Transcript Pragmatics2

Pragmatics
A quick summary
Pragmatics and semantics
• What does X mean?
• What do you mean by X?
– Leech 1983
Linguistic context
• Amazingly, he already loves her
• Without linguistic context, we don’t know
– who he is
– who she is
– why it’s so remarkable
Physical Context
• A: Oh no, … … … … … …. …. .. ..
• B: Don’t panic, I’ll take you to the bank
• Can you think of two completely different
ways to complete A?
• They should exemplify the two different
meanings of bank.
Economy of effort
• Phonology, especially assimilation, says:
– we are lazy
– we do just enough to be understood
• Meaning is the same
• Indirect speech act:
– You are standing on my foot.
– No need to add Please move it!
• Same with inference
– You must bring Yule to every class.
– I don’t mean the man himself!
Anaphora also save effort
• Read p116-7
• Which of these is better (saves effort)?
– I want to buy that puppy. That puppy is so cute.
– I want to buy that puppy. It is so cute.
• And
– I want to buy that puppy. It is in a pet store. It
looks so sad in the pet store.
– I want to buy that puppy. It looks so sad in the pet
store.
Direct speech acts
• Question
– Did you eat the pizza?
• Request
– Please eat the pizza!
• Statement
– You ate the pizza
Indirect speech acts
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•
•
•
Usually a polite request to do something
Can you please eat some pizza?
Do you have room for some more pizza?
The DAE paid a lot of money for this pizza.
– Probably they all mean Please eat the pizza.
• If not interpreted correctly, communication
can break down
– Q: Do you know what time it is?
– A: Yes, thank you, I do.
Performative verbs
• If you say “I love my girlfriend”, you are just
talking. You are not actually performing an act of
love.
• If you say “I promise to love my girlfriend”, you
are actually performing a promise in the act of
speaking.
• Note performative verbs are usually in the
simple present (even though you are doing them
“right now”
– That is true of: What other kind of verb?
Performative verbs?
• I enjoy linguistics very much.
• I sentence you to 24 hours community
service.
• I pronounce you man and wife.
• I owe you a lot of money.
• I swear to love you for ever.
• I swear at bad drivers every day.
• I guess she’s not coming then.