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Martedì, 11/10/ Comprare il libro! Non ci saranno slide! Del libro “Pragmatics and Discourse” prendere la seconda edizione. Le sezioni 6 e 7 non sono da fare. Partire dal libro a studiare, integrarlo poi con gli appunti e le slide e il materiale preso in biblioteca. Il secondo libro è importante e bisogna procedere in ordine negli argomenti. Lettorato ->50% + Modulo teorico ->50% = 9CFU Le lezioni riprenderanno il 12 Gennaio. RIGUARDO ALL'ESAME: 3 domande teoriche e per lo meno una pragmatica del testo. Prime tre domande analizzano la capacità espositiva (non valuta l' inglese orale ma valuta l'appropriatezza terminologica in base alla materia ) e la capacità critica ovvero la rielaborazione delle informazioni. Domande applicative sono una conseguenza della nostra capacità rielaborativa. Saranno analisi del testo esattamente come facciamo a lezione. ISCRIVERSI ALL'ESAME ASSOLUTAMNTE SENNO’ NON SI PUO’ DARE L'ESAME!!!! Bloom's taxonomy of critical thinking skills When you talk about linguistic and language you don't talk about one thing but you talk about a lot of things. Implicit VS explicit COMMUNUCATIVE COMPETENCE A:Do you like my new dress honey? B: I like the color. By the answer we can understand that she/he doesn't like the dress but WHY? From this conversation we can understand somethings about these two persons: Honey is a term of indirment (like sweetie etc. it. “nomignoli”) and it means that it is a personal relationship and this is the only thing that we can say.
We will focus on PRAGMATICS and, partially, on SEMANTICS (the study of propositional meaning so dictionary) and DISCOURSE ANALYSIS that is the opposite thing of pragmatic. Verbal communication is only about words? Sometimes it'a about words and sometimes not. What has roots that nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up, up it goes, And yet never grows? ANSWER: MOUNTAIN (Because in english they say “root of the mountain” = “i piedi della montagna”) Entri in camera e vedi 2 cani e 4 gatti sdraiati sul letto, 1 giraffa e 5 ippopotami in piedi e 3 galline e una papera che svolazzano. Quanti piedi ci sono nella camera? 6 (i miei e quelli del letto perchè quelli degli animali non si chiamano piedi) Why not in English? Because a riddle are all about words and it has a multiple semantic meaning of the word. Riddles are those text in which the literal(=propositional) meaning of words is (often) enough to retrieve the intended meaning of the text itself (->homonymy/polysemy). However, this is not true for many other (in fact, for the majority of text-types (=we’re not talking about only of written text, we are talking about every kind of text, both written and oral; so also a conversation is a text-type). Many text-type are not focused on literal meaning. This is why, broadly speaking, the answer PRAGMATICS gives to the question "Is the equation Verbal Communication = Words correct?" is NO. (YES only for riddles). SOME DEFINITIONS OF PRAGMATICS by Levinson S. 1983 Pragmatics, CUP, Cambridge: He didn't decide which one of the two definitions is true. “Pragmatics is the study of those principles that will account for why a certain set or sentences (e.g. ??? Fred's children are hippies, and he has no children) are anomalous or not possible” AND “pragmatics is the study of languages from a
In pragmatics we will never talk about meaning because it is a term and because there isn’t one particular meaning but there are a lot of meanings.
CONTEXT
The WORDS IN A TEXT are often not enough to understand its communicative meaning (intended meaning). Very often (but NOT ALWAYS, as in the case of riddles), in order to be able to grasp the intended meaning of an utterance, or of a series of utterances, we need to know the context of a communicative exchange. How would you define context? Background knowledge→ is something that you can know only until an event. The context is everything involved in a conversation/conversation. ٠ A:Door! This exclamation can means a lot of things! You have to consider the context. At the moment we aren't able to define the meaning! We don't know who A is, we don't know what is the age of A, we don't know where A is. We don't know the specific context. ٠ B: I'm in the bath! ٠ A: OK. The most probable meaning is that B can't open the door. So now, either the meaning is really that B can't open the door or the utterance sais more that you can read from this conversation. We have now some information that can work on. We can also say that they have a personal relationship and is a close relationship because generally you take a bath/shower if there is somebody that you know very well. Meaning in Context can be explained not only with language but by:
1. Physical and social world: physical because bilocation does not exist; social because it is often not “socially acceptable” to open the door wearing towel. 1. Socio-psychological factors influencing communication: “I can't open the door wearing a towel”; “This is my well-deserved bath, I'm not moving for , the world”, and so on. 2. Time (in this case, related to physical and social constraints): while having a bath Place: home. (of both?) They all influence something that is not linguistic. - Therefore, in this specific example, interactors communicate more than what their words apparently say.
