Pragmatics Flashcards
Pragmatics
How you use words and where you use them; using language appropriately in personal/social contexts
Social conventions are _____ specific
culturally
US Conversational rules
Openings
Turn taking
Closing - Pre-closings, we close in a meaningful way
US Conversational conventions
Eye contact Personal space/distance Indirect requests/statements Appropriate Emotional Responses Acknowledgment gestures
Cooperative principle
We assume that speakers are…
… trying to be informative
… not trying to mislead us
We assume that the speaker follows….
Grice’s maxims
Grice’s maxims
- The Maxim of quality
- The Maxim of quantity
- The Maxim of relevance
- The Maxim of manner
The Maxim of quality
don’t say what you think is false, or what you don’t know
The Maxim of quantity
just be as informative as needed for the current exchange - don’t say too much or too little
The Maxim of relevance
say only what is relevant for the current exchange
The Maxim of manner
be brief, but avoid obscurity and ambiguity
Non-literal language
often what we say is different from what we mean Irony/sarcasm Understatement Overstatement Metaphor Idioms Sland
Indirect speech acts
used to show politeness
depends on who we’re talking to
