Week 6 Flashcards
1
Q
Why pragmatics and conversation
A
- Knowledge of pragmatics allows us to understand why language is used in particular ways
We tend to know about pragmatic rules implicitly, but not often explicitly
2
Q
Conversation
A
- The exchange of ideas and information between people
- A key function of conversation is to maintain social cohesion between members of a social group
- On average, people begin responding to a question in 200ms
- A ‘no’ answer to a question than a yes answer
- One out of every 60 words we say is ‘um’ or ‘uh’
- Doesn’t have to occur face to face
- Social cohesion: humans engage in conversation to function in society
- Solitary confinement: Shut off from being able to converse
Interaction is more important than content
3
Q
Pragmatics
A
- The rules that govern with use of language within particular contexts
Pragmatics is the sub-system of language interested in how and why language Is used the way it is within particular contexts (e.g. conversations, discourse, jokes, metaphors)
4
Q
Discourse
A
- Language beyond sentences including the cohesion between sentences
- Conversations occur through the use of discourse
- Cohesion of sentences e.g. discourse is achieved through the use of discourse markers
- Discourse marker: Linguistics devises, such as particular words of phrases that signal the relationship of one sentences with the next
- Linguistic medium which conversations occur
- E.g
- Person 1: Jerry’s not a bad kid, you know
Person 2: He’s not a very good kid, I’d say
5
Q
Typical conversations: Remarkable features of many/most conversations
A
- Who is speaking changes
- Mostly one person speaks at a time
- Sometimes people speak in overlap, but never for long
- Often there Is a smooth transition from one speaker to the next, with no audible gap
- The order of speaking is not predetermined, nor the length of the conversation or even the specific topics
Effective conversation between the speaker and listener relies on cooperation
6
Q
Successful conversations
A
- Outcome is successful
- Man saying ‘okay’
- Positive result, found out why the lady isn’t answering the phone
Not everything needs to be spelled out, context adds to the conversation
7
Q
The cooperative principle
A
- Make your 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
The ability to engage effectively in conversation requires knowledge of the pragmatics of the language and of the rules about cooperation
8
Q
Grices four conversational Maxims: Quantity
A
- Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purposes of the exchange)
- Do not make your contribution more informative than is required
- Need to determine how much information is needed, dependent on the conversation partner
- May bore or over-do the information
- Removing redundant information (pronouns = Jerry likes to swim and fish)
- Pronouns: Help us to soften/keep track of information e.g. Jerry likes to swim, Jerry likes to fish vs Jerry likes to swim, he also likes to fish
Conjunctions: assist to keep track of information and are discourse markers to link sentences and discourse together
9
Q
Grices Four conversational Maxim’s: Quality
A
- Do not say what you believe is to be false
- Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
- Poor quality: in factual or incorrect details
- e.g. I’ve been told that, I think that, I’m certain of that
- Grammatical markers to indicate quality in other cultures/languages e.g. Ca in tariana language: That they witnessed it
- Ensuring what you are saying is true or factual
Hindering ability for cooperation to occur
10
Q
Grice’s four conversational Maxim’s: Relation
A
- Be relevant
- Has to be related to the person’s previous statement/conversation
- Politeness
- Calculated relevance: Can ‘beat around the bush’ on the reply to the question
e.g. if a friend asks, do you want to stay and you reply you have work early in the morning, it is skirting around the question without being rude e.g. no
11
Q
Grice’s four conversational Maxim’s: Manner
A
- Avoid obscurity of expression
- Avoid ambiguity
- Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)
- Be orderly
- Words chosen to convey information to avoid obscurity
- Word choice should be clear and precise enough for the conversation to continue
- e.g. ask someone what they would like for breakfast (reply with a fancy tangent and obscure) which defy the manner and disrupts the conversation
Can also be used when asking a child if they were at school, and they said yes, which they were, but they were cutting class
12
Q
Violation of Grice’s maxim
A
- Evaluate the effectiveness of cooperation in conversation by whether and how frequently if the Maxim’s are violated
Violating Maxim of Quantity:- Failure to provide significant information to listeners
- Use of non-specific vocabulary
- Informational redundancy
Violating Maxim of Relation - Poor topic maintenance
- Inappropriate response
Failure to ask relevant questions
13
Q
Grice’s maxims for SP
A
- Clinical discourse analysis (CDA)
Look at a conversation and identify when Grice’s Maxims are used adequately and when there is a breakdown in conversation
14
Q
Speech Acts
A
- Actions carried out by words
- Speech act theory, developed by philosophers Austin and Searle, is interested in the effect that the use of language has on the world: Aims to consider conversation and discourse in such ways
