Pragmatics is concerned with meaning as communicated by a speaker (or

writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader). It deals more with the analyses
what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those
utterances might mean by themselves. Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning.

Pragmatics involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular

context and how the context influences what is said. It deals with how we organize
what we want to say in accordance with who they’re talking to, where, when and
under what circumstances. Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning.

Pragmatics also explores how listeners can make inferences about what is
said in order to arrive at an interpretation of the speaker’s intended meaning.
Pragmatics investigates invisible meaning. Pragmatics is the study of how more
gets communicated than is said.

Pragmatics determines the choice between the said and the unsaid.
Pragmatics is the study of the expression of a distance (physical, social,
conceptional).

These are the four areas that pragmatics is concerned with.

Pragmatics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and
the users of those forms. In this three-part distinction only pragmatics allows
humans into the analysis. The advantage of studying language via pragmatics is
that one can talk about people’s intended meanings, their assumptions, their
purposes or goals, and the kinds of actions that they are performing when they
speak. The big disadvantage is that all these human concepts are extremely
difficult to analyze in a consistent and objective way: e.g. two friends having a
conversation may imply some things and infer others without providing any
clear linguistic evidence that we can point to as the explicit source of the
meaning of what was communicated.
 Pragmatics contrasts with syntax and semantics.

Syntax is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms, how they
are arranged in sequences, and which sequences are well-formed. This type of
study generally takes place without considering any world of reference or any user
of the forms.
Semantics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and
entities in the world; that is how words literally connect to things. Semantic
analysis also attempts to establish the relationship between verbal descriptions and
states of affairs in the world as accurate (true) or not, regardless of who produces
that description.

Pragmatics – basic notions of pragmatics and its connection with other

sections of linguistics.

The more two speakers have in common, the less language they’ll need to
use to identify familiar things.

 Ludwig Wittgenstein 189-1951

 John Langshaw Austin 1911-1960
 John Rogers Searle (born 1932)
 Herbert Paul Grice 1913-1988

Context and co-text (2 different terms, social and linguistic)

Deixis
 Reference and inference
Presupposition
Speech acts
Implicit meaning
Politeness

1) Context and co-text

 Bronislaw Malinowski
 John Rupert Firth
 Michael Halliday

Malinowski : the context of situation (identified as a total environment,

including the verbal environment and the situation in which the text was produced)
;

co-text – the linguistic environment of a word

context – the non-verbal environment in which a word is used
 Social – the social relationship among speakers and listeners (asking
someone to be quiet in a library) ;
 Physical context – the conversation occurs in the library ;

Put another way, the surrounding situation in which a word is used is

its context whereas the surrounding words is its co-text, the most obvious
manifestation of which is collocations.

Firth :
1) the context of situation – a schematic construct (план, по которому
можно разобрать каждое происходящее языковое событие)
2) Includes 3 categories : relevant features of the participants (verbal
action and non-verbal action) ; relevant objects ; the effects of the verbal action
3) important to study individuals, not masses
 Halliday : 1) communication is predictable (клише, в ситуативном
контексте – нет)
2) importance of register

The text is any instance of meaning language that is playing some part in a
context situation. A product, a process.

Halliday’s taxonomy :
1. The field of discourse, that is to say what is going on, the nature of the
social action ;
2. the tender of discourse, which refers to the participants, their statuses
and roles, their permanent and temporary relationships ;
3. the mode of discourse, that is to say the role language is playing, the
symbolic organization of the text, its status, its function in the context, the channel
and the rhetorical mode.

Register is the semantic concept, a configuration of meanings, that are

typically associated with the particular situation of configuration. It also includes
the expressions, the lexical, grammatical and philological features.

3 contexts : linguistic (co-text), of situation, of culture.

 2) Deixis
Deixis means « Pointing » via language. Any linguistic form used to achieve
this « Pointing » is called A Deictic Expression or « Indexicals ». If you notice a
strange object and ask « What’s that », you are using a deictic expression.

A deictic center – a reference point of the text, исходная точка языкового

события usually the speaker and now. Changes from one speaker to another
(shifting deictic center) : speakers pretend they are in another place and time, so
expressions referring to a deictic center don’t refer to place and time of speech.
E.g. She ran ten feet to the left – deictic expression, мы уходим от центра
to the left.

Types of deixis : social, special, temporal, textual, discourse, proximal,

distant.

A source of ambiguity (we’ll try to visit you this winter).

