2. Pragmatics VS. Semantics
Pragmatics is different from Semantics, which concerns the relations
between signs and the objects they signify. Semantics refers to the
specific meaning of language; pragmatics involves all the social cues
that accompany language.
Pragmatics focuses not on what people say but how they say it and
how others interpret their utterances in social contexts.
Utterances are literally the units of sound you make when you talk, but the signs
that accompany those utterances give the sounds their true meaning.
3. What meanings can you give to the
sentence below?
I’ll see you later.
4. What meanings can you give to the
sentence below?
I’ll see you later.
Suggesting, promising, commanding, declaring
5. Speech Acts (John Searle)
“Pragmatics is the study of linguistic acts and the contexts in which they are
performed.” (Stalnaker, 1970)
Sentences do not exist in a vacuum. They are uttered in context to
communicate.
“Linguistic acts” or speech acts are about how sentences are used in
context.
Speaking is doing things. Uttering a sentence is performing a
communicative act.
6. Speech acts vs. Sentence types
Speech act (pragmatics): What the speaker achieves with his/her utterance.
Sentence type (syntax): A grammatical construction that is conventionally used to
perform a given speech act.
Although there are strong correlations between sentence type and speech act,
there is by no means a one-to-one correspondence.
7. Speech Act Theory
1. Constatives--“Statements, assertions, and utterances” characterized by
truth or falseness”.
2. Performatives--Statements, assertions, and utterances that “do things”.
For performatives to actually "perform," both speaker and audience must accept certain assumptions
about the speech act. These assumptions are called felicity conditions and are often divided into
three categories: essential conditions, sincerity conditions, and preparatory conditions.
The performative categories
Sources: Searle, “A Classification of Speech Acts” Language in Society
8.
9. Felicity Conditions
Essential condition--This means that you say what you say, that both speaker and hearer take the
utterance to be performative. EX: If you say "I promise to do my homework" to a teacher, both of you think
of that statement as taking the form of a promise. If you quote yourself to a friend as saying "I told my
teacher 'I promise to do my homework,'" the quote--though identical in its locutionary properties fails to
promise because it has become part of a representative act reporting on the promise.
Sincerity condition--This means that you mean what you say, that both speaker and hearer take the
utterance to be intentional, to accurately represent the wish of the speaker and the hearer's
understanding that the utterance expresses that wish. The common expression "in good faith" illustrates
the basic premise of the sincerity condition. EX: If you say "I promise to do my homework" to a teacher, both
of you think of that statement as being a promise, as a verbal contract suggesting that you want to do the
homework and possess the requisite capacities to complete it.
Preparatory conditions--This means that you can do what you say, that both speaker and hearer agree
that it is situationally appropriate to for you to perform the speech act. Don't confuse "can do" with
"able to do." Ability is part of sincerity. In this case, "can do" means "allowed to do," to be socially
sanctioned to perform the act. EX: If you say "I promise to do my homework" to a teacher, you are actually a
student in the teacher's class and the homework has been assigned. If these conditions were not met, you'd
have no homework and, thus, no need to promise to do it.
10. Types of Force
1. Locutionary force—referential value (meaning of code/words)
2. Illocutionary force—performative function (implication of speaker)
3. Perlocutionary force—perceived effect (inference by addressee)
"I promise to do my homework" to a teacher.
Your intent to make a promise.
The teacher's acceptance that a promise was made.
The meaning of the words "I promise to do my homework"
(locution)
You want your teacher to believe you (illocution)
She does believe (perlocution).
11. "I promise to do my homework" to a teacher
Sources: Searle, “A Classification of Speech Acts” Language in Society
12. Types of Performative Speech Acts (John
Searle)
1. Representatives commit a speaker to the truth of an expressed proposition.
Paradigm cases: asserting, stating, concluding, boasting, describing, suggesting.
I am a great singer.
Bill was an accountant.
2. Commissives commit a speaker to some future action.
Paradigm cases: promising, pledging, threatening, vowing, offering.
I am going to leave you.
I'll call you tonight.
13. 3. Directives are used by a speaker who attempts to get the addressee to carry out an
action.
Paradigm cases: requesting, advising, commanding, challenging, inviting, daring,
entreating/begging.
You'd better tidy up that mess.
Sit down.
4. Declarations affect an immediate change of affairs.
Paradigm cases: declaring, baptising, resigning, firing from employment, hiring,
arresting.
We find the defendant guilty.
I resign.
5. Expressives express some sort of psychological state.
Paradigm cases: greeting, thanking, apologising, complaining, congratulating.
This beer is disgusting.
I'm sorry to hear that.
14. Discussion
Social class differences in the use of directives
What is the difference between the way middle class
people express/realize directives, and the way working
class people do?
