of politeness has been...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) Brown & Levinson's (1987)

b) Spencer Oatey’s (2000)

c) Arndt & Janey’s (1979, 1983)

4 .-
 What is the strategy of politeness being used by Cheryl according to Brown and Levinson’s
taxonomy?

 Susan: Would you like some more cake?

 Cheryl: Yes, please. You cook wonderfully!

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) off record

b) on record with positive politeness

b) bald on record

5 .-

The conversational-contract view of politeness is the perspective adopted by...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) Brown & Levinson

b) Arndt & Janney

c) Fraser & Nolen

6 .-

Which of the following combinations of the sociological variables Power, Distance and
Ranking of imposition of the particular culture (P, D & R) would be the most probable in
the following exchange?

 A work colleague to another: Could I borrow your printer to scan this

document, please? Mine is playing up.

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) High D, Low P, High R

b) High D, Moderate P, High R

c) Moderate D, Low P, Moderate R

 7 .-

According to Sperber & Wilson's Relevance Theory, the greater the difficulty for the hearer
in working out what someone means...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) the more relevant the speaker’s utterance will be

b) the less relevant the speaker's utterance will be

c) the longer time the hearer will remember it

8 .-

Following Culpeper’s (1996) taxonomy of impolite acts, say what type of impoliteness is
found in B’s utterance:

 A: Hello, are you listening?

 B: Why should I, you stupid thing!

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) Bald on record impoliteness

b) Sarcasm or mock politeness

c) Negative impoliteness

9 .-

Brown & Levinson (1987) claim that their strategies of politeness…

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) are unique

b) are universal

c) need to be tested for validity

10 .-
 Tom's interpretation of Helen's utterance “I have to go to see my Mom on Saturday, she is
not well” as a rejection of his previous invitation for a weekend away is...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) a higher-level explicature

b) an explicature

c) an implicature

11 .-

The most salient explicature for the noun phrase baby powder in "I will buy some baby
powder later when I go to the shopping mall" is that it refers to a kind of powder...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) made by babies

b) made from babies

c) for babies' skin

12 .-

Following Kaul de Marlangeon’s taxonomy of impolite acts, say what type of impoliteness
is found in John’s comment: John and Mary are friends, and they are having an argument:

 Mary: Excuse me!!!

 John: Well, I think you heard me. Will Madam ever consider being wrong
about something?

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) Self-impoliteness

b) Formally polite act with an impolite purpose

c) Involuntary impoliteness

13 .-
 Within the relational perspective on (im)polite behavior, the unmarked behavior is what
Watts (2003) calls...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) Appropriate behavior

b) Politic behavior

c) Political behaviour

14 .-

According to Relevance Theory, in order to understand ostensive messages or stimuli,

hearers...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) ask all kinds of relevant questions.

b) have to share the same cultural background.

c) engage in acts of inferential communication

15 .-

Explicatures are...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) explicitly encoded in utterances.

b) implicitly communicated.

c) part of the non-propositional meaning of utterances.

16 .-

From a relevance theoretical point of view, what kind of implicature would be the
following:

 James: Have you been to Notre Dame?

 Jake: I hate travelling abroad!
 Implicature: Notre Dame is in a foreign country (other than Jake's).
(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) a syllogism

b) an implicated premise

c) an implicated conclusion

17 .-

Sperber & Wilson’s (1989) Theory of Relevance shows agreement with Grice’s claim that
an essential feature of most communicative behavior is...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) intentionality

b) acceptability

c) evidentiality

18 .-Procedural meaning...

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) is the same as truth-conditional meaning

b) does not encode concepts

c) is similar to conceptual meaning

19 .-

What is the strategy of politeness being used by Pete according to Brown and Levinson’s
taxonomy?

 Mary: I’ve a lot of work to do so I’m staying in all afternoon.

 Pete: In that case, can I have your car? I left mine at Susan’s last night and I
would like to do a bit of shopping.
(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) off record

b) on record with negative politeness

c) bald on record

Nota:

20 .-

Which is the main explicature process by means of which we understand that when the
inspector on a train says "Tickets, please!", what s/he means is "Could you show me your
tickets, please?"?

(una única respuesta correcta) .5

a) Enrichment

b) Higher-order explicature

c) Reference assignment