3.2 - Pragmatics Flashcards
What are Pragmatics: Personal Assumptions?
The meaning of an utterance based on the context of the speaker and listener.
What is Pragmatics?
In language what lies beyond words
How we use language in social contexts
Social conventions
Personal assumptions
What 3 meanings did Austin find in 1962?
There are three meanings in any conversation:
- Locution
- Illocution
- Perlocution
What is Locution?
The literal meaning
What is Illocution?
The speaker’s intended meaning
What is Perlocution?
The effect on the listener
Percieved meaning
In the following sentence, what is the locution, the illocution, and the perlocution?
He seemed like a great guy
Locution : She thought he seemed like a great guy.
Illocution: He seemed like a great guy.
Perlocution: She thought he seemed like a great guy. - or - She is being sarcastic.
In the following sentence, what is the locution, the illocution, and the perlocution?
Nice shirt
Locution: He thinks her shirt is nice.
Illocution: She has a nice shirt.
Perlocution: Yay! He likes me!
What is the Cooperative Principle?
We assume that speakers are….
…trying to be informative
…not trying to mislead us
What are Grice’s Maxims?
4
The maxim of….
- Quality
- Quantity
- Relevance
- Manner
What is the maxim of quality?
Don’t say what you think is false or what you don’t know
What is the maxim of quantity?
Only be as informative as needed for the current exchange.
Don’t say too little or too much
What is the maxim of relevance?
Say only what is relevant for the current exchange
Don’t go off topic
What is the Maxim of Manner?
Be brief but avoid obscurity and ambiguity