A:Door! = Go open the door! B: I'm in the bath! = I can't/won't, because I'm having a bath! A: Ok! = I see, I'll get the door myself then. All of this are utterances that mean more than the conversation say. HOW? A) Speaker's meaning → based on assumptions (=supposizioni) of knowledge, namely hypotheses based on factual evidence, on previous knowledge or on expectation shared by both speaker and hearer: the speaker constructs a message which has an intended meaning which, very often (=NOT ALWAYS!) is implied. B) Th e hearer interprets the message and decodes the implied meaning, if any; (when this is not done, misunderstandings take place!). His/her decoding of the message leads them to formulate further assumptions and test them through their utterances, and so on and so forth. Utterances are the result of a long brain process. Your brain does a long process in a short time and then very quickly selects a specific utterance.
CONTEXT
The context is the most important thing in communication. ٠ We distinguish three related yet distinct types of context:
- situational/communicative context
- background knowledge context/knowledge of the world (KOW)
- CO-TEXTUAL CONTEXT/ CO-TEXT ٠ They work together. The 3 types TOGETHER make up the context of communicate exchanges. WHY IS CONTEXT FONDAMENTAL?
Relation between context and meaning-making
- There are three main reasons why context is strictly related to both the production and interpretation of meaning:
- Context influences the way we communicate. (place, time, relation etc..)
- Context helps reduce the potentiality of utterances. (*)
- It allows us to use utterances which are reduced in explicitness (* ² ) and understand other people's utterances which are reduces in explicitness.
literally point at something around us and link the language to the external world → context is NECESSARY. By using Deixis you are able to avoid to use a lots of words. It is a group of words (in any language) which link the linguistic system with the external world. You can only use deixis for objects which are in the context. Reason n. 3): REDUCTION IN EXPLICITNESS → whenever we communicate, we take whatever we can for granted, namely we try/tend to avoid being over- explicit, for example through deixis (“that” instead of “the bottle of water”)
Situational/Communicative Context
Generally speaking, it is the situation where the interaction is taking place at the moment of speaking.
- The situational/ communicative context: non-verbal/extra-linguistic information (ex: formal/informal, social/personal, etc.) that helps speakers eliminate any ambiguity in the text and determine the meaning of the utterance(s).
- Also, it determines the way speaker communicate with one another: when, how, where, with whom they speak.
- And very often what they talk about and what they DO NOT talk about. When we talk about situational context we don't talk about linguistic but we talk about non-verbal. Door! Possible intended meaning:
- The wind is blowing, close the door before it slams!
- Someone is knocking!
- Watch it! You are going to crash against it!
- etc. SPECIFIC CONTEXT: Place: a shared apartment; Participants: two room-mates + someone A: Door! knocking at the door; B: I'm in the bath! Time: A is cooking, B is having a bath A: OK! = Intended meaning n. 2
The situation does help reduce the intended meaning. The reason n. 1 is the most important. It don't meaning that reason n.2 and reason n.3 are not important.
Contextual variables
(=VARIABLES because if one of them changes the result
change too. And also the context change. The way you
say something to someone something changes.)
Situational context = umbrella term
The situational context is composed of a number of contextual variables which affect speakers and communicative exchanges: 1)Topic 2)Setting 3)Participants 4)Medium (+text type, purpose, channel, etc.)
- they influence what/to whom/how/when/where/why we say something;
- they can help us understand the intended meaning (=reduce the potentially of utterances);
- they allow us to be reduced in explicitness
Topic
TOPIC OF CONVERSATION; WHAT PEOLPLE ARE DISCUSSING. IT
INFLUENCES THE WAY WE COMMUNICATE BECAUSE THERE IS A
GENERAL TOPIC AND SPECIFIC TOPIC.
