Chapter 6 Pragmatics

1. Chapter 6 Pragmatics

2. 6.1 Introduction When a diplomat says yes, he means ‘perhaps’; When he says perhaps, he means ‘no’; When he says no, he is not a diplomat. When a lady says no, she means ‘perhaps’; When she says perhaps, she means ‘yes’; When she says yes, she is not a lady. Voltaire (Quoted, in Spanish, in Escandell 1993.)

3. These lines are surely correct in reminding us that more is involved in what one communicates than what one literally says; more is involved in what one means than the standard, conventional meaning of the words one uses. The words ‘yes,’ ‘perhaps,’ and ‘no’ each has a perfectly identifiable meaning, known by every speaker of English (including not very competent ones). However, as those lines illustrate, it is possible for different speakers in different circumstances to mean different things using those words.

4. How is this possible? What's the relationship among the meaning of words, what speakers mean when uttering those words, the particular circumstances of their utterance, their intentions, their actions, and what they manage to communicate? These are some of the questions that pragmatics tries to answer; the sort of questions that, roughly speaking, serve to characterize the field of pragmatics.

5. Background of “Pragmatics” Charles Morris (1903 – 1979) was concerned with the study of the science of signs, which he called semiotic. He distinguished 3 branches of semiotics:

6. Syntax addresses the formal relations of signs to one another, semantics the relation of signs to what they denote, and pragmatics the relation of signs to their users and interpreters.

7. Semiotics tries to separate “objective” definitions of the structure and meaning of words and sentences in syntax and semantics from subjective and context dependent senses (often: requests or demands of actions) in pragmatics.

8. Pragmatics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those forms. In this three-part distinction, only pragmatics allows humans into the analysis.

9. Definitions and Background

10. Definitions 1 “Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning.” 2 “ Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning” 3 “ Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said” 4 “ Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance.” ( Yule:2008). Pragmatics is a study of language in use.

11. The goal of pragmatics is to explain how the gap between sentence meaning and speaker’s meaning is bridged.

12. pragmatic studies look for principles. Principles are not black and white; you can obey them to some extent and violate them to some extent. For example, one principle says we should tell the truth and another says we should be polite in our speech.

14. In pragmatics we always deal with processes. In a pragmatic inquiry, we deal with an ever-unfolding process-as the discourse goes on and on, the extra meaning of some words becomes clearer and clearer.

15. Examples (1) A: I could eat the whole of that cake [implicature: I compliment you on the cake] B: Oh thanks (2) A: Do you have coffee to go? [Implicature: Sell me coffee to go if you can] B: Cream and sugar?

17. 6.2 Micropramatics I was waiting for the bus, but he just drove by without stopping. To study the meaning of such pieces of language in smaller contexts is called micropragmatics. Phenomena such as reference, deixis, anaphora, and presupposition, are the topics in this field.

18. The research on the analyses of larger chunks of language, such as a whole conversation, an article or even a chapter of a novel or one act of a play in the user interaction concerning the mechanisms by which speakers/writers encode their message in skilful ways and how hearers/readers arrive at the intended meanings in spite of the differences between the literal meaning and the intended meaning is called macropragmatics.

19. 6.2.1 Reference In the referential theory (naming theory), it is assumed that the words we use to identify things are in some direct relationship to those things: (1)a: Can I look at your Shakespeare? b: Sure, it’s on the shelf over there.

20. The key process here is called inference. An inference is any additional information used by the hearer to connect what is said to what must be meant. In pragmatics, the act by which a speaker or writer uses language to enable a hearer or reader to identify something is called reference.

21. 6.2.2 Deixis Deixis, which means “pointing” via language, the interpretation of many words and expressions by reference to the situational context of the utterance, Any linguistic form used to do this “pointing” is called a deictic expression, or indexical.

22. In English, there are some words that cannot be interpreted at all unless the context, especially the physical context of the speaker, is known. These are words like here, there, this, that, now, and then, as well as most pronouns, such as I, we, you, he, her, them. Some sentences of English are actually impossible to understand if we do not know who is speaking, about whom, where and when. (2) You’ll have to bring that back tomorrow, because they aren’t here now.

23. Out of context, we cannot understand this sentence because it contains a number of expressions such as you, that, tomorrow, they, here, now which depend for their interpretation on the immediate physical context in which they were uttered.

24. For example, who does you refer to? What time on earth does tomorrow refer to? Such expressions are very obvious examples of bits of language which we can only understand in terms of speaker’s intended meaning.

25. Five types of deixis 1.Person deixis: me, you, him, them. 2.Time deixis: now, then, tonight, last week, and this year. 3.Space/spatial/place deixis: here, there, and yonder.

26. 4.Discourse deixis: temporal/spatial in the previous/next paragraph, or Have you heard this joke? in this chapter. 5. Social deixis: honorifics (such as Professor Li) Honorifics encode the speaker’s social relationship to another party, frequently but not always the addressee, on a dimension of rank.

27. There are other aspects of social deixis, for example, some linguistic expressions may be used to encode specific kinship relations (e.g. Li Jie [李姐] in Chinese).

28. A melamed [ Hebrew teacher] discovering that he had left his comfortable slippers back in the house, sent a student after them with a note for his wife. The note read: `Send me your slippers with this boy`. When the studentasked why he had written `your` slippers, the melamed answered: `Yold! [Fool!] If I wrote “my” slippers, she would read “my slippers and would send her slippers. What could I do with her slippers? So I wrote “your” slippers, she'll read “your slippers and send me mine.`

29. Anaphora is coreference of one expression with its antecedent. The antecedent provides the information necessary for the expression’s interpretation. This is often understood as an expression “referring” back to the antecedent. 6.2.3 Anaphora

30. (4)A: Can I borrow your dictionary? B: Yeah, it’s on the table. antecedent, anaphor or anaphoric expression. indirect anaphora or bridging reference : (5) I walked into the room. The windows looked out to the bay.

