Pragmatics
‘’Pragmatics
is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader). It has consequently, more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves” Yule (1996)
Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning Pragmatics is the study of how more gets
communicated then is said Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance
1. Speech Acts: Actions performed via utterances are
generally called speech acts, in English they are given more specific labels, such as: apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise or request
Locutionary act: is the basic act of utterance, or producing a meaningful linguistic expression
Illocutionary acts: these happen via the communicative force of the expression
Perlocutionary acts: are the effects of the expression on the listener
The main purpose of felicity conditions is to allow us to determine under what circumstances it is appropriate to ask questions, give commands, and so forth. Felicity conditions are: ď‚— Preparatory conditions refer to speech acts such as, marriages, baptisms, and all kind of formal situation where someone who has been prepared and given the authority to conduct certain ceremonies pronounce the right words.
ď‚— Conditions for execution: once the preparatory
conditions are met, the speech act is performed, probably, in a ritual or ceremonial action. ď‚— Sincerity conditions show that the speaker really
intends what he or she says; for example, the sincerity of an apology, or the genuine intention of a compliment.
 Conversational implicature is based on the addressee’s
assumption that the speaker is following the conversational maxims or at least the cooperative principle. But what does this mean?
4. Conversational maxim:
A speaker is assumed to make a contribution that: • is adequately but not overly informative (quantity maxim) •the speaker does not believe to be false and for which adequate evidence is had (quality maxim) •is relevant (maxim of relation or relevance), and •is clear, unambiguous, brief, and orderly (maxim of manner)
4. Cooperative principle Participants in a conversation
are expected to make a conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange
According to Grice (1975), speaker’s contributions in
conversation should be relevant. He suggests that ‘what’ the speaker wants to say should be said as follows:
Make your contribution as informative as is required (for
the current purposes of the exchange) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. Be relevant
Grice also suggests how the ‘what’ should be said: Avoid obscurity of expression Avoid ambiguity Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). Be orderly.
ď‚— Politeness is an essential aspect that should be
considered for successful interactions; it refers to as forms of behavior that establish and maintain comity. In other words, to be polite means to have the ability to interact in relative harmony.
Phatic tokens refer to how speakers direct comments
to themselves, to others, or to the current situation in which the conversation occurs Self-oriented phatic tokens are personal to the speaker: “I can’t stand him” or “My head is about to explode”. Other-oriented tokens are related to the hearer: “What do you do?” or “You seem to be a very intelligent person”. A neutral token refers to the context or general state of affairs: “Cold, isn’t it?” or “Interesting book”.
1. Person deixis: This type of deixis includes first person pronouns (‘I’), second person pronouns ‘you’, and third person (‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’). 2. Spatial deixis: in this type of deixis, the relative location of people and things is being indicated. English makes use of two words: ‘ here’ and ‘ there’. Also some verbs such as ‘ come’ and ‘go’. 3. Temporal deixis: this type of deixis deals with the use of the proximal form‘ now’, and the expression ‘then’, that applies to both past and future time relative to the speaker’s present time
Research has found that classroom instruction on speech acts can help learners to improve their performance of speech acts and thus their interactions with native speakers.