- It may affect lexis, grammar and style (and if we can communicate at all → taboo topics: Culture bound = legato ad una cultura) EX: Legal document: Bounding document= documento vincolante, che ti costringe a fare quello che c'è scritto. Long and complex clauses, repetition, clarity (no ambiguity), formal language etc. (→topic often overlaps with purpose (clarity) and text-type (formal document))
Each participant is a different person, and each of them have to be considered in the specific context.
- Different sub-variables influencing communication (what is said, how we say it): a) Individual identity (personality – shy, talkative etc. Se una persona è timida parla poco). b) social identity of the speaker ( differences in gender, class, religion, ethnicity, age and role – particularly related to taboo issues). Studi hanno dimostrato che persone che provengono da classi differenti, da religioni differenti etc comunicano diversamente. c) Personal and/or social relationship between interactors. d) Presence or absence of an audience. People communicate in different way if they know that they are observed by an audience. Presence of an audience influences the conversation. Inence → to grow; to make bigger
Participants(2)
- reduce potentiality
- EX1 (a person during a row with their friend):
- A: If you do that, you can go to hell (=very probably, not intended literally: if you do that thing I don’t want you to do, we’re no longer friends).
- EX2 (a priest during a homily):
- A: If you do that, you can go to Hell (= very probably, intended literally: if you sin and you do not redeem in time, you’ll be condemned to eternal damnation).
Participants (3)
- Reduce in explicitness EX1: Shall we meet in front of the Orient Express at 8:30 pm? EX2: Same place same time? The intended meaning is the same but phrased in a completely different way. The first one is a relationship probably between colleagues; in the second case the relationship is very close.
Medium
(≠ Channel is the phisical instrument that is used to
deliver a message; EX: face to face communication: the
channel is the air.)
- Differences between written ( organized, complex structure, linear progression, grammatical accuracy) texts
- and spoken texts (disorganized, simple structure, subject changing, grammatical inaccuracy. General vocabulary).
- Mix between the two: Written-to-be-spoken and spoken-to-be-written: testi scritti per essere letti sono appunto scritti in modo da permettere una facile lettura, invece per esempio alle lezioni gli insegnanti parlano in modo da permettere agli studenti di prendere appunti.
- TEXT = the whole communicative interaction, which can be realized through different TEXT-TYPES [Look at contextual variables ]:
- Conversation
- Phone call
- Skype call
- Political speech
- Oral exam
- Lecture
- Assignment = tesina
- Text messages
- Emails
- Etc. The type of communication between those different text-types is obviously different even if we consider two spoken types;
Interplay between Medium and the rest of variables.
They always go together
- Medium + text type, purpose(= il fine di qualcosa), channel, etc.
- (medium + text-type and purpose) Speech by the Italian President of Republic VS University lecture = both are written to be spoken (both will show signs of both media) but the text-type and purpose differ.
- (medium + channel + participants)
- (Inter)personal: knowledge is acquired through previous conversations and social activities, which includes personal knowledge about the interlocutor; it is the knowledge, different and unique, which each of us possesses. The first is the knowledge that who has access to a series of documents/media ecc. The second one is that knowledge that is unique, based on the experience that we have made throughout our entire life. It is difficult that two people have the same personal KOW, but it is probable that they have the same encyclopedic KOW. It is impossible for two people to have the same identical personal knowledge. Two spheres that put together make our background knowledge. Even when people are very close they do not share the same background knowledge. Alternatively, people that do not know each other very well, may have common background knowledge. The members of the same community share their background knowledge to a certain extent. They only share part of their knowledge. Very important in terms of participants because the more knowledge the participants share the more the reduce of explicitness is Third type of context: Co-text
- The CO-TEXT is the context of the text itself: it is constituted by linguistic information, namely the words/sentences/utterances which constitute the rest of the text and come before and after the utterance we are considering.
