week 2 - cooperative principle and speech acts Flashcards
what is an implicature
the assumptions suggested by the speaker and inferred by the hearer in an exchange. These assumptions are not encoded in the words that are said but are generated by the interlocutors’ cooperation to achieve rational communication.
how did Grice describe the cooperative principle?
make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. One might label this the Cooperative Principle (Grice 2006)
what are the four maxims?
Quantity: be informative
Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of the exchange).
Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
Quality: be truthful
Do not say what you feel to be false.
Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
Relation: be relevant
Make your talk relevant.
Manner: be unambiguous
conventional implicature
Associated with specific words and result in additional conveyed meanings when those words are used. - usually closed class • Some classics: she’s good at football, for a girl • but John is poor but happy
flouting
blatant non-observance of a maxim
violating
unostentatious non-observance (lying)
opting out
indicating unwillingness to co-operate
infringing
non-observance due to imperfect linguistic performance (no intention to generate an implicature)
what is a generalised implicature
No special background knowledge of context/utterance is needed to make inferences.
Does not depend on particular features of the context
Associated with the proposition
what is a particularised implicature
Inferences worked out while drawing totally on the specific context of the utterance
Depends on the particular features of the context
Associated with the context
what is a scalar implicature?
- Scalar implicatures arise with the use of certain scales of value
- The use of one expression indicates one point on the scale and cancels the other expressions indicating higher points on the scale
• Some of the boys went to the party
> not all of the boys went to the party
• The shows are sometimes funny
> the shows are not always/not often funny
what is suspending
• Suspending is relevant to certain situations where there is no expectation on the part of participants that the maxims will be followed
what is relevance theory?
• Sperber and Wilson (1995) propose that conversational implicature is understood by hearers by selecting the relevant features of the context and recognising what speakers say as relevant to the conversation (or not).
what is processing effort
‘the greater the PE, the lower the relevance’
how does Austin identify levels of action beyond the utterance?
• A speech act is a functional unit in communication (Austin, 1962)
Austin identifies three distinct levels of action beyond the utterance:
the act OFsaying something
what one does INsaying it
what one does BY saying it
performative speech act
Speech acts that create a new state of affairs
Examples:
I now pronounce you husband and wife.
You’re out!
assertive speech act
Speech acts that convey information
Facts, assertions, conclusions, descriptions
The speaker makes the words fit the world (of belief)
Examples:
It was a cold, wet day in Wales.
The earth is flat.
expressive speech act
Speech acts that express an emotion Psychological expression (pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy, sorrow)
The speaker makes words fit the world (of feeling)
Examples:
I’m really sorry!
Congratulations!
directive speech act
Speech acts that make a request
Commands, orders, requests, suggestions (can be positive or negative)
The speaker attempts to make the world fit the words (via the hearer)
Examples:
Get me a cup of tea with milk.
Could you lend me a biro, please?
commisive speech act
Speech acts that make a commitment
Promises, threats, refusals, pledges (can be performed along or by a group)
The speaker undertakes to make the world via the words (via the speaker)
Examples:
I’ll be back.
I’m going to get it right next time.
locution
performing an act of saying something: uttering words/morphemes, sentences = utterance
illocution
performing an act in saying something: the force or intention behind the words (stating, questioning, commanding, promising etc.); the communicative force of an utterance
perlocution
performing an act by saying something: the effect of the utterance on the hearer
what are the real world conditions needed for performative acts to be successful?
• The people and circumstances must be appropriate
e.g. children cannot perform wedding ceremonies
• All participants must properly execute this procedure, e.g.
Vicar: do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?
Groom: oh, all right then, if I really must [putting the ring on at the wrong moment]
• The procedure must be completed.
what are the felicity conditions for a promise?
the act must be in the future
*I promise you I was home all night last night
the addressee must want the act
*I promise I’ll punch you next time I see you
the act must not be going to happen anyway
*I promise you this lecture will come to an end
there must be sincere intention
*I promise I will give you your money back later
the utterance itself must count as entering the obligation
Do you promise to be here on time?
what are the levels of performativity?
Explicit performatives
‘I (hereby) name…’; ‘We decree…’; ‘I swear…’
Less explicit performatives
‘I promise…’; ‘I apologise…’; ‘I warn you…’
Implicit performatives
‘Guilty’: pronouncing a verdict by the jury foreman
‘Out!’: act of dismissal by a cricket umpire
‘Trespassers will be prosecuted’: warning by the owner of a site
what is a constative utterance
can be said to be true or false
what are indirect and direct speech acts
An indirect speech act masks one type of act (the primary one) as something else (the secondary one)
Example: It’s pretty cold in here.
Secondary speech act: Assertion about the temperature
Primary speech act: Request to close the window
