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1、 Chapter 7 Pragmatics1. What is Pragmatics?l Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder overRead the following story. What does the boy still need to learn about using language?A little boy comes in the front door.Mother: Wipe your feet, please.He removes his muddy shoes and socks an
2、d carefully wipes his clean feet on the doorma.tl Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to LearnSometimes what we mean by what we say is not the same with what others understand. The gap between them is sometimes caused by unclear utterance, making the hearer not able to receive the right info
3、rmation; sometimes by ambiguous expressions, leading to multiple possible understanding; sometimes, knowledge of grammar and vocabulary are the barriers to understanding. It seems that the childs knowledge of vocabulary and grammar is not the problem. When the little boy was asked by his mother to w
4、ipe his feet, that is exactly what he did. The problem is that the boy seems to have understood the literal meaning of the words from his mother but not what she really means. As adults, we usually arrive at the speakers meaning so effortlessly that we tend to be unaware of the considerable amount o
5、f skill and knowledge that we used to accomplish this. How do we understand what speakers mean by their utterances? What are the factors affecting the agreement between utterance meaning and understood meaning? Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer
6、) 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. Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning.l Definitions to ClarifyPragmatics: Pragmati
7、cs studies the meaning of words in context, analyzing the parts of meaning that can be explained by knowledge of the physical and social world, and the socio-psychological factors influencing communication, as well as the knowledge of the time and place in which the words are uttered or written (Yul
8、e, 1996). 2. CONTEXTl Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder overRead the following sentences. Do you understand what they are talking about? Is there anything bizarre with the utterances?a. I want that book. b. I cant believe you said that!c. If my mom heard you talk like that,
9、shed wash all your mouths out with soap!d. Mr. President, stop bugging me and go home. e. I do hereby humbly request that you might endeavor to telephone me with news of your arrival at your domicile when such arrival occurs. l Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to LearnIn sentence (a), onl
10、y when we are in the physical situation when the speaker is making the utterance can we understand which book the speaker is talking about. Maybe he speaks while pointing to that book. In sentences (b) and (c), “that” is not understandable if the hearer does not know what has been said. For sentence
11、s (d) and (e), they sound strange because we cant talk like this to the President of the U.S. and we do not make utterances like (e) when we want our friend to call us.Typically, there are three sorts of context to observe here: situational context, linguistic context, and social context. Situationa
12、l context is what the speaker and hearer see when they make conversations. As in sentence (a), only if the addresser and hearer of the sentence are in the same situation can the utterance make sense. Otherwise, “I want that book” wont lead to pragmatic consequence. Linguistic context is discourse th
13、at surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its interpretation. It is what has been said before in the conversation, the “history” of things said so far.Social context is general knowledge that most people carry with them in their minds, about areas of life and specific and possibly private
14、knowledge about the history of the speakers themselves.l Definitions to ClarifySituational context: It is what speakers know about what they can see around themLinguistic context: It is what has been said before in the conversation, the “history” of things said so far. Social context: It is the gene
15、ral knowledge that most people carry with them in their minds, about areas of life and specific and possibly private knowledge about the history of the speakers themselves.3. Entailmentl Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder overLook at the following “slips” in utterances. Whats
16、 wrong here? My mother is 55 years old. She is a woman. They are identical twins. One of them is 15 and another is also 15. Please inform us your date of birth, gender, name and when you were born. Speaker A: Are you married?Speaker B: No.Speaker A: Do you have any children? Speaker A: Do you have a
17、ny children?Speaker B: Yes. Two.Speaker A: Are you married?l Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to LearnAll the sentences and conversations above sound a little strange. We normally do not expect people to tell us something we already know. Embedded in even utterance is a considerable amoun
18、t of “understood” information which comes from our knowledge of the language itself. The “slips” in the above sentences give or ask for redundant information, information which can be automatically inferred from the meanings of words the speaker has already used. If you know the meaning of mother, t
19、win, date of birth, then you will understand that only females can be mother, twins are born in the same year and are at the same age, date of birth means the same with when someone is born. In conversations and , if someone is not married, typically, the questions like “Do you have any children?” a
20、re not supposed to be asked. We generally agree that someone not married does not have children. Vice versa, if someone has children, he/she typically is married and questions like “Are you married?” are not expected to be asked. Based on logic, we can infer the information from speakers utterances.
21、 What we observed here is entailment in pragmatics. In linguistics, entailment is the relationship between two sentences where the truth of one (A) requires the truth of the other (B).l Definitions to ClarifyEntailment: An entailment is something that logically follows from what is asserted in an ut
22、terance.4. Presuppositionl Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder overRead the following utterances and the accompanying inferences. Are the inferences valid? Where has Faye looked for the keys?Inference: Faye has looked for the keys. Did you buy this awful wine?Inference: This w
23、ine is awful. Dont sit on Annies sofa. Inference: Annie has a sofa. Stop being lazy. Inference: You are being lazy. Lucy knows that George is a crook. Inference: George is a crook.l Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to LearnThese inferences all seem quite obvious ones to make. These sorts
24、of inferences are sometimes called presuppositions. If the person in (a) asks “Where has Faye looked for the keys?”, then one of the presuppositions is that “Faye has looked for the keys.”. If someone asks “Did you buy this awful wine?”, definitely he/she has some kind of awful wine at hand. If only
25、 Annie has a sofa can others send an order “Dont sit on Annies sofa.”.In many discussions of the concept, presupposition is treated as a relationship between two propositions. If we say that the sentence in a. contains the proposition p and the sentence in b. contains the proposition q, then, using
26、the symbol to mean “presupposes”, we can represent the relationship as in c.a. Marys dog is cute. (=p)b. Mary has a dog. (= q)c. p qPresuppositions remain constant under: Negation (denial) Questioning Embedding under modals (e.g. might, it is possible that) Embedding as the antecedent of a condition
27、al (i.e. in an if-clause)For example, a speaker of any of the sentences below would be presupposing that there is a king of France.a. The king of France is bald. b. The king of France is not bald. c. Is the king of France bald? d. The king of France might be bald/Possibly the king of France is bald.