- The difference with the previous two types of context is that the situational and background knowledge contexts include non-verbal/non- linguistic (e.g. social) elements. It is the context of the text itself. This definition is useless without understanding what it means, rephrasing them with my own words! The co-text, unlike the other two kinds of context, linked to physical factors, is made up of words. It only gives linguistic information. EX: If we enter the room and we hear something really mean about us the person who said that thing probably says: "It's not what it looks like. You've not heard what I said before". The co-text is what has been said before. We cannot understand because we lack the co-text. The text that precedes and follow the utterance we are analyzing in a text. It is important for the same reasons of the other two:
- It influences the way we communicate (communicative behavior);
- Reduces the potentiality of utterances and allows us to perform utterances reduced in explicitness and understand other people’s utterances which are reduced In explicitness. We can make hypothesis on a text based on our background knowledge. The meaning becomes clearer when we are given the co-text. Whenever we
change something in the co-text, we change the context of the communicative interaction and therefore the meaning of interaction. In other words, a change in co-text implies a change in the whole communicative exchange and in the intended meaning of utterances (even of the same utterance!)
- A: Door! [→Go get the door!]
- B: I’m in the bath!
- A: OK!
- A: Door! [→Watch it! You’re about to crash against a door!] … THE THREE PARTS OF CONTEXT ALWAYS ACT TOGETHER (SITUATIONAL CONTEXT, BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE AND CO-TEXT) We can now give a definition of context: we consider context as the dimension that transforms a language from a conventional system to a means of communication. Distinction between dead language and living languages. We do not have participants and, therefore, we do not have a context, they only survive as formal systems. Second part of the program: Cohesion VS Coherence (Discourse analysis) ۰ Cohesion = grammatical and lexical unity of the text – the way the text makes links with and within itself. In other words, it is the way the co-text hangs together. ۰ Coherence = it is in the meaning, the text needs to show unity of meaning and thematic and logical progression to be considered coherent (this is the Discourse Analysis approach, Pragmatics considers Coherence as Relevance). Discourse is not a synonym of “Speech”. Basic notions: pragmatic defines Coherence as relevance. We will mainly deal with pragmatics but also with discourse analysis. They are virtually the same thing. Pragmatics focuses on spoken communication, while discourse analysis focuses on written one. Discourse, this is a term, not a word. Never use it lightly! Foucault was the first to theorize that systems of power like governments or the church are able, by using certain words or stereotypes in language, encoding them, to implicitly construct a certain discourse.
COHESIVE DEVICES (language items which refer to other language items in
the text and help create the structural unity of the text itself). Grammatical VS lexical cohesive devices. GRAMMATICAL COHESION ۰ REFERENCE ۰ SUBSTITUTION ۰ ELLIPSIS ۰ CONJUNCTION LEXICAL COHESION ۰ REPETITION ۰ LEXICAL REITERATION (+ general words, synonyms, superordinate) Grammatical cohesion: can be achieved through 4 cohesive devices; reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction. GRAMMATICAL = RELATED TO THE GRAMMAR. GRAMMAR WORDS ARE CLOSED. STRUCTUR OF THE SENTENCE. Lexical cohesion: is achieved through 2, repetitions and lexical reiterations. LEXICAL = RELATED TO THE LEXIS. LEXICAL WORDS ARE OPEN. THE UNITY BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE TEXT.
GRAMMATC
AL COHESIV DEVICE:
REFERENCE
۰ Linguistic forms, known as referring expressions which are used to indicate or refer to something in the external world or in the text which is known as a referent. My apartment consists of a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. The living room is located next to the dining room. REFERENCE is used to avoid unnecessary repetition, which would make the text over-explicit: The boy with the red hat was playing in the garden. The boy with the red hat was playing with the ball. The boy with the red hat was nine years old. Remember that human communication is usually based on REDUCTION IN EXPLICITNESS:
The boy with the red hat was playing in the garden. He was playing with the ball. The kid was nine years old. Reference: the most articulated one. The use of linguistic forms (referring expressions) used to indicate or refer to something in the text, known as a referent. Referents are words through which we refer. We use reference because we want to avoid unnecessary repetitions in a text. Reduction in explicitness, a widespread trait of human communication. Repetition is powerful, given that it makes us memorize things easily. Unnecessary repetition is time wasting and dangerous. That because human brain is able to remember a lot of information but if we hear unnecessary repetition our brain focused its attention to these repetitions. Cohesion is linked with reduction in explicitness.
