Pragmatics Flashcards
pragmatics
study of how we recognize what is meant rather than what is said or written (beyond one sentence). Speaker intended meaning. Possible through shared assumptions, expectations and context.
pragmatics
study of how we recognize what is meant rather than what is said or written. Speaker intended meaning. Possible through shared assumptions, expectations and context.
linguistic context (co-text)
set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence. ex: meaning of “bank” is determined based on context in which it appears.
physical context
set of physical conditions: time, space/location, etc.
deixis - deictic expressions
expressions that can only be understood in context, in terms of speaker intended meaning, ex: here, there, she, that girl, there, this, that, etc.
person deixis
“point” to things (this, that) or people (she, him, those idiots).
spacial deixis
“point” to location (there, here, near that).
temporal deixis
“point” to time (now, then, last week).
reference
an act by which the speaker/writer uses language to enable the listener/reader to identify something. each word has a range of references - may refer to more than one entity.
inference
an additional information used by the listener/reader to create connection between what is said/written and what is meant. First mention - antecedent,
inference
an additional information used by the listener/reader to create connection between what is said/written and what is meant. First mention - antecedent, subsequent mentions - anaphora (referring back).
presupposition
what speaker believes is true or know to the listener
constancy under negation test
test identifying presuppositions by means of negating the initial sentence and checking if the presupposition is still valid.
speech act
action performed by the speaker with the utterance: request, command, question, etc.
direct speech act
syntactic structure of the utterance corresponds with its function, ex: can you ride a bicycle - interrogative form to pose a question.