28、 e. If the king of France is bald, he should wear a hat in the winter. l Definitions to ClarifyPresupposition: Presuppositions are implications that are often felt to be in the background to be assumed by the speaker to be already known to the addressee. 5. Speech actsl Relevant Language Use Observa
29、tions and Questions to Ponder overA little boy stands in front of a classroom door, stretching out his arms. He says to a little girl: “You are not allowed to enter the classroom. Im in charge now.”. Then the little girl starts to cry immediately. Think about the question: What makes the little girl
30、 cry?l Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to LearnIn the above scenario, it is quite simple that the boy makes the girl cry. He stands in front of the door and stops the girl from entering the classroom. But is it his action of stopping or his word of not allowing causes the little girl to
31、cry? The proverb “Easier said than done.” makes a clear distinction between speaking and acting. However, when it comes to the analysis of the above scene into what causes the little girls to cry, it seems its not easy to separate them. Austin pointed out that, contrary to popular belief, there is o
32、ften no clear distinction between the two. He was one of the first modern scholars to recognize that “words” are in themselves actions and that these speech acts can and should be systematically studied.Austin (1962) defined speech acts as the actions performed in saying something. Speech act theory
33、 said that the action performed when an utterance is produced can be analyzed on three different levels. The first level of analysis is the words themselves: for example, “Congratulations”, “Watch the television please”, “You cant enter the room” etc. This is the locution, “what is said”, the form o
34、f the words uttered; the act of saying something is known as the locutionary act. The second level is what the speakers are doing with their words: by saying “Congratulations”, “Watch the television please”, “You cant enter the room”, somebody is expressing intentions about his/her own action and re
35、questing action on the part of the hearer. This is the illocutionary act (force), which means what is done in uttering the words, the function of the words, and the specific purpose that the speakers have in mind. Other examples are the speech acts “inviting”, “advising”, “promising”, “ordering”, “e
36、xcusing” and “apologizing”. The last level of analysis is the result of the words. For example, the person being congratulated is happy. This is known as the perlocutionary act (effect). It is “what is done by uttering the words”; it is the effect on the hearer, or the hearers reaction.l Definitions
37、 to ClarifyLocutionary act: It is the basic and physical act of utterance, or producing a meaningful linguistic expression. This act is concerned with the literal meaning. Illocutionary act: This act involves the specific purpose or real intention that the speakers have in mind.Perlocutionary act: I
38、t is the act of an utterance on the hearer; it is the hearers reaction.6. Conversational Implicaturesl Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder overWhat might the second speaker mean in each of the following dialogues? Write a pragmatic paraphrase in each case, and think about how
39、you inferred this meaning.(a) Virginia: What do you think of my new dress?Mary: Its red!(b) Maggie: Can you help me with moving the sofa?James: My arms hurt.(c) Daughter: Daddy, can you help me with this math problem?Father: Good girls solve problems themselves.(d) Phil: Did Sam invite you to his we
40、dding?Terry: Well. Glenn is invited.l Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to LearnWhat is said and what is meant are not always the same. In fact, what is said is rarely all that is meant. The reasons why we say what we say matter and the implications of what we say matter. What we say is of
41、ten ambiguous, over-general or uninformative, out of particular contexts. So understanding utterances involves much more than understanding the language used. Here are some possible paraphrases for the above dialogues;(a) “I dont like your dress.”(b) “I cant help you with moving the sofa.”(c) “You s
42、hould solve the math problem by yourself.”(d) “Im not invited.”There appear to be many ways of saying No. Yet no or not did not appear in any of the original responses. You may have also found that you drew a somewhat different inference for some of these utterances. For example, not everyone infers
43、 that the speaker in (a) does not like the dress. These kinds of inferences are called conversational implicatures.l Definitions to ClarifyConversational implicatures: Conversational implicatures are inferences that depend on the existence of norms for the use of language, such as the widespread agr
44、eement that communicators should aim to tell the truth. Speakers, writers and addressees assume that everyone engaged in communication knows and accepts the communicational norms. 7.The Cooperative Principlel Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder overSam and Claudia are shopping
45、 in a mall. Its late now. Sam wants to go home.Sam: Whats the time?Claudia: We are in Beijing time zone. Its 12:15 Greenwich mean time. So, its 20:15 Beijing time. I dont know what New York time now is. But I know that Mr. Roberto is playing cards with Mike somewhere. So do you want to go?What is bi
46、zarre with the above conversation? Whats wrong with the reply?l Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to LearnWe can see that a lot of overloading information is given the above conversation. When Sam asks what the time is, what he expected is a direct answer of the current time, 8:15 in the a
47、fternoon as stated in the conversation. However, contrary to the expected result, Claudia presented more that what is required. The utterance she made sounds very strange to normal people. In everyday conversation, we do not expect other to tell us the time zone of the local area, not to mean the ti
48、me in some other cities, New York in the case. And when we want to know the time, generally we do not expect others to tell us what somebody is doing something in some place. So, when Claudia says “But I know that Mr. Roberto is playing cards with Mike somewhere”, we have no clue of why she presented this information.The concept of there being an expected amount of information provided in conversation is one aspect of the general idea that people involved in a conversation will cooperate with each other.