Scarica Pragmatics: The Study of Meaning in Context - Prof. Zurru e più Appunti in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity!
Pragmatics: in linguistic pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning, how human language is utilized in social interaction, as well as in human relationship between interpreter and the interpreted. Linguistic who specialize in pragmatics are called pragmaticians. So, pragmatics study the relationship between language, meaning and context and focuses on language as it is used by users in communication to convey their intended/communicative meaning, which often does not correspond to the propositional (literal) meaning of their utterances. First definition of Pragmatics : “Pragmatics is the study of those principles that will account for why a certain set or sentences are anomalous (غیر عادی) or not possible” (1983). Second definition of Pragmatics : “Pragmatics is the study of language from a functional perspective, that is, its attempts to explain facets(وجوه)(fasets) of linguistic structure by reference to non-linguistic pressures and causes.”( The way we communicate is influenced by non-linguistic elements, such as the context, the people around us… For example : I am a person, this is me, but I am student is my function.) Third definition of pragmatics: “The term ‘pragmatics’ is now generally applied to the study of the relation between the language and its users, or more specifically, to the contextual conditions governing the speaker’s choice of an utterance and the hearer’s interpretation of it. (Leech Grace) Fourth definition of Pragmatics : “Meaning in use or meaning in interaction” (Thomas J., 1995).
Fifth definition of Pragmatics: “Pragmatics is the study of how people make sense of each other linguistically” (Yule, 1996). Sixth definition of Pragmatics: “Pragmatics is the systematic study of meaning by virtue of (through), or dependent on, the use of language. The central topics of inquiry (tahghigh) in pragmatics include implicature, presupposition, speech acts and deixis” (Huang, 2007). Graphology : In this picture, in the Graphology is “the science of studying written signs Grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word grapheme, coined congruently with phoneme. literal meaning : the meaning that you find in dictionary. figure of speech: exaggeration Banter: opposite of irony, so you say something superficially unpolite that you don’t mean that. Languages: are conventional systems , they are codes made up of different aspects, f ex. vocabulary, grammar, syntax, diagrams tree, pronunciation, stress, pitch. They are codes like sign language, and these codes refers to certain people and actions and there are rules to make these codes: phonology, graphology, morphology and syntax, and all of these are talking about linguistic competence. One of the functions of language is to be one of the ways of communicating. Linguistic competence: Knowledge of the language as a code with its phonology, graphology, morphology, and syntax. communicative competence: The ability to use a certain linguistic code to interact in communication in ways which are cooperative, polite, appropriate, relevant. (So, cooperation, politeness, appropriateness and relevance). So
something grammatically is correct or not, but also the ability to explain why it’s correct. Propositional meaning : literal meaning Figurative meaning: for example, use of metaphor analogy, hyperbole, use of exaggeration (you look like a jewelry). Riddle: Riddles are a typical text type, in which you only get to the solution(the intended meaning of the text) if you consider the literal meaning. In riddles we lost the key word and as soon as we find it, we can answer the question. term : a term could be a particular definition of a word which we can use in a specific situation, so it is a word which is used in specialized language, and it has only one meaning. A word: is a sequence of graphism that has one meaning or more than one meaning. we can also say, all terms are words but not all words are terms. Morphemes: We have 3 types of morphemes, they also called roots, and they can be equal to a word. a meaningful morphological unit of a language that cannot be further divided (e.g. in, come, -ing, forming incoming). Phrase(sintagma): is a chunk of sentence (tekeyi az jomle ast) which could be made by several words (1,2,3), and they go together because they realize the function of a sentence. Clause (proposizione): for having a clause we need to have a lexical verb. Sentence: is a graphological unit which starts by capital letter and end with punctuation mark such as full stop, that contains at least one clause, if you have a one clause you have one sentence. Structuralism : takes place from 1910 to 1945 , it stays between Positivism and Pragmatics. It takes difficult contents
