8. Linguistics chapter 10 Flashcards
What are pragmatics?
Pragmatics is the study of invisible meaning, how we recognize what is meant when it is not actually said or written. A sign that says “heated attendant parking” could mean that they take attendants, heat them up, and this is where they park them. Instead we prefer to think that we can park our car here, with an attendant to look after it. How do we know this without the sign saying “car”, which has an invisible meaning.
What is context in pragmatics?
We interpret the words/context in the text. The context in a specific situation, while we have a pre-existing assumption about a likely message, the meaning is not the words alone but what we think the writer intended to communicate in that context. Another example is a sign saying “sale + baby & toddler” meanwhile it has pictures of babies. We refuse to think they sell babies, rather we think there’s a sale for baby & toddler clothes.
Tell me about the three types of context.
physical context, linguistic context & co-context
Physical context is the location “out here” where we encounter words and phrases and the context is crucial, the word “bank” on a building is interpreted in terms of a financial institution. However reading “overgrown steep bank by the river” the interpretation of the word “bank” is different, this is called linguistic context. Meanwhile surrounding words in order to understand both physical and linguistic context is known as co-context.
What are deixis expression?
Some words can not be interpreted if we don´t know the context. Examples; here, there, this, that, now then, tomorrow, yesterday, you, me, she, him, it. Expressions like these are known as deictic expressions from Greek deixis. Which means “pointing”.
“In the sentence; You´ll have to bring it back tomorrow because she isn’t here today” is virtually impossible to understand if we don’t know who is talking. In context The delivery driver (you) will have to return on February 15th (tomorrow) to 660 Collage Drive (here) with the long box (it) labeled “flowers handle with care” addressed to Lisa Landry (she). We understand it.
What are deixis in emotion?
If something we don’t like is close to us we can use a “not close” term to describe it and thereby push it away from us using deixis. I can’t eat “that”. We can also indicate whether movement is close or far away from the speaker, look at the difference between; Go to bed and come to bed. Free beer tomorrow can always claim you are one day too early.
What is reference and who refers?
In deixis we must realize that words themselves do not refer to anything, it is people who refer. So reference is an act by a speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a listener (or reader) to identify something. To reference we can use proper nouns Jennifer, Sarah or noun phrases a writer, my friend, the cat or pronouns he, she, it. But the words Jennifer, or friend or she can refer to many entities in the world and they don’t identify on thing. We can also refer to stuff we do not know the name of “the blue thing” or “that icky stuff”, or a person who always driver a motorcycle Mr. Kawasaki (motorcycle brand).
What is interference?
You might ask someone in a restaurant Where’s the spinach salad? and get the response “He’s sitting by the door” or “Can I look at your Chomsky?” and they’ll respond “Sure, it is on the shelf over there”. And when you hear that Jennifer is wearing Calvin Klein you don’t imagine Calvin draped over poor Jennifer instead you recognize that they are talking about her clothes.
Picasso is in the museum. We saw Shakespeare in London, Mozart was playing in the background and the bride wore Giorgio Armani. These examples make it clear that we can use nouns like “salad” to refer to people and use names of people “Chomsy, Calvin Klein” to refer to things. The key process here is called interference.
What is anaphora & cataphora?
“We saw a boy washing a puppy in a bath. The puppy started struggling and jumping. When he let go, it jumped out”. In this type of referential relationship the following referring expressions “the puppy” and “it” are examples of anaphora meaning “referring back”.
Another pattern called cataphora reverses the antecedent-anaphora relationship by beginning with a pronoun “it” and then revealing specific information. “It suddenly appeared in the path a little ahead of me, staring in my direction and sniffing the air. An enormous grizzly bear was checking me out”.
How can anaphora and interference work together?
The connection between antecedent and anaphoric expressions is often based on interference. “We found a house to rent, but the kitchen was very small”. “I got on a bus and asked the driver if we were going into town”. The connections between the antecedents “a house”/ “a bus” and the anaphoric expression “the kitchen”/”the driver” If x is a house then x must have a kitchen and if x is a bus then x must have a driver. The antecedent can be a verb “The victim was shot twice, but the gun was never found” Here the interference is that if a shooting event happened it must have involved a gun.
What is presupposition?
We make linguistic messages on the basis of assumptions about what our listeners, speaker or reader already know. “If someone says Your brother is looking for you” the assumption is that you have a brother. If someone says “When did you stop smoking?” there are at least two presuppositions involved; you used to smoke and you no longer do. We can compare presuppositional sentences with its negatives and see which presupposition remains true. If you say My car is a wreck or My car is not a wreck, the underlying presupposition that I have a car remains true.
What are pragmatic markers?
They indicate how utterances should be interpreted and they can include short forms such as “you know” “I don’t know” “well” “I mean”.
They are optional and loosely attached and they mark a speaker´s attitude to the listener or to what is being said. We can say “you know” to indicate shared knowledge and “I mean” to self correct. “I don’t know” has become a marker of hesitation or uncertainty when a speaker is about to say something potentially in disagreement with another speaker.
I am not very fond of Edinburgh it
Oh, “I don’t know”, I really enjoyed going to Edinburgh.
What are the four principles?
The most conversational exchanges is that the participants are cooperating with each other. This principle, plus four elements or “maxims” are described;
*The Co-operative Principle”- Make your conversational contribution as required, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk.
*The Quantity maxim- Make your contribution as informative as is required.
*The Relation maxim- Be relevant.
*The Manner maxim- Be clear, brief and orderly.
When it states something obvious is called tautology.
“How do you like your sandwich? Oh, a sandwich is a sandwich.”
It could either be a tautology or the quantity maxim implying that she has no opinion, good or bad, to express.
What are hedges?
Hedges can be defined as words or phrases used to indicate that we are not really sure that what we are saying is sufficiently correct or complete.
—quess ———could —————-a bit
I imagine they might be feeling kind of…
—-think——– would—————sort of
…anxious about the test.
What are implicatures?
Implicature- hidden conveyed meaning
Look at the following conversation;
Carol: Are you coming to the party tonight? Lara: I´ve got an exam tomorrow.
Lara´s statement is not an answer to Carol`s question, she doesn’t say Yes or No.
Carol will interpret the statement as “No”. It seems to depend on the assumption that Lara is being relevant (Relation) and informative (Quantity). Given that Laras original answer contains relevant information, Carol can work out that “exam tomorrow” involves “study tonight” which prohibits “party tonight”. Laras answer is not just a statement about tomorrow’s activities, it contains an implicature an additional conveyed meaning concerning tonight´s activities. Making Lana more polite than a strict “no” would.
What is politeness regarding face-threatening and face-saving acts?
Your face in pragmatics is your public self-image. It is the emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize. Politeness is showing awareness and consideration of another person’s face.
Face-threatening act. If you use a direct command to get someone to do something “Give me that paper!” you are behaving as if you have more social power than another person, and if you are not a military officer or prison warden, you are performing a face-threatening act. Face-saving act- An indirect request associated with a question “Could you pass me that paper?” removes the assumption of social power, you are asking if it is possible.
