PRAGMATICS

PRAGMATICS

Structuralism (surface level) Neo-structuralism (surface and deep level & generative grammar

Functionalism

Pragmatics

Sentence structuralist

Addresser Addressee

Eg 1: It’s hot in here! Please open the door!

Is it all right if I open the window?

* People can mean something quite different from what their words say or even just the opposite.

Sentence-meaning: What does this sentence mean?

Utterance/speaker meaning: What does X mean by saying this sentence?

Meaning making is a dynamic process !!!!

Eg3: “Linguistics is fascinating” It is fascinating sentence-meaning

It is deadly boring (utterance/speaker meaning)

Eg 5: Pearsons are on coke

Coke ??? Possible meanings?

Coca-cola Are they drinking coke?

Cocaine Are they using cocaine?

A coal derivate Are they having solid fuel

Heating

What the words actually mean can only be determined in context

Levels of Meaning

Eg 6 : You are having a cup of coffee with your girl/boy friend and s/he says:

Is your perfume a new one? Contextual/utterance meaning

Force

And the paranoia starts J Man & Woman Woman & Woman

Is s/he expressing admiration? Does she want to learn

Does s/he like it, or not? its name to get the same one?

Different pragmatic forces

Speech Acts: (Austin,1960)

Eg 7: Your friend has a tiny shop and she is selling postcards. Your 5 year-old cousin likes one of the cards and says: “This is cute ”

This is cute (Locution, the act of uttering)

Your cousin wants that post card (illocution, the speaker’s intention realised

in producing an utterance)

Your friend gives it to your cousin as a gift. (perlocution the intended effect of an utterance on the hearer)

We perform an act with our words

Eg 8: I promise I’ll take you to the concert if you finish it today

I bet you five dollars she will win the game

He sentenced him to 15 years

performative verbs

I say, protest, object, apologize, deny, withdraw, declare, thank, baptize, name etc….

* Without performative verbs we can perform actions

Eg 9: We are going to the British Pub, are you guys coming?

(no performative verb but the speaker performs the action of invitation)

* The presence of a performative verb does not guarantee that the specified action is performed

Eg 10: I promise I will sue him if he touches my car.

performative threat

Eg 11: In a British restraunt Thank you for not smoking

What is the illocutionary force of this utterance on the receiver?

Thanking expressive or directive?

Eg 12: On the tram Yaşlı ve çocuklu yolcularımıza yer verdiğiniz için

teşekkür ederiz.

(Yaşlı ve çocuklu yolcularımıza yer veriniz)

Eg 13: A man and a woman enter an art gallery. The man is carrying a plastic carrier bag. The woman goes to buy the admission tickets, while her husband has gone ahead into the gallery.

Official: Would the gentleman like to leave his bag here?

Woman: Oh no, thank you. It’s not heavy.

Official: Only … we have had … we had a theft here yesterday, you see.

What is the reason of this miscommunication between the official and the woman?

What is the intended illocutionary force of the first utterance?

How does the woman interpret the utterance of the officer?

Pragmatics

* Meaning is defined relative to a speaker or user of the language

* It deals with verbal cats (not grammar as an abstract static entity)

* It deals with addressers and addressees, the context of utterance and the the goal of an utterance

Pragmatics & ELT

* We (language teachers) do not only teach grammar because language is not just grammar.

* Grammatical competence does not guarantee pragmatic competence

* We need to grow up learners who can do things with the target language

* We need to grow up learners with pragmatic competence.

* We need to teach pragmatic aspects of the target language to make our learners achieve their goals smoothly.

Pragmatic competence

Eg 14:Requests

Situation 1: James asks to borrow a pencil from his classmate (status equal, low imposition)

Situation 2: James asks his professor to extend the deadline of the term paper (higher status, high imposition)

* Does James use the same request strategies to get what he wants?

*Situation 1: Gimme the pen man! (the most direct)

Give me your pen

* Situation 2: I was in the hospital for the last two weeks so I could not finish my term paper. Could you please extend the deadline of it? (conventionally indirect)

Eg 15: Apologizing

* It was my fault L

* Could you possibly find it in your heart to forgive me?

* I won’t let it happen again, sorry.

Illocutionary competence:

Eg 16: Can you pass the salt, please?

* Form: Can Functions: ability, request etc.

* Can you pass the salt, please? Ability request (English) (+)

Ability request (Turkish) (+)

Ability request (Polish) (-)

Sociolinguictic competence

Eg 17: You are home and studying for your final exam. Your neighbour’s dog is barking all day.

* Should I go and knock at the door and complain?

* What and how should I say?

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