By: Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar
http://www.kau.edu.sa/SBANJER http://wwwdrshadiabanjar.blogspot.com
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Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics Syntax is the study of relationships between linguistic forms, how they are arranged in sequences , and which sequences are wellformed. Semantics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and entities in the world; that is, how words literally connect to things. Pragmatics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those forms. PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
Regularity in using language, People tend to behave to a certain extent in regular ways. This is because they are members of social groups and follow general patterns of behavior expected within the groups. Most people within a linguistic community have similar basic experiences of the world and share a lot of non-linguistic knowledge. Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
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The Pragmatics wastebasket
For a long period of time, there has been a very strong interest in formal system of language analysis based on logic and mathematics. The emphasis has been on discovering some of the abstract principles that lie at the very core of language. universal features of language was in focus. Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
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Linguists tended to push any notes they had on everyday language use to the edges. Many of those notes ended up in the wastebasket. That overflowing wastebasket has become the source of much of what is discussed in Pragmatics. The contents of that wastebasket were not originally organized under a single category. They were defined as the stuff that wasn’t easily handled within the formal analysis. Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
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The duck ran up to Mary and licked her. A syntactic approach to this sentence would be concerned with the rules that determine the correct structure and exclude any incorrect structure. From the syntactic point of view such a sentence is grammatically correct.
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Dogs lick not ducks!
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The duck ran up to Mary and licked her. The bottle of ketchup ran up to Mary. Both sentences are grammatically correct. Semantically, the first sentence is okay as the word ‘duck’ is an animate while ‘a bottle of ketchup’ is non-animate and the verb ‘ran up to’ requires an animate subject.
Formal Semantics Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
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The duck ran up to Mary and licked her. Semantics is also concerned with the truthconditions of propositions expressed in sentences. ‘The duck ran up to Mary’
= =
p & q
+ ‘The duck licked Mary’ = ‘The duck ran up to Mary and licked her’ = r ‘ampersand’
If p is true & q is true, then p&q is true. If either p or q is not true, then p&q is false. Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
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In this type of analysis which is known as formal semantics, whenever p & q is true, it logically follows that q &p is true as the following:
The duck licked Mary and ran up to her. Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
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In the everyday world of language use, this state of affairs described in 2 is not identical to the original situation described in 1. There is a sequence of two events being described and we expect that sequence, in terms of occurrence, to be reflected in the order of mention.
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If p involves some action and q involves another action, we have an overwhelming tendency to interpret the conjunction ‘and’, not as logical &, but as the sequential expression ‘and then’.
P and then q
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Syntax
Pragmatics
HAVE Rules
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Principles
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Interpret order of mention as a reflection of order of occurrence.
A Pragmatic Principle We use a pragmatic principle to make sense of what we hear and read, but we can ignore if it doesn’t apply in some situations.
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