and chops them into smaller pieces. The obsession with having a structure derived from the chaos at the beginning of the 1900. (19 hundred). Logical positivism : was interested in propositions, namely in sentences which stood for facts or states-of-affairs which could be verified for their true or false value. Meaning: There are many types of meaning: Propositional meaning , Figurative meaning, Implied meaning , Intended meaning , Perceived meaning. Context : The context is an umbrella term which covers different elements: culture, place, time, participants, means of communication (sms, calls, face to face), personal needs in that moment, feelings. The words in a text are often not enough to understand its communicative meaning. Co-textual context/co-text, background knowledge context/knowledge of the world(KOW) and situational/communicative context, these three, together make up the context of communicative exchanges. “Context is therefore the dimension of communication which turns language as a formal system (Saussure’s ‘langue’) into a means of communication (Saussure’s ‘parole’).” The co-text(co-textual context): the co-text is the context of the text itself and it is constituted of linguistic information, namely the words, sentences, utterances which constitute the whole text and come before and after the utterance we are producing, analysing, decoding. The difference between co-text and the other two types of context: situational context and background knowledge context is that those two include non-verbal, non-linguistic elements. Background knowledge context(knowledge of the world(KOW ): The background knowledge or knowledge of
The setting (time and place): the setting may affect language/communication in variety of ways: Time : (diachronic) if you are to read Chaucer you need to read middle English and (synchronic) lesson Vs office hours. Place : church, at home etc. it influences the concepts to be expressed and the type of language employed. Participants : different sub-variables influencing communication(what is said, how we say it), so the persons who are taking part in a communicative interaction are different, they differ in : individual identity (personality: shy, talkative etc.) social identity (difference in gender, class, religion, ethnicity, age and role ) personal and social relationships between interactors , presence or absence of an audience. Medium: there are differences between written and spoken medium which affect our communication. In the case of written we deal with organized, complex structure, linear progression, grammatical accuracy texts and in the case of spoken medium we deal with disorganized, simple structure text, we see also subject changing and generalized vocabulary. We can have the case of written to be spoken medium which is “political speeches” and the case of spoken to be written in “professor speaks during class” and students write what they hear. Text type : the whole communicative interaction can be realized through different text-types: face to face conversation, phone call, skype call, political speech, oral exam, lecture, assignment, text messages, emails etc. all these text types could be written or spoken, so there is an interaction between text type and medium as a contextual variable.
Relation between context and meaning making : there are three main reasons why context is related to both the production and interpretation of meaning: 1)It influences the way we communicate, 2)It helps reduce the potentiality of utterances, 3)It allows us to use utterances which are reduced in explicitness and understand other people’s utterances which are reduced in explicitness. 1)Influence the way we communicate : A to her mother: I beg your pardon, would you please open the window, it’s not normal and we know it based on the relationship between participants. And also, we know that because we grow up to understand utterances, based on how appropriate and unappropriated they are, and the ability of distinguish between these two in a certain context constitutes part of the communicative competence of speakers which is to be distinguished from their linguistic competence. 2)meaning potential: utterances have meaning potential, they can potentially mean anything, including the opposite of their propositional meaning( jokes, irony, banter), we can’t predict what an utterance is meant to convey in isolation from a given context. 3)reduction in Explicitness : is related to the pieces of information we do not explicitly state and it also is related to the actual number of words that one can use. Deixis allows to reduce explicitness by using words that refers to something/someone around us and link the language to the external world. 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. A text can be cohesive but not incoherent.
another example of linguistic elements that can use to achieve reduction in explicitness. Grammatical cohesion: Reference: Types of references: there are two types of references: Exophoric reference and Endophoric reference. Exophoric reference is the type of reference that refers to something outside the text and endophoric reference is the use of words to make reference to something inside the text. “Elisabeth is my teacher” Elisabeth is exophoric reference. “Elisabeth is my teacher; she is good teacher” she is endophoric reference. Exophoric reference : we have two types of them: 1)the referring expression represents the first mention of the referent in the text : Tom is studying hard, because he has final exams.
