Pragmatics

Question 1

linguistic context

Answer 1

gives information about what preceded
a particular utterance in the discourse (i.e., what others
have said earlier in the conversation)

Question 2

utterance

Answer 2

a speech event (the actual speaking of a sentence or phrase)

Question 3

situational context

Answer 3

gives information about the situation in
which an utterance occurs and allows us to refer to things
in the world around us that have not been previously
mentioned in the conversation

Question 4

social context

Answer 4

includes information about the relationships
between speakers

Question 5

interactional meaning

Answer 5

he meaning for the participants in the
situation in which the utterance occurred. It arises from and
depends on the context and may be given or given off
- Three types:
- 1) the meanings intended by the first person speaking
- 2) the meanings assigned by the conversational partner
- 3) the meanings observed by a third-party, non-focal
participant

Question 6

felicity

Answer 6

measures the appropriateness of an utterance relative
to a context
- An utterance deemed infelicitous is situationally
“inappropriate” in some way

Question 7

the cooperative principle

Answer 7

the basic assumption underlying
conversation is that speakers generally try to make their
utterances appropriate to the situational context
- People intend to be cooperative conversational partners

Question 8

gricean maxims

Answer 8

concepts which
govern conversations to make them run smoothly
- Primarily social rules rather than linguistic
- There are 4 maxims:
- Quantity
- Quality
- Relation
- Manner

Question 9

maxim of quantity

Answer 9

make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current
purposes of the exchange).
- do not make your contribution more informative than is required

Question 10

maxim of quality

Answer 10

try to make your contribution one that is true.
- do not say what you believe to be false.
- do not say that for which you lack evidence

Question 11

maxim of relation

Answer 11

speakers are expected to be saying something relevant to what has
been said before

Question 12

maxim of manner

Answer 12

avoid obscurity of expression. Avoid ambiguity. Be brief. Be orderly

Question 13

flouting

Answer 13

a maxim is when a speaker appears to not follow the
maxims but expects hearers to adequately gather meaning
- The speaker assumes that the hearer knows their words should
not be taken at face value and that they should infer implicit
meaning

Question 14

speech act theory

Answer 14

argues and describes the action performed
when an utterance is produced. Speech acts can be analyzed on
3 different levels

Question 15

locution

Answer 15

the words themselves (what is said)

Question 16

locutionary act

Answer 16

the act of saying something

Question 17

illocutionary act

Answer 17

what the speakers are doing with their
words (function of the words)
- Sample speech acts: inviting, advising, promising

Question 18

perlocutionary act

Answer 18

what is done by uttering the words
(effect of the words on the hearer; the hearer’s reaction)

Question 19

direct speech act

Answer 19

speech acts performed in a direct and literal manner
- E.g., “Take out the garbage.”

Question 20

indirect speech act

Answer 20

speech acts performed indirectly and not literally
- E.g., “The garbage hasn’t been taken out yet.”
- E.g., “Would you mind taking out the garbage for me?”
- Indirect speech acts are often used in order to be polite