31. 6.2.4 Presupposition Entailment is not a pragmatic concept. It is defined as what logically follows from what is asserted in the utterance. Sentences, not speakers, have entailments.

32. Speakers have presuppositions while sentences have entailments. Example: Susan’s sister bought two houses. This sentence presupposes that Susan exists and that she has a sister. This sentence has the entailments that Susan’s sister bought something; now she has 2 houses, a house, and other similar logical consequences. The entailments are communicated without being said and are not dependent on the speaker’s intention.

33. We take entailment relations to be those that specifically arise from linguistic structure. Generally speaking, entailment is not a pragmatic concept (i.e. having to do with the speaker meaning), but it is considered a purely logical concept.

34. Presupposition:The information that a speaker assumes to be already known. (The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language, 1987) Implicit meanings conveyed by the speaker through the use of particular words. e.g. "The Cold War has ended" presupposes that the existence of the entities it refers to, in this case the "Cold War".

35. Presupposition: The relationship between two propositions. Mary’s cat is cute. (p) Mary has a cat. (q) p >>q = p presupposes q If the speaker denies the proposition p (NOT p), the presupposition q doesn’t change. Mary’s cat isn’t cute. (NOT p) Mary has a cat. (q) Not p >>q = Not p presupposes q

36. Presupposition: Constancy under negation: The presupposition of a statement will remain true even when that statement is negated.

37. Other examples of constancy under negation: p: Dave is angry because Jim crashed the car. q: Jim crashed the car p >> q NOT p: Dave isn’t angry because Jim crashed the car q: Jim crashed the car NOT p >> q

38. p: Mr. Singleton has resumed his habit of drinking stout. q: Mr. Singleton had a habit of drinking stout. p >> q NOT p: Mr. Singleton hasn’t resumed his habit of drinking stout. q: Mr. Singleton had a habit of drinking stout. NOT p >> q

39. In any language, there are some expressions or constructions which can act as the sources of presuppositions. This kind of expressions or constructions is called presupposition-triggers.

40. presupposition-triggers ( >> stands for “presupposes”): A. Definitive descriptions (1) John saw/didn’t see the man with two heads. >> There exists a man with two heads. B. Factive verbs (2) John realized/didn’t realize that he was in debt. >> John was in debt. C. Change of state verbs (3) Joan began/didn’t begin to beat her husband. >> Joan hadn’t been beating her husband.

41. D. Iteratives (4) The flying saucer came/didn’t come again. >> The flying saucer came before. E. Temporal clauses (5) While Chomsky was revolutionizing linguistics, the rest of social science was/ wasn’t asleep. >> Chomsky was revolutionizing linguistics. F. Cleft sentences (6) It was/wasn’t Henry that kissed Rosie. >> Someone kissed Rosie. G. Comparisons and contrasts (7) Carol is/isn’t a better linguist than Barbara. >> Barbara is a linguist.

42. 1. Existential presupposition: Entities named by the speaker and assumed to be present - noun phrase. - possessive constructions “David’s car is new” we can presuppose that David exists and that he has a car.

43. 2. Factive presupposition: • identified by the presence of some verbs such as "know“, "realize“, “be glad”, “be sorry”, etc. • Factive verbs: • Tracy realized Pat ate a sandwich. • Pat regretted eating a sandwich. • Pat liked eating a sandwich. • I was aware of the class cancellation on Monday. • They announced the winner of the contest.

44. 3. Lexical presupposition: • In using one word, the speaker can act as if another meaning will be understood. For instance: • Marystopped running. (>>He used to run.) You are late again. (>> You were late before.) • Are you still such a bad driver? (>> You were a bad driver) • "stop“, "again“ “still” are taken to presuppose another (unstated) concept. • Some lexical triggers: • Change of state verbs: • Pat stopped eating a sandwich (at 2pm). • Pat started eating a sandwich (at 2pm). • Verbs of judgment: • Tracy blamed Pat for eating the sandwich. • Tracy faults Pat for eating the sandwich.

45. 4. Structural presupposition: It is the assumption associated with the use of certain structures. wh-question constructions. When did she travel to the USA? ( >> she travelled) Where did you buy the book? (>> you bought the book) The hearer perceives that the information presented is necessarily true, or intended as true by the speaker..

46. 5. Non- factive presupposition: It is an assumption referred to something that is not true. For example, verbs like "dream", "imagine" and "pretend" are used with the presupposition that what follows is not true. I dreamed that I was rich. (>> I was not rich) We imagined that we were in London. (>> We were not in London)

47. 6. Counterfactual presupposition: It is the assumption that what is presupposed is not only untrue, but is the opposite of what is true, or contrary to facts. If you were my daughter, I would not allow you to do this. ( >> you are not my daughter) If I were rich I would buy a Ferrari. (>> I’m not rich)

48. Examples: • The unicorn is waiting in the garden. • #Yet there are no unicorns. • Pat knows that the unicorn is waiting in the garden. • #Yet there are no unicorns.

49. Entailment, presupposition, both or neither? (1) Jane bought a cake. (2) Someone bought a cake.

50. Test for entailment (1) Jane bought a cake. (2) Someone bought a cake. Is there any situation in which (1) is true but (2) is false? NO: (1) entails (2).