pragmatics and discourses

Question 1

what is pragmatics and semantics?

Answer 1

pragmatics- the study of the contribution of context to meaning
semantics- the study of the meaning of words in language

Question 2

what are the 4 different types of context?

Answer 2

• physical context
• epistemic context
• linguistic context
• social context

Question 3

what is physical context?

Answer 3

physical context includes where the conversation is and what objects are present/ anything else in the surrounding area which might effect the conversation.

Question 4

what is epistemic context?

Answer 4

• epistemic context refers to what speakers know about the world.
  i.e- what background knowledge is shared by the speakers and the writer/producer

Question 5

What is linguistic context?

Answer 5

• linguistic context refers to what has been said already in the utterance.
  for example - naming someone and then referring to them as ‘he’/’she’ in the next sentence

Question 6

what is social context?

Answer 6

• social context refers to the social relationship among speakers and listeners
  e.g- a conversation between friends and equals will differ from one between strangers who only just met.

Question 7

what is synthetic personalisation and what is an example of it?

Answer 7

Synthetic personalisation is where the producers attempt to make their audience feel like what they’ve produced is more personal to them and is coming from an authentic source.
e.g- hand written political letters- relies on the epistemic context that hand written letters carry more authenticity.