-
pragmatics
-the study of the ways people use language in actual conversations
-the study of how context affects language use: both whether or not a particular utterance is felicitous in a given context and how the context affects that utterance's meaning/interpretation
-
sentence
- -group of words used to express some (complete) idea
- -abstract entity
-
utterance
- -whenever a sentence is used/spoken/signed
- -not abstract, event
- -have qualities beyond sentences: time, place, volume, speaker, etc.
-
deictic
- -"placeholder" words
- -meaning determined by context in which they are uttered
-takes its meaning relative to the time, place, and speaker of utterance
-
linguistic context
-what preceded a particular utterance in a discourse
-
situational context
- -gives information about the situation in which it is uttered
- -allows us to refer to things in teh world around us even if they have not been mentioned before in discourse
-
social context
-includes information about the relationships between the people who are speaking and what their roles are
-
felicitous
-an utterance that is situationally appropriate, relative to the context in which it is uttered
-
infelicitous
-utterance that is inappropriate in some way
-
cooperative principle
- -H.P. Grice
- -principle according to which we are instructed to make sure that what we say in a conversation furthers the purposes of the conversation
-
maxims
- -conversational rules to regulate conversation and enforce compliance with the Cooperative Principle
- -ensure felicity
- -four categories: quality, relevance, quantity, manner
-
maxims of quality
- -do not say what you believe to be false
- -do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
-
maxim of relevance
(also called maxim of relation)
-be relevant
-
inferences
-conclusion that a person is reasonably entitled to draw based on a set of circumstances
-
maxims of quantity
- -make your contribution as informative as required
- -do not make your contribution more informative than is required
-
maxims of manner
- -avoid obscurity of expression (don't use words or phrases that are difficult to understand)
- -avoid ambiguity
- -be brief
- -be orderly
-
jargon
-terms restricted primarily to specialized areas of knowledge
-
flouting maxims
-ignoring maxims
-
social rules
-not part of a language's grammar
-
entailment
- -relationship based on literal meaning
- -indicates a commitment from the speaker's point of view
-
implicature
- -when a speaker implies something using language
- -conclusions that are drawn about what people mean based on what we know about how conversation works
- -ex: A: I'd like a cup of coffee.
- B: There's a place around the corner called Joe's.
-
speech acts
- -act using language
- -ex: to convey/request information, offer advice/apology, tell jokes, etc.
-
assertion
conveys information
-
question
elicits information
-
request
elicits action or information
-
-
promise
commits the speaker to an action
-
threat
commits the speaker to an action that the hearer does not want
-
felicity conditions
-for any speech act, the set of conditions that must hold in order for that speech act to be felicitous
-
performative speech act
- -take place in the present (present tense)
- -("hereby" test)
-speech act that employs a performative verb
-
performative verbs
- -denote purely linguistic actions
- -ex: assert, ask, order, request, etc.
-verb that denotes a linguistic action; verb that is used to perform the act that it names
-
direct speech acts
-perform functions in a direct/literal manner
-
indirect speech acts
-what speaker means actually different from what he originally said
-
form
-structure of the sentence
-
declarative
-sentence form that literally makes a statement
-
interrogative
-sentence form that literally asks a question
-
imperative
-sentence form that literally gives a command
-
presupposition
-underlying assumption that must be satisfied in order for an utterance to make sense or be debatable
-
satisfied (regarding presuppositions)
-participants in the discourse must believe that the presupposed information is true
-
existence presuppositions
-presupposition that thing/person exists in order to be able to say something about it
-
presupposition triggers
- -words or phrases whose use in a sentence often indicates the presence of a presupposition
- -ex: come back, after
-
pitch accents
- -can be used to force different information to be presupposed
- -ex: Jessica went to Toledo. LAURA went too.
-
accomodates
-behaving as though you have known the presupposed information all along (whether or not it is actually true)
|
|