Не You didn’t clean up, а Somebody didn’t clean up. (the best pragmatic
effect)

 Person (pointing to things, e.g. it, this, those boxes, him)

  Spatial (pointing to location, e.g. here, there)

 Temporal (pointing to a particular period of time, e.g. now, then, last

week)
 Anaphora – a subsequent reference to an already introduced entity,
used within texts and conversations to maintain reference.
 Zero anaphora – there is no element which refer one element to another, but
it’s clear what we mean.

Cataphora – a reference forward.

REMOTENESS (two-place: proximal – near reference point/distant,

personal, social, textual/discourse, gestural).
  PERSON DEIXIS There are 3 categories: SPEAKER (I)
ADDRESSEE (YOU) OTHERS (HE- SHE-IT- THEY)
 Past simple and future не связаны с другими временами.
 Past forms can mark smth that is far from reality.
 Чтобы задать иерархию – Mr/Ms,
 Reference – the use of markers to stand for smth or link to the item
previously mentioned or yet to appear in the text. E.g. When he got to it
(cataphoric, упоминание до), he found that house was much as he had expected;
the place (anaphoric) was all that shabby.
 Referencee – not related to a specific item (It was all because of him.)
 The importance for indirect speech : here and now всё время
смещаются
 3) Reference and inference
Reference
An act by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a listener (or
reader) to identify something.

Words in themselves do not refer anything. People refer. REFERRING

EXPRESSIONS: linguistic forms like proper nouns, definite or indefinite noun
phrases, and pronouns. The choice of one type of these expressions rather than
another is based on what the speaker assumes the listener already knows.

“The woman in red” (definite article) “A woman was looking at you”

(indefinite article and pronoun). So, reference is tied to the speaker’s goals and
beliefs about the listener knowledge in the use of language.

DEIXIS IS ALSO A KIND OF REFERENCE, REFERS TO PEOPLE,

PLACES, TIME.

Allusion, metaphor, metonymy – дают предметам новые имена,

mechanisms to refer to smth.

Context is very important for reference.

3 types : anaphora, cataphora, zero anaphora (ellipsis).

 The social reference is connected with the effect of collaboration.

The immediate recognition of the social reference represents closeness

between the speaker and listeners.

Successful reference – the intention was recognized.

Presupposition – an implicit assumption about the world or background

belief relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in discourse.

Jane no longer writes fiction.

Presupposition : Jane once wrote fiction.

Have you talked to Hans?

Presupposition : Hans exists.

Six types of presupposition:

1) Existential presupposition: to show the existence of smth

Entities named by the speaker and assumed to be present : noun phrase
and possessive constructions.
noun phrase : "The Cold War has ended"
presupposes that the existence of the entities it refers to, in this case the
"Cold War".
 possessive constructions :“ Tony’s car is new” we can presuppose that
Tony exists and that he has a car.
2) Factive presupposition: identified by the presence of some verbs
such as "know“, "realize“, “be glad”, “be sorry”, etc.
She didn’t realize he was ill. (>> He was ill)
We regret telling him. (>> We told him)
3) Lexical presupposition: In using one word, the speaker can act as
if another meaning will be understood.
You are late again. (>> You were late before.)
4) Structural presupposition: it is the assumption associated with the
use of certain structures.
- wh-question constructions.
The listener perceives that the information presented is necessarily true,
or intended as true by the speaker.
When did she travel to the USA? ( >> she travelled)
Where did you buy the book? (>> you bought the book)
5) Non-factive presupposition: it is an assumption referred to
something that is not true.
For example, verbs like "dream", "imagine" and "pretend" are used with
the presupposition that what follows is not true.
I dreamed that I was rich. (>> I was not rich)
6) Counterfactual presupposition: goes against our reality, it is the
assumption that what is presupposed is not only untrue, but is the
opposite of what is true, or contrary to facts.
If you were my daughter, I would not allow you to do this. ( >> you are
not my daughter)
If I were rich I would buy a Ferrari. (>> I’m not rich)

Inference – делать какие-то выводы.

An additional information used by the listener to create a connection
between what is said and what must be meant.
 For successful reference to occur, we must recognize the role of
INFERENCE and COLLABORATION between speaker and listener in thinking
what the other has in mind. Sometimes we use vague expressions relying on the
listener’s ability to infer what referent we have in mind: i.e: “The blue thing”,
“That stuff”. We sometimes even invent names.

Speech acts
Speech acts – action performed through speech (promises, invitations).
Studied by John Searle.
Speech events – circumstances which surround the utterance.
3 stages : locution, illocution, perlocution.
In one act – 3 acts.

1. Locution – producing some meaning for linguistic expression.

2. Illocution – our communicative purpose.
3. Perlocution – the result.

Formative verbs
I see you later – I promise that I’ll see you later.

Stress, word order, intonation.

Declarative, communicative functions.