E.g. requesting, advising, commanding, challenging,
inviting, daring, entreating/begging.
17. When complaining, L2 learners who lack pragmatic
competence in their second language may appear
rude, impolite, or aggressive, particularly if they
are speaking to someone with higher status.
18. Communicative Competence
When and how do you think children acquire communicative
competence?
What specific rules do we need to know as part of our communicative
competence in order to participate in an American/British English
conversation?
Give at least four rules. When did we learn each of these things?
19. Communicative Competence
Researcher Dell Hymes argued that knowing a language means more than just knowing
how to produce grammatical utterances. For example, in day-to-day interactions in the
U.S., “What’s up?” and “How are you”? Are often used as greetings rather than requests
for information.
Speakers must have this cultural understanding in order to supply the appropriate
response. Without this understanding, it would be quite logical to respond these questions
with long descriptions of how the speaker’s day went or how the speaker was feeling.
Communicative competence is the ability to interact and communicate according to
cultural norms. Some examples of things one must know to be communicatively competent
in a certain language are politeness strategies, speaker roles, turn-taking, and greetings.
20. Discussion Questions for Complaining
1. What is a complaint? What are some situations in which you might
complain to someone?
2. What do people say to express a complaint in your first language?
How is it different from what people say to express a complaint in
English?
3. Is it common to complain about bad service in your country? Is it common
to complain to a parent, a boss, or a teacher? Why or why not?
4. Would you complain differently to a friend, a server, and a teacher?
Why or why not?
21. Activity 1
Instructions: Imagine you are complaining to someone in your first language. Write down what you would say
for the three situations in the chart below, and then translate them directly to English without changing anything.
How does the English version sound?
Your First Language English
Situation 1: Your classmate always comes late to group
meetings and is not helping at all with your group’s
presentation. Complain to that classmate.
Situation 2: Your sibling was supposed to clean his
room and take out the trash. He has not done either of
these chores. Complain to your sibling.
Situation 3: Your supervisor has been giving you a lot
of extra work and projects, but your coworkers are not
busy. Complain to your supervisor.
22. Do your complaints seem polite and appropriate in English? Why or why
not?
In your first language, how do you complain differently to a friend, a
child, a supervisor, and a teacher? Is this the same for complaining in
English? Why or why not?
How can you improve the complaints you wrote in English?
Why can’t you just translate complaints directly from your first language?
23. Activity 2 (p. 304)
Below are descriptions of several possible contexts for the sentence “Do
any of you have a watch?”
a) For each context, paraphrase the message that the speaker sees to be trying to
get across by uttering the sentence. Identify what type of speech act does each
sentence refer.
b) After doing part 1, write one or two sentences that explain how this exercise as a
whole shows the way that context affects the meaning of sentences.
24. 1. A frantic-looking man runs up to a group of people standing at a bus stop checks the bus schedule, and then
says hurriedly, “Do any of you have a watch?”.
2. A group of preteen girls is comparing jewelry. One girl says, “ My jewelry is the best because I have the most”.
Another says, “Nope. Mine is the best because it all matches”. This sort of thing goes on for a while. Finally the
last girl pipes up that she thinks she has the best jewelry. “Oh yeah” What makes you so special?” She replies,
“Just look at my wrist! Do any of you have a watch?”
3. A mugger traps a group of people in a dark alley and waves a gun at them while screaming, “Do any of you
have a watch?”
4. Your linguistics instructor left his watch at home this morning, but he will need to monitor his time use in class. He
wanders into the department lounge and says to his colleagues, “Do any of you have a watch”?
5. A woman goes to a masquerade ball and falls in love with one of her dance partners. However, of course, she
cannot see his face. She knows only he wore a very ornate and easily recognizable wristwatch. Now, every
time that she approaches a group of eligible-looking men, she begins her conversation with, “ DO any of you
have a watch”?
6. A zookeeper is about to let a group of patrons try holding an exotic bird with a known tendency to peck at
shiny objects. Before letting anybody hold her, the keeper says, “Do any of you have a watch”?
7. A Martian has read all about Earth and is very interested in its time-telling devices. On its first trip to our
planet, it exits its flying saucer and oozes up to the first group of people it sees. It says excitedly, “Do any of
you have a watch”?
25. 1. A frantic-looking man runs up to a group of people standing at a bus stop checks the bus schedule, and then
says hurriedly, “Do any of you have a watch?”.
2. A group of preteen girls is comparing jewelry. One girl says, “ My jewelry is the best because I have the most”.
Another says, “Nope. Mine is the best because it all matches”. This sort of thing goes on for a while. Finally the
last girl pipes up that she thinks she has the best jewelry. “Oh yeah” What makes you so special?” She replies,
“Just look at my wrist! Do any of you have a watch?”
