1. It’s not what
you say… It’s
how you say It!

2. * 1. REFERENCE AND INFERENCE
Reference
Is an act in which a speaker, or writer, uses
linguistic forms to enable a listener, or reader, to
identify something.
Referring Proper nouns
Pronouns
expressions Definite nouns
Indefinite nouns

3. Example:
PROPER NOUNS
Bogotá
Shakira

4. NOUN PHRASES (DEFINITE)
The city
the colombian singer

5. NOUN PHRASES (INDEFINITE)
A place
A woman

6. PRONOUNS
It
She, her

7. * Reference is clearly tied to the speaker’s goals
and beliefs in the use of language.
* Other examples:
- There’s a man waiting for you.
- He wants to marry a woman with lots of
money
- We’d love to find a nine – foot – tall
basketball player

8. Inference
Is connecting prior knowledge to text based
information to create meaning beyond what is
directly stated.
The role of inference in communication is to
allow the listener to identify correctly which
particular entity the speaker is referring to.
We can even use vague expressions relying on
the listener’s ability to infer what is the referent
that we have in mind.

9. * Listeners make inferences about what is said in
order to arrive at an interpretation of the speaker’s
intended meaning. The choice of one type of
referring expression rather than another seems to
be based on what the speaker assumes the listener
already knows.
Examples
- Where is the fresh salad sitting?
He is sitting by the door.
- Can I look at your Shakespeare?
Sure, it’s on the shelf over there
Speakers reference intention
Listeners inference interpretation

10. * 2. PRESUPPOSITION AND ENTAILMENT
Presupposition:
Presupposition is what the speaker assumes to be the case
prior to making an utterance.
Entailment
Entailment, which is not a pragmatic concept, is what logically
follows from what is asserted in the utterance.
Speakers have presuppositions while sentences, not speakers,
have entailments.

11. Jane’s brother bought two apartments
This sentence presupposes that Jane exists and that
she has a brother. The speaker may also hold the
more specific presupposition that she has only a
brother and her brother has a lot of money. All these
presuppositions are held by the speaker and all of
them can be wrong.
* In pragmatics entailment is the relationship
between two sentences where the truth of one (A)
requires the truth of the other (B).
For example, the sentence (A) The president was
assassinated. entails (B) The president is dead.

12. Types of presuppositions

13. Projection problem
In this case, the meaning of some presupposition (as
a part) doesn’t survive to become the meaning of a
more complex sentence (as a whole).
Example
a)Nobody realized that Kelly was unhappy
b)I imagined that Kelly was unhappy.
c)I imagined that Kelly was unhappy and nobody
realized that she was unhappy.

14. Ordered entailments
Generally speaking, entailment is not a pragmatic
concept (i.e. having to do with the speaker
meaning), but it is considered a purely logical concept.
examples:
1)Bob ate three sandwiches.
a) Something ate three sandwiches.
b)Bob did something to three sandwiches.
c) Bob ate three of something.
d)Something happened.

15. * 3. COOPERATION AND IMPLICATURE
When people talk with each other, they try to converse
smoothly and successfully. Cooperation is the basis of
successful conversations.
Cooperation
Can be understood as an essential factor when speakers
and listeners are interacting, in other words, it is the
expectation that the listener has towards the speaker.
Implicature
Can be considered as an additional conveyed meaning.
It is attained when a speaker intends to communicate
more than just what the words mean

16. Cooperative Principle: Make your conversational contribution
such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which
you are engaged.
Quantity
1. Make your contribution as informative as is required
(for the current purposes of the exchange)
2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required
B. Quality (Try to make your contribution one that is true)
1. Do not say what you believe to be false
2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
C. Relation
1. Be relevant
D. Manner (Be perspicuous)
1. Avoid obscurity of expression
2. Avoid ambiguity
3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)
4. Be orderly

17. * hedges: cautious notes to indicate that a speaker is
aware of maxims, but fears not to adhere to them
completely. Speakers are aware of the maxims and
show that they are trying to observe them.
Examples Quality
* As far as I know, they're married
* I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw a wedding ring
on her finger
* I'm not sure if this is right, but I heard it was a secret
ceremony in Hawaii
* He couldn't live without her, I guess

18. * SCALAR IMPLICATURE: when any form in a scale is
asserted, the negative of all forms higher on the scale
is implicated.
If for example an ironic interpretation of ‘John’s a
genius’ (i.e., John’s an idiot’) is forced by flouting, then
it does not matter, if it is worded differently
John’s a mental prodigy
John’s a big brain
John’s an enormous intellect

19. * 4. POLITENESS AND INTERACTION
Politeness
can be defined as the means employed to show awareness
of another person’s face. In this sense, POLITENESS can be
accomplished in situations of social distance or closeness.
Interaction
a linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction”.
In order to make sense of what is said in an interaction, one
has to consider external as well as internal factors, which
relate to social distance and closeness.

20. Example:
- Excume me, Mr. Buckingham, but can I talk to
you for a minute?
- Hey, Bucky, got a minute?

21. * 5. CONVERSATION AND PREFERENCE STRUCTURE
adjacency pairs represent social actions, and not all social
actions are equal when they occur as second parts of some
pairs, e.g., a first part request expects an acceptance
􀀾 acceptance is structurally more likely than refusal
* Structural likelihood is called preference
Preference structure divides second parts into preferred
and dispreferred social acts.

22. First part Second part
Preferred Dispreferred
assessment agree Yes, it is disagree
Isn't that really great?
Invitation Accept I’d love to refuse
Why not join us tonight?
offer accept Yes, please decline
Want some coffee?
proposal agree That'd be great disagree
Maybe we could go for a
walk
request accept Sure refuse
Can you help me?

23. * 6. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Discourse analysis is an attempt to discover linguistic
regularities in discourse using grammatical, phonological
and semantic criteria. It is an effort to interpreter what
the writer or speaker intended to convey with in a
sensitive social context.
Example:
Father: Is that your coat on the floor again?
Son: yes (goes on reading)

24. * 7. BACKGROUND KWONLEDGE CULTURAL SCHEMATA
The ability to arrive automatically at interpretation of
unwritten and the unsaid must be based on pre-existing
knowledge structures.