Pragmatics Flashcards
Implicature
an implication is a statement where something else, subtextual, can be understood from the statement alone, e.g. ‘Looks like John had fun last night,’ when it is clear that John is massively hungover.
Allusion
a reference to something but with omission of explicit meaning – e.g. ‘2020 was the year everything changed’ contextually would be understood as potentially a reference to the Covid pandemic.
Irony
using language to signal an attitude other than what has literally been expressed
Deixis
words that are context-bound where meaning depends on who is being referred to, where something is happening or when something is happening: look at that; it’s great; go over there; tomorrow will be great; it will happen in a week.
Speech acts
communicative acts that carry meaning beyond the words and phrases used within them, e.g. apologies, promises, declarations
Perlocutionary acts
speech acts that seek to influence the behaviour and thoughts of others, including commands, promises, threats, pleas
Face
the concept of how communication relies on presenting ‘face’ to listeners and audience, and how the management of positive and negative face needs to contribute to interaction.
Positive face
the desire to be thought of in universally positive ways – intelligent, funny, attractive, charismatic etc
Negative face
the desire to maintain freedom
Positive face threatening acts
communication that threatens the receiver’s positive face: insults, criticism, pointing out negative emotions, blame, disapproval, accusations, plus utterances that show a lack of care for the receiver’s positive face, like delivering bad news, taboo language, emotional topics etc
Negative face threatening acts
communication that threatens the receiver’s negative face: requests to do something, commands, compliments (that are meant to elicit a specific response). Can be broken into three - acts that predict a future act of the hearer (orders, suggestions, requests etc); acts that promise the speaker will do something to the receiver (threats, positive or negative promises, offers); acts that express a desire towards the receiver (flirtation, compliments etc).
Cooperative principles in conversation:
how interaction is thought to be based on various kinds of cooperative behaviour between speakers – see Grice, Lakoff and Leech’s ideas
Exophoric referencing:
making reference to things beyond the language of the text or discourse itself: ‘they’re, going to be late,’; ‘Oooh, look at that.’
Intertextual referencing
making reference to a text external to the one being written or spoken. Can be overt or allusion – ‘As a wise old ghost once said, “use the force”’; ‘The first rule of Chess Club is don’t talk about Chess Club. The second rule, is no mobile phones…’ - can also be the use of discourses from one field to another, like using science in a commercial for beauty products
Linguistic markers
in speech, elements that reveal something contextual about a speaker - these can be regional markers (accent/dialect), social markers (sociolect, jargon, slang, colloquialisms), age markers (archaic lexis, current slang), gender markers (see gender difference theories).