- Intertextuality(encyclopedic/cultural or interpersonal): -Encyclopedic/cultural intertextuality : the referring expression refers to something in the KOW, either encyclopedic knowledge or cultural knowledge: here look like the second world war broke out! -Interpersonal textuality: something outside the text which is in the background knowledge context shared between for example two people: what Sarah told him was amazing. Endophora references : there are two types of endophora references: Anaphora and Cataphora. 1)Anaphora : links back to the referent that has already been mentioned in the same text(left dislocated: my neighbors, they moved.) 2)Cataphora : links forward to the referent that follows in the text. (right dislocation: They moved, my neighbors. Associative Endophora: is a phenomenon that identifies how putting to NPs in close proximality within the same text led to
one of them restricts the presuppositional pool of the other. ( presuppositional pool: big container of other words which we associate with that word, so the word exam has: (bad feeling, lack of sleep, competition etc.) Look at the example: Video sharing website: the presuppositional pool of video sharing: physical sharing of DVDs, public viewing online – the presuppositional pool of website: online, virtual, non-physical, so video sharing here is : public viewing online. Deixis : deixis is use of the word in the text to refer to something that in actual fact is outside the text in the real world and there are 2 types of deixis: Proximal vs. Distal. Proximal Deixis : they are near to the speaker (or Deictic focus) : “this, here”. So, there is an actual proximality between the referent( what is being referred to) and the speaker or so-called Deictic focus. For example: this is my pen. Distal deixis: they are away from the speaker (Deictic focus) “that, there.” Names of Deixis : person deixis, place/spatial deixis, time/temporal deixis, discourse deixis, Psychological use of spatial deixis, gestural deixis, symbolic deixis. Person deixis: is related to use of person or pronouns both nominative and object pronouns, to refer to an actual living Bing in the world. For example: look at him! He’s all dressed up! (him is a man outside the context) Place/spatial deixis: is the use of space adverbs to identify the referent in a location or space, depending on it’s been close or far away from the speaker, for example: the glasses are there, can you take them please? There is a place away from the speaker outside the context in the world.
Grammatical cohesion: substitution: substitution is the grammatical cohesive device, it is about use of substitutes (one, so, did, had, would etc.) to hold the text together and to avoid unnecessary repetition. For example: “I have a Pentium computer. B.I don’t have one , but I wish I did .” One : Pentium computer did : I had a Pentium computer. by doing that it allows also to reduce explicitness. The difference between substitution and reference is that: with reference we refer to something, with substitution we completely substitute something. Grammatical cohesion : Ellipsis : Ellipsis is the grammatical cohesive device and also ellipsis avoid unnecessary repetition and leaves it to the hearer to retrieve the missing words from the co-text. Ex: Sue cooked dinner and Ø washed the dishes. [sue, we delete subject]. Grammatical cohesion: conjunction : conjunction is the grammatical cohesive device, is the use of conjunction (coordination vs subordination) not in the syntactic point of view, but we are using them for communicating purposes. We use coordination to link the parts of sentences which are from the same kind, like two clauses, two phrases. And we use subordination to link a clause to another clause which is separated from the last clause and also by using them we can show what matters more than other things because by using coordination we have another piece of information equally important and by using subordination we have a piece of information ‘less’ important. Lexical cohesion: Repetition : repetition is a lexical cohesive device through which words or phrases are repeated throughout the text, becoming a thread. It is meant to clarify, specify, underline, highlight or help the hearer memories:
sometimes repetition is necessary like in slogans, In poems, in lyrics. Lexical cohesion: lexical reiteration: lexical reiteration is a lexical cohesive device, and it is literally the reference to a certain lexical meaning using different words who’s meaning is close to the first one. That’s why by lexical reiteration we have repeating a certain lexical domain! So: synonyms, antonyms, superordinate, hypernyms, hyponyms, general words(thing, stuff, guys, do, happen). For example:
- They saw an individual walking down the road, and realized all too late the man was quickly getting nearer. (An individual and the man are synonyms.)
- The women were playing cards; the men were chatting. (The woman and the man are antonyms.)
- The roses are what she prefers, but she loves flowers in general.(Roses and flowers are the example of hypernyms and hyponyms.)
