pragmatics

PreliminaryexamplesThedoorisopen.Whatdoyouthinkthissentencemean?InonespecificcontextContextualMeaning.Abankmanagertoaclerkstandinginfrontofthesafeboxinthemorning.Apersonarriveshomewithoutakey,nooneisthere,thepersontriesthedooranditopens.Apersonsittinginadraughtyroomthatisfreezingcold..Twopeopleinanoffice.It’sverynoisynextdoorbutthespeakerdoesn'twanttogetup.Areceptionistinanoffice;someonehasjustrungthebellorknocked.Youforgottolockitagain,Idiot!Whatarelief!NowIdon’thavetositoutherewaitingforsomeonetocome..NowonderI’mcold..Pleasecomein..Shutthedoor!.InonespecificcontextContextualMeaning.Thereisacouple.Thehusbandworkshardeveryandthewifesaysthistohim..Summeriscoming.Agirlhasalwaysbeenlongingfornewbeautifulskirts,soshesaysthistoherbusymother..Alazyhusbandpromisedhiswifetodohouseworkafewdaysago,buthe’doesn'twakeupuntil10o’clockonSundaymorning.Theangrilywifeshoutstohim..Darling,youshouldhaveagoodresttoday..Mum,let’sgodowntowntobuynewskirtstoday..Getupanddohouseworknow.It’sSunday..Interpretationof“TodayisSunday.”1.Lead-in……Whydoweneedpragmaticssincewehavegrammaticalanalysis?1.Lead-in……Whydoweneedpragmaticssincewehavegrammaticalanalysis?6OhYeah…….Therearealsoanumberofgeneralmotivationsforthedevelopmentofpragmatictheory.Oneofthemostimportantoftheseisthepossibilitythatpragmaticscaneffectaradicalsimplificationofsemantics.Thehopeisbasedonthefactthatpragmaticprinciplesoflanguageusagecanbeshownsystematicallyto“readin”toutterancesmorethantheyconventionallyorliterallymean.Anotherpowerfulandgeneralmotivationfortheinterestinpragmaticsisthegrowingrealizationthatthereisaverysubstantialgapbetweencurrentlinguistictheoriesoflanguageandaccountsoflinguisticcommunication.Itisbecomingincreasinglyclearthatasemantictheoryalonecangiveusonlyaproportionofageneralaccountoflanguageunderstanding.(7)A:IcouldeatthewholeofthatcakeB:Oh,thanks.Finally,anotherveryimportantgeneralmotivationfortherecentinterestinpragmaticsisthepossibilitythatsignificantfunctionalexplanationscanbeofferedforlinguisticfacts,mostrecentlinguisticexplanationshavetendedtobeinternaltolinguistictheory:thatistosay,somelinguisticfeatureisexplainedbyreferencetootherlinguisticfeatures,ortoaspectsofthetheoryitself.Butthereisanotherpossiblekindofexplanation:somelinguisticfeatureismotivatedbyprinciplesoutsidethescopeoflinguistictheory.1.WhatisPragmatics?TheStudyofContextualMeaningPragmatics:afieldofstudytotakecareofthatpartofmeaningoflanguageinuse.e.g.A:You’reafool.B:Whatdoyoumean?Here,themeaningcommunicatedthroughlanguagearetwotypes:conventionalmeaningsandintentionalmeanings.Theformerisstudiedinsemanticsandthelatterinpragmatics.1.WhatisPragmatics?TheStudyofContextualMeaningThedifferencebetweensemanticsandpragmatics“canbetracedtotwodifferentusesoftheverbtomean””1)WhatdoesXmean?(adyadicrelation)2)WhatdidyoumeanbyX?(atriadicone)Pragmaticshasmoretodowiththeanalysisofwhatpeoplemeanbytheirutterancesthatwhatthewordsorphrasesinthoseutterancesmightmeanbythemselves.1.WhatisPragmatics?TheStudyofContextualMeaningDifferencesbetweengrammaticalvs.pragmaticanalysis?First,grammaticalstudieslookforgrammaticalruleswhilepragmaticstudieslookforpragmaticprinciples.Second,Ingrammarstudies,weendupwithstableproductswhileinpragmaticswealwaysdealwithdynamicprocesses.OutlineSpeechActTheoryConversationalImplicaturePost-GriceanDevelopments13DeixisanddistancePolitenessprincipleandinteractionPresuppositionandentailmentPragmaticsSemanticsConcreteImplicitAbstractExplicit该来的没有来，不该走的倒走了。Man:Doyouloveme?Woman:Well,Ilikeyou.conversationalimplicature1.WhatisPragmatics?TheStudyofContextualMeaningInaddition,thereexistthefollowing:i)Abstractlinguisticunit---instancesofthesystemii)Sentencelevel---bigchunksofconversation/utteranceleveliii)Sentenceinisolation---contextsofsituation.iv)Literalmeaning---speaker’simpliedmeaningv)Abstractmeaning---concretemeaningvi)ConventionalMeaning---speaker’sintentionalmeaningspeakermeaningsemantics+pragmatics=studyofmeaning1.2.AbriefhistoricaloverviewSyntactics(syntax):thestudyof“theformalrelationsofsignstooneanother.”Semantics:thestudyof“therelationsofsignstotheobjectstowhichthesignsareapplicable”Pragmatics:thestudyof“therelationofsignstointerpreters.”Semanticstraditionallydealswithmeaningasadynamicrelation,whilepragmaticsdealswithmeaningasatriadicrelation.Themeaninginpragmaticsisdefinedrelativetoaspeakeroruserofthelanguagewhereasmeaningsinsemanticsisdefinedpurelyasapropertyofexpressionsinagivenlanguage,inabstractionfromparticularsituations,speakers,orhearers.SocialnormsBeliefMotivationSocialsettingLg.usersTime,spaceNon-verbalPre-textContextspeakermg.:dependenton???SocialnormsBeliefMotivationSocialsettingLg.usersTime,spaceNon-verbalPre-textContextspeakermg.:context-dependentPhysicalSocialMentalFunctionofcontextinpragmaticsThenotionofcontextisessentialtothepragmaticstudyoflanguage.Contextdeterminesthespeaker’suseoflanguageandalsothehearer’sinterpretationofwhatissaidtohim/her.22Pragmaticsvs.semanticsWhatessentiallydistinguishessemanticsandpragmaticsiswhether