Pragmatics Flashcards
What is pragmatics?
A part of language/ speech that is not words
What pragmatics do children need to learn?
1) Conversation management
2) Implicature and inference
3) Politeness and co-operation
What is conversation management?
Turn taking
What is implicature and inference?
The speaker and the inferences comes from intellocuter and taking understanding
What is politeness and co-operation?
Face maxims
What are the features of speech?
Pauses
Fillers
False starters
Repetition
Tag questions
Hedges
Context-specific language
Topic drift
Multiple co-ordination
What is the co-operative principle?
Linguists believe that when we speak we are trying to use converstion to establish our relationship with our interlocutors.
What are minimal responses?
these are nods and noises we use when talking to someone to show that we are listening and supporting them
What happens if support is not given to the speaker?
The person may become embarrassed or angry and may think the listener is being rude or strange
who tend to show delayed minimal responses
Men tend to show delayed minimal responses
example of turn-taking
noises, awknowledgement
What are Sack’s turn taking rules?
speakers should speak one at a time
speakers should be allowed to finish their turns and not be interrupted
there should be no gaps in conversation
the current speaker nominates the next speaker
speakers take their turn to speak at the TRP
what are adjacency pairs?
predictable pairs
an example of a Greeting/Greeting adjacency pair
hello/ Hello
an example of a question/answer
whats your name?/ maia
Acusation/ Denial or admission
You’ve stolen my car/ yes i have or no i havent
Request/ Acceptance
Request/ Refusal
Can i borrow £5? Yeah/ No
Offer/ Acceptance
Offer/ Denial
Would you like a cup of tea?
Yes please / No thanks
What is a topic?
What a conversation is about
Topic drift
the more formal a conversation is the less likely the topic will change
Topic control
decides which speaker chooses the topic and under what circumstances
Talking typically
a basic rule of conversation is that speakers must talk topically with the previous utterance
Topic loops
a conversation has moved off a particular topic, it is not normally typical to return to it
Features of children and topics
Adults tend to choose topics which the child will be interested in - but doesn’t always mean they are the dominant speaker
another feature of children and topics
if the child suggests a topic, the adult will usually co-operate with it
another feature of child and topics
is the child rejects their topic, for example not responding the adult will usually offer another topic chosen in order to interest the child
another feature of child and topics
child-initiated topic loops are usually co-operated with
What is the co-operative theory?
states that when we have a conversation we do as much as we can to show our interlocutors that we are co-operating with them.
What are Grice’s 4
Maxims?
The maxim of quality
The maxim of quantity
The maxim of relevance
The maxim of manner
What is the maxim of quality?
You expect the response to be true
What is the maxim of quantity?
Either an indication that you want to speak to them or you don’t
What is the maxim of relevance?
Happens a lot with children as they may not understand and respond with a different topic
Adults often accommodate it by treating the utterance and loop back to the original topic
What is the maxim of manner?
The response should be appropriate for formality
The adult speaker will usually treat the utterance as if it is meaningful, e.g. providing minimal responses
What is implicature?
meaning of an utterance that isn’t made explicit but which the listened is expected to figure out for themselves
What does implicature allow?
Implicature allows us to make sense of utterances that would otherwise seem to break Grice’s Maxims.
Politeness theory
States that when we have a conversation we do as much as we can to protect our feelings of the person we are talking to.
What is face theory?
Claims that we change our behaviour in conversation in order to treat our interlocutors in the way they want to be treated
Positive face relates to
self imagine
Negative face relates to
status / right to self-determination
As people we do what?
we are careful not to offend people, that is not to perform any Face Threatening Acts
Face vulnerable speech acts
speech acts such as apologies, confessions and invitations can leave us ‘face vulnerable
What do Lakoff’s maxims help with?
help to avoid Face Threats by following a number of rules to obey
what were Lakoff’s rules?
- Don’t impose
- Give options
- Make the listener feel good
how many pragmatic functions does michael halliday have?
7
Instrumental
Fulfil a need - ‘do you want a drink’
Regulatory
Influence the behaviour of others - ‘go away’
Interactional
Develop and maintain social relationships - ‘love you mummy’
Personal
Express feelings, opinions and individual identity - me a good girl’ ‘i am a good girl’
Representation
Convey facts and information ‘it hot’ ‘it is hot’
IMAGINATIVE
tell stories and create an imaginary world ‘i am a princess’
helps lexical and semantic expansion
HEURISTIC
learn more about the world ‘whats that?’
learn more about language
What are dores functions?
Labelling
naming a person, object or thing
Repeating
repeating an adult word or utterance
Answering
responding to an utterance of another speaker
requesting action
asking for something to be done
calling
getting attention by shouting
greeting
greeting someone or something
protesting
objecting to requests from others
practicing
using language that is not addressed to anyone present
