PRAGMATICS

What is Pragmatics?
Pragmatics is the ability to deal with
meaning as communicated by a
speaker (or writer) and interpreted
by a listener (or reader).
Pragmatics includes among other things
politeness/impoliteness, speech acts (greetings,
refusals, requests, compliments, apologies,
complaints, etc.), conversational style, humor,
sarcasm, teasing, cursing, discourse markers,
conversational implicature (i.e., the implied
meaning as interpreted by listeners based on the
context of an utterance and their knowledge of
how conversation works),
Yule adds that pragmatics is
concerned with four main areas:
1. Pragmatics is the study of speaker
meaning (it gives more importance to
what people actually mean by the words
they speak, than to the words
themselves)
2. Pragmatics is the study of contextual
meaning (it’s not simply what people mean,
but rather what people mean in particular
contexts and how that influences what is
said – It considers how speakers organize
what they want to say according to who they
say it to, where, when, and under what
circumstances they say it)
3. Pragmatics is the study of how more
gets communicated than what is said /
the investigation of invisible meaning)
(how listeners make sense of what was
said -- and left unsaid-- and interpret the
intended meanings)
4. Pragmatics is the study of the
expression of relative distance
(speakers determine how much
needs to be said based on the
relationship -- closer or more distant
-- they have with the listener)
In a nut shell...
Pragmatics is the ability to interpret
people's intended meanings, their
assumptions, their purposes or goals,
and the kinds of actions (e.g., making a
request, apologizing) that they are
performing when they speak or write.
Example
The cashier asks, 'How are you today?' Do you
immediately go into an in-depth account of your
health issues, varying mood, relationship status,
and everything else going on in your life? Of
course not! Usually, you respond with something
similar to, 'Fine, how are you?' with the same
expectation that the cashier will not go into full
detail of how she truly is.
This interaction perfectly shows pragmatics at
work. It is understood that this question does not
really ask you to explain everything going on in
your life. The implication relies on the context
and situation. It is good manners to ask strangers
how they are, but it is not intended for a detailed
response.
Example
"You invited your friend over for dinner. Your
child sees your friend reach for some
cookies and says, 'Better not take those, or
you'll get even bigger.' You can't believe your
child could be so rude."
In a literal sense, the daughter is simply saying
that eating cookies can make you gain weight.
But due to the social context, the mother
interprets that sentence to mean that her
daughter is calling her friend fat. The first
sentence in this explanation refers to the
semantics—the literal meaning of the sentence.
The second and third refer to the pragmatics, the
actual meaning of the words as interpreted by a
listener based on social context.
Example
"You talk with a neighbor about his new car. He
has trouble staying on topic and starts talking
about his favorite TV show. He doesn't look at you
when you talk and doesn't laugh at your jokes. He
keeps talking, even when you look at your watch
and say, 'Wow. It's getting late.' You finally leave,
thinking about how hard it is to talk with him."
In this scenario, the speaker is just talking about a new
car and his favorite TV show. But the listener interprets
the signs the speaker is using—not looking at the
listener and not laughing at his jokes—as the speaker
being unaware of the listener's views (let alone his
presence) and monopolizing his time. You've likely
been in this kind of situation before, where the speaker
is talking about perfectly reasonable, simple subjects
but is unaware of your presence and your need to
escape. While the speaker sees the talk as a simple
sharing of information (the semantics), you see it as a
rude monopolization of your time (the pragmatics).
What would happen to language if
Pragmatics did not exist?
Without the function of Pragmatics, there would be
very little understanding of intention and meaning.

‘Can you pass the salt?’

Literal Meaning: Are you physically able to do this task?
Literal Response: ‘Yes’
(Pragmatic Meaning: Will you pass me the salt?
Pragmtic Response: pass the salt to the speaker.)
‘What time do you call this?’
Literal Meaning: What time is it?
Literal Response: A time (e.g. ‘twenty to one.’)
(Pragmatic Meaning: a different question entirely,
e.g. Why are you so late?
Pragmatic Response: Explain the reason for being
so late.)