Natural and conventional signs Language in Use Pragmatics Natural and