- People were chatting happily, music was playing, food was being served. All the things happening appeared to be normal. (“Things” and “happening” refer to all the words before them, so is the example of general terms.) Synonyms: The synonyms are not exactly the same, they are very similar and have the exact same meaning but are not the same. Antonyms: a word opposite in meaning to another (e.g. bad and good). superordinate /Hypernyms: a word whose meaning includes a group of other words: The first hypernyms for dog that come to mind would be animal or pet, or flower is a hypernyms and roses can be included by the bigger meaning of flower. (hyper is bigger)
is important to know, connotational meaning is strongly culture-bound. Dimension of lexical meaning: collocation: lexical items are not free to be arranged with other lexemes but are placed, or collocated, in meaningful relationship with a restricted number of other lexical items, with which they frequently co- occur. This means words have a collocational range. For example: do (favor, homework) make( a choice, a mistake). So, collocation is related with expectation. Dimension of lexical meaning: Idiomatic expression: Idioms are fixed expressions, and they are made by a group of words that are always in the same order, but who’s meaning is never literal because it’s not meant to be literal, but metaphorical and it is built on the connotation of the words, so, you need to learn and remember them, they also need to be contextualized to be fully understood. Dimension of lexical meaning: Semantic field : words can be grouped together according to the denotational, connotational, collocational and idiomatic meaning they hold in common. Synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy are typical strategies through which these shared meaning can be conveyed. The same item can belong to more than one semantic field: the context and co-text will clarify which specific meaning and semantic field we are to infer. co-text and semantic field typically contribute to turning value-free words into value-loaded words and positively connoted words into negatively connoted words and vice versa. Value-free vs Value-loaded words: words which do not pass judgments: pen, glass and words which pass judgments: for
example, puppies(positive connotation), murder(negative connotation). Communication: communication as a process : human communication is a complex, hypothesis- testing(assumptions), information-processing, decision- making process of interaction and negotiation and modern pragmatics and discourse analysis recognize it as such. Positivism and structuralism consider communication not as a process but as a product, so the result of the combination of small number of single components which acted as variables in a mathematic equation and which, as such, was predictable a priori. که بهعنوان متغیر در یک معادله ریاضی عمل میکردند و به این ترتیب، پیشبینیپذیر بود. now a days we don’t longer consider that as a product but as a process because we acknowledge that we cannot predict how meaning could be negotiated whiten a specific interaction before the interaction take place. One-to-on relationship between form and function : They treat language as an ideal entity in which the rules of syntax, morphology and phonology are the only ones which are needed to encode and decode messages to be considered fully meaningful, this also implies that, meaningful sentences show a one-to-one relationship between form and function. Therefore, any breakdown in communication or misunderstanding is to be explained by making a reference to the “noise”(so for example: I like the color could only means I like the color) Sentence meaning/sense: Is identified as a proposition( therefore propositional meaning) which express facts or states of affairs in accordance with the rules of grammar and lexis and is independent of context.
-JFK was not assassinated. Entailments: JFK is dead. (that’s not true!) The present king of France is bald. Presupposition: there is a king of France. The present king of France is not bald. Presupposition: there is a king of France. (it’s still true) So, the difference between these two is a logical difference, the entailments are a consequence of the sentence, and the presuppositions are the preceding step of the sentence. The other difference is since the entailments are the consequence of the sentence while the presupposition is a preceding step, if presupposition is false, the sentence is said to lack truth value but is not necessarily completely false. If the entailments are false, the sentence is completely false. For example: my sister is teacher. I have a sister (presupposition) someone is teacher (Entailment) if the presupposition is false, so “I don’t have sister” logically the second part of sentence is still true, so, someone is still teacher. Which are entailments and which presuppositions? “my uncle Tom is not arriving from Canada.” Entailments: someone was in Canada. Someone is arriving where I am. Presupposition: I have an uncle. My uncle’s name is Tom. He is a Man. Je is male. Entailments and Presuppositions =/= Assumptions : entailments and presuppositions are propositions that can be deduced in isolation from the context and in the case of presuppositions, that exist “prior to” the production of a given utterance which entails them, but assumptions are hypotheses based on situational context and co-text. For example: A-hi! B-Hi, sorry, in a hurry, going the airport. A- Are
you leaving? Are you leaving is an assumption, because the hypotheses base of this sentence is that when someone goes to the airport, one of the things you do is “to leave”! but it is not the only thing you do in an airport, you can be there to pick up someone or etc. LE: linguistic exponent: The verbal and non-verbal form in which the message is encoded (grammatical pattern, lexical item, idiomatic expression, etc. facial expression, gesture, etc. ; usually, a combination of elements.)it is actually synonym for utterance, which is a sort of hypernym, (utterance is hyponym of LE, in the sense that the notion of LE include basically the every part of the communicative term and interactant has during a communicative event.) What is important here, is that, during a communicative event, meaning convey by a combine of all these factors, so verbal, nonverbal, gestural, etc. furthermore linguistic exponent can convey a meaning which is not laid down in the grammar GF: Grammatical function: the meaning attached to the grammatical and lexical form. It is basically a synonym of prepositional meaning, so, what the utterance is supposed to mean according to a grammar book, so for example a grammar book will tell that interrogative are used to when you have doubts, while affirmative sentences are used to make a claim negative sentence are used to negate the claim and imperative is used to give an order. As a basic rule notice to the fact that, every utterance can always have: grammatical function and lexical meaning (lexical meaning talks about vocabulary and grammatical function talks about syntax which is made by words and vocabulary CF: Communicative function : the function of the LE which embodies(dar bar migirad) the communicative intent or
