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Pragmatics

Pragmatics. Reading between the lines…. Pragmatics. Semantics answered - “What do the words conventionally mean?” Pragmatics - “What does the speaker mean on this particular occasion ?” “speaker meaning”. What is this sign telling us?. What is this sign telling us?.

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Pragmatics

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  1. Pragmatics Reading between the lines…

  2. Pragmatics • Semantics answered - “What do the words conventionally mean?” • Pragmatics - “What does the speaker mean on this particular occasion?” • “speaker meaning”

  3. What is this sign telling us?

  4. What is this sign telling us?

  5. What is this sign telling us?

  6. What is this sign telling us?

  7. What is this sign telling us?

  8. Pragmatics Pragmatics is the study of the ‘invisible’ or implied meaning. Assumptions, expectations, and context play an important role. Linguistic Context –Context of a word, phrase, or sentence that relies on the surrounding linguistic (grammatical) structure to infer meaning Physical Context –place (signs), physically written text that corresponds with the thing it is identifying (i.e. SUPERMARKET on Publix’s sign, DICTIONARY on the book by Webster)

  9. What are these headlines telling us? • Grandmother of eight makes hole in one • Deaf mute gets new hearing in killing • Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers • House passes gas tax onto senate

  10. What are these headlines telling us? • Milk drinkers are turning to powder • Iraqi head seeks arms • Prostitutes appeal to Pope • NJ judge to rule on nude beach • Blind woman gets new kidney from dad she hasn’t seen in years

  11. Speech act An action performed by a speaker with an utterance Speech acts carry out functions such as of ‘requesting’, ‘commanding’, ‘questioning’, ‘informing’, etc.

  12. Speech acts Direct Speech Acts Are you hungry? Where does he live? - information is needed Indirect Speech Acts Can you pass the salt? Could you open the door? - request/ more polite

  13. Face/Politeness • Face: your public image • Politeness: showing awareness and consideration of another person's face

  14. Positive and Negative Face • Don’t think of POSITIVE and NEGATIVE in the traditional sense here… • POSITIVE face is the need to be connected to a group. • NEGATIVE face is the need to be independent.

  15. Face-saving and Face-threatening Acts • Face-threatening: a speech act which represents a threat to a person’s self-image You need to… Give me….right now. • Face-saving: a speech act that lessens the possible threat to a person’s face. Could you… May I…

  16. Okay, so… Give me an example of face-threatening act that emphasizes a person’s negative face. Give me an example of a face-saving act that emphasizes a person’s positive face. Give me an example of a face-threatening act that emphasizes a person’s positive face.

  17. Group Grammar Activity • Get in groups of 2-4 people • Make a paragraph with as many grammatical errors (including spelling, punctuation, word form, or any other prescriptive rule violation). • Write your group’s paragraph on the board. (You might want to have a key for the group.) • Once finished, we will all correct the paragraphs together.

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