Different types of reference =>
Exophoric VS Endophoric
Reference
Exophoric and Endophoric reference. Exophoric reference refers to something outside of the text. So it is dependent on background context. Endophoric is a reference to an item we can find in the text. ۰ Exophoric Reference is dependent on the context outside the text. EX: "Elisabetta is a lecturer of English Linguistics." Elisabetta is Exophoric reference. ۰ Endophoric Reference refers to items within the same text. EX: "Jack and Sandra marry. They met in university" They is endophoric reference. The first mention of a referent in a text is exophoric. The second form of exophoric reference is intertextuality, which is a reference to something in the KOW. It can be cultural/encyclopedic intertextuality or interpersonal intertextuality. So it refers to something that that was mentioned in another text, dictionaries, websites etc. or in the case of interpersonal is about people knowing something.
Exophoric Reference
- The referring expression represents the first mention of the referent in the text. Ex: Tom is studying so hard at the moment because he has to take his final exam in a few weeks' time.
associations with the words that we hear) of “website” automatically move out other meanings of the word “video sharing” REFERENT: IS THE PHYSICAL ELEMENT, THAT WE CAN FIND IN A WORD WHICH WORD REFERS TO. EX: BOTTLE → REFERENT SHE → REFERENCE BECAUSE IT IS UNCLEAR ON WHO “SHE” REFERS. What about deixis?
- Is it linked to endo- or exophoric reference? It refers to Exophoric reference. They are divided in two groups based on time and place:
- Proximal deixis (near to the speaker, or DEICTIC FOCUS, “this, here”) It is the use of deictic item that the referent use when the hearer is close to him, in the same place around him. VS
- Distal deixis (away from the speaker, or DEICTIC FOCUS, “that, there”)
- Person deixis (I, you, them); EX: Look at him! He's all dressed up! (in the context “him/he” = “John”; outside the context “him/he”= “a man”) He is endophora not deixis.
- Place/spatial deixis (here, there); EX: The glasses are there, can you take them please? (in the context “there” = “in the cupboard” ; Outside the context “there” = “ a place away from the speaker”) You is a personal deixis; them is an endophora; glasses is an exophora.
- Time/Temporal deixis (now, later, in 5 minutes). EX: I'll see you in 5 minutes. (in the context “in 5 minutes” = “at 10.15”; outside the context “in 5 minutes” = “5 minutes after the moment of the speaking”) THEY ARE EXOPHORIC
- Discourse (not speech; by discourse we mean general topics that are discuss) deixis (this → future discourse elements ; that → past discourse elements) Cognitive metaphor: how we interpret the word in our mind. Behind = past; Ahead = future.
EX1: Listen to this: get out and never come back! WHY? BECAUSE “THIS” IS COMING! This is proximal deixis and a discourse deixis. EX2: That was not a nice thing to say, you know? WHY? BECAUSE “THAT” IS USE TO REFERS TO WHAT I SAID BEFORE. THIS IS BECAUSE HERE WE USE “PLACE” PSYCOLOGICAL. With the agreement the typical expression is “I agree with you” and not “I agree with that” because when you say “I agree with that” it means that you “hate” the person and you don't want to nominate he/she. It is similar with the Italian expression : “su questo siamo d'accordo”.
- Psychological use of spatial deixis (“abstract space” + emotive distancing or closeness) EX1: What do you think of this idea of mine? EX2: I can't stand that guy! EX3: This beautiful city of ours.(here we understand that the person who speak is in that city. If that was “ That beautiful city.” we understand that the person is out of that city.) Quando vogliamo sentirci o ci sentiamo vicini a qualcuno/qualcosa usiamo i PROXIMAL DEIXIS; al contrario quando vogliamo allontanarci da qualcuno o qualcosa usiamo i DISTAL DEIXIS.
- Gestural deixis (support of relevant aspects of the speech situation) EX: I need three volunteers: you, you, and you. Per farsi capire bisogna indicare queste persone scelte.
- Symbolic deixis (relevant aspects of the speech situation (re)established over time. EX: isn't this weather gorgeous?! This in questo caso non è usato come proximal deixis ma è usato per point out things that you don’t need to point out. EX: This beautiful weather! You are showing your closeness to something that you like. In this case it is a formula that you use often. We can say for example “That city is beautiful!” when for example we are away from the city in question, but we usually don't say “that beautiful city!” To Google something = cercare qualcosa con Google. EX: You google a word.
GRAMMATICAL COHESIVE DEVICE:
SUBSTITUTION
