Pragmatics Flashcards
What are pragmatic skills that children need to learn?
- Conversation Management
- Implicature and Inference
- Politeness and Co-operation
These skills help children navigate social interactions effectively.
What is the Co-operative Principle according to Grice?
In conversation, we attempt to establish comity with our interlocutors.
This principle emphasizes the importance of cooperation in conversational exchanges.
What are minimal responses?
Nods and noises used to show that we are listening and supporting the speaker.
Lack of minimal responses can lead to feelings of embarrassment or rudeness.
What do children learn very early in their language acquisition?
The rules of turn-taking.
Children use minimal responses similarly to adults from a young age.
What are Sacks’s Turn-Taking Rules?
- Speakers speak one at a time
- Speakers should be allowed to finish their turns
- No gaps in conversations
- Current speaker nominates the next speaker
- Turn-taking at Transition Relevance Point
These rules help maintain orderly conversations.
What is an adjacency pair?
Predictable pairs of exchanges where the first part determines the second.
Understanding adjacency pairs is crucial for effective communication.
What is topic control in conversation?
Describes which speaker chooses the topic and under what circumstances.
It is important for maintaining focus in conversations.
What is topic drift?
The phenomenon where conversations change topics over time.
More formal conversations are less likely to experience topic drift.
What is the purpose of the Co-operative Principle?
To show cooperation and respect towards interlocutors during conversation.
This principle involves trying to maintain a positive conversational atmosphere.
What are Grice’s Maxims?
- Maxim of Quality
- Maxim of Quantity
- Maxim of Relevance
- Maxim of Manner
These maxims are guidelines for effective communication.
What does the Maxim of Quality state?
Do not provide information that is false or for which you lack adequate evidence.
Violating this maxim can lead to misunderstandings.
What is implicature?
The implied meaning of an utterance that is not explicitly stated.
It helps listeners infer meaning beyond the literal words.
What is Politeness Theory?
The idea that conversation aims to protect the feelings of the interlocutor.
This involves being mindful of social status and relationships.
What are the two kinds of ‘face’ according to Face Theory?
- Positive Face
- Negative Face
These concepts relate to self-image and the right to self-determination.
What are Lakoff’s Maxims aimed at avoiding?
Face Threatening Acts (FTAs).
They guide speakers to maintain politeness and respect.
What are Michael Halliday’s seven pragmatic function categories of children’s language?
- Instrumental
- Regulatory
- Interactional
- Personal
- Representational
- Imaginative
- Heuristic
These functions explain why children use language.
What is one of John Dore’s functions of children’s speech?
- Labelling
- Repeating
- Answering
- Requesting action
- Calling
- Greeting
- Protesting
- Practising
These functions illustrate how children communicate their needs and experiences.