- Effect of language in conversation and what it does to the world
- e.g. asking a question, promise, passing a judgment
- All of these speech acts results in actions in the world
- Connection between speech act function and linguistic form e.g. to ask question we will use an interrogative clause, command will be an imperative clause
- Speaking does not just convey information but has effects on the world e.g. I sentence you to 10 months in prison
- Speech acts include: Asking a question, making an accusation, giving a promise, passing a judgement, or asking a question
- Each speech act sets up expectations
The way language can do things: Set up expectation, effects action
15
Q
Direct speech act
A
- Where the form (clause construction) and function (of speech acts) match
- e.g. Stop where you are and put your hands on your head (imperative clause construction + function to command)
- Imperative form to command
Direct: As the language function and form match
16
Q
Indirect speech act
A
- Mismatch between form and function
- Serve as legitimate pragmatic devices used to soften the directness of language
- e.g. Would you mind passing the salt please (interrogative clause construction + Function to command)
- Not mistakes, but legitimate pragmatic devices used to soften directness of language e.g. would you mind passing the salt please is a question form to make a command (where form is different to our function)
- By doing so, the speech act is indirect and allows us to be more polite
e.g. ‘wow that cake smells good’: to get them to give you cake
17
Q
Types of speech acts: Halliday’s function
A
- Identify specific speech acts of conversation
- Elaborate on speech act theory
- e.g. when a person makes a statement, its socially preferred to give an acknowledgement (if not it is rude and shows disinterest)
Halliday suggests, for each type of speech act, there are more preferred or less preferred actions/ways or pragmatics of conversation to respond
18
Q
What are Hallidays speech acts
A
Statement:
- Preferred: Acknowledgement.
- Less preferred: contradiction
Question:
- Preferred: Answer.
- Less preferred: Disclaimer
Command:
- Preferred: Compliance.
- Less preferred: Refusal
Offer:
- Preferred: Acceptance
- Less preferred: Rejection
e.g. A: I’ m going back home on the weekend
B: I’m hungry (no acknowledgement)
19
Q
Conversational turn-taking
A
Conversational turn-taking
- Turns: Units of complete talk
- Turns are the backbone of a conversation
Turn signalled by:
- Stress and intonation (e.g. slowing down, pitch change, pause)
- Grammatical completeness
- Content completeness
Turns are made up of turn construction units (TCU): The number of utterance per turn
A TCU can be a word, clause, gesture
20
Q
Transitional space
A
- Transitions in turn-taking
- Space in which turn-taking occurs
- Beat of silence
- Relies on communication partners for transitional spaces/turn-taking
- The moments of transition between a conversational partner
- It is the space in which turn taking can occur
- Transitional space exceeds typical time so one may think something is wrong and repeats
Conversation violations: speaking at the same time, interruptions (Maxim of Manner)
21
Q
Adjacency pairs
A
- The use of phrases, sentences or words that typically go together in conversations
- Assist in turn-taking conversation
- Use implicitly
- Consists of two turns
- Produced by different speakers
- Generally next to each other in the talk
- Ordered
- Often occur as recognisable pair types e.g. greetings, apologies, invitations
- The particular use of phrases or sentences that typically go together in conversation
- Predictable phrases to signal turn-taking
- Broken adjacency pair expectations
- Two turns/two parts involved
- Produced by different speakers
- Generally next to each other in talk
- Occur as recognisable types/recognisable places
Socially expected response
22
Q
Preferred adjacency pairs
A
Preferred adjacency pairs:
- Vary culture to culture and person to person
- Ties back to Halliday’s preferred and dispreferred pairs/responses
Statement: Acknowledgement, contradiction
Question: Answer, Disclaimer
Command: Compliance, Refusal
Offer: Acceptance, Rejection
23
Q
Conversational scripts
A
The use of expected conversational routines or banter
24
Q
Analyzing conversations
A
- Conversations operate by rules of pragmatics
- We can understand and analyse conversations by considering:
- Grice’s cooperative Maxim’s
- Speech Acts (e.g. Halliday’s functions)
- Turn- Taking (e.g. turn construction Units (TCU), transitional space, adjacency pairs, conversational scripts)
- Understand how conversations work
- Analysing conversation through Grice’s maxims shows what leads to successful conversations
- Identify violations of conversations, why a conversation has broken down/was less successful
- Understands in detail the acts occurring in a conversation
- Understanding speech acts: Identify acts or functions occurring in a conversation
- Where preferred speech acts are not being used allow why some conversations are strained or break down
Turn-taking: Analyse conversation where free flow of conversation might be less
25
Q
Coding conversatinos: Interruptions
A
- Interruptions coded in red
- Use of +/