3. A mugger traps a group of people in a dark alley and waves a gun at them while screaming, “Do any of you
have a watch?”
4. Your linguistics instructor left his watch at home this morning, but he will need to monitor his time use in class. He
wanders into the department lounge and says to his colleagues, “Do any of you have a watch”?
5. A woman goes to a masquerade ball and falls in love with one of her dance partners. However, of course, she
cannot see his face. She knows only he wore a very ornate and easily recognizable wristwatch. Now, every
time that she approaches a group of eligible-looking men, she begins her conversation with, “ DO any of you
have a watch”?
6. A zookeeper is about to let a group of patrons try holding an exotic bird with a known tendency to peck at
shiny objects. Before letting anybody hold her, the keeper says, “Do any of you have a watch”?
7. A Martian has read all about Earth and is very interested in its time-telling devices. On its first trip to our
planet, it exits its flying saucer and oozes up to the first group of people it sees. It says excitedly, “Do any of
you have a watch”?
Directives; requesting
Panicking, he might have missed the bus.
Representative; Boasting, having a watch is the most
important of all.
Directive; commanding. The mugger wants to take the group of people's watches.
Directives; requesting. The instructor wants to borrow a watch.
Expressive (greeting)Directives (commanding/daring)/Representative (asserting).
Checking the man’s identity through the watch.
Directives; advising; Commisives; threatening. Be careful with your watch from getting pecked by the
exotic bird.
Directives; daring. The Martian is eager to see what a watch looks like.
26. Activity 3: Listening to a passage about
complaining in other cultures.
Effective Complaining: USA TODAY News Video and Transcript
What pieces of advice does the woman give for complaining? List them
below.
Which piece of advice do you agree with the most? Do you disagree with
any of the advice? Why?
How is the advice different from advice you would give for complaining in
your first language?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/05/25/money-quick-tips-effective-
complaining/2352371/
29. Discussion:
"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world"
- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Do you think languages shape the way we think?
30. Do we think before we speak? Or do we
need language to shape our thoughts?
31. Does language affect thought?
Do speakers/signers of different
languages view the world differently?
32. What is Linguistic Anthropology?
The American Anthropological Association defines anthropology as “the study of
humans past and present”. Since possessing the language faculty is fundamental part
of being human, it may come as no surprise that one of the four traditional branches
of anthropology concerns itself with the study of human language.
Linguistic anthropology is the study of how human language interacts with
shapes, social structure, and culture.
Speakers use language to represent their natural and social worlds; thus, looking at
a certain language is like looking at the world through the lens of the
language’s speakers, and much can be understood about culture through
language.
33. For instance, in English there are a number of
metaphors equating time and money.
Time and money
Spending time
Wasting one’s time
Investing time in a project
Budgeting out one’s time
34. Activity
Refer to metaphors given previously. What other metaphorical
relationship exists in your native language?
List at least four metaphors linking two concepts and briefly
explain what you think they say about the culture (to get you
started, think of metaphors for love, life, work, etc.).
35. Language and Thought
Explain how the words in a language can appear to influence behavior, giving at
least one concrete example.
Watch the video in the next slide.
Answer the questions given.
How does language shape the way the subjects think?
36. Linguistic Relativity
LERA BORODITSKY is an assistant professor
of psychology, neuroscience, and symbolic
systems at Stanford University, who looks at
how the languages we speak shape the way
we think. From WHAT'S NEXT? ... For a long
time, the idea that language might shape
thought was considered at best untestable
and more often simply wrong
37. How language shapes the way we think by
Lera Boroditsky
1.How does she start the lecture?
2. What bizarre idea she says?
3. How many languages are there in the world?
4. What does she say about the aboriginals?
5. What does she say about time?
6. What does she say about color?
7. What does she say about gender?
8. What does she say about describe events?
38.
39. Further Discussion Questions
What can you conclude for that?
How important is to study other languages?
Do you think that the way you think changes when you are
speaking another language? Compare yourself with English
and your native language.
40. Linguistic Relativity
The Linguistic Relativity hypothesis argues that the language someone speaks affects
how she perceives the world.
The weak version, called linguistic relativity, simply claims that language affects
thought. One way language can influence thought is shown by the example of the words
for “key” and “bridge”.
German speakers: “Key” is described as hard, heavy, metal, shiny. On the other hand,
bridge, for which the German word is feminine and the Spanish is masculine. Germans
called it pretty, peaceful, elegant, beautiful, and fragile, while Spanish speakers called it
strong, dangerous, sturdy, and towering.
The strong version, called linguistic determinism, claims that language determines
thought; speakers of a language can think of things only in the way that their language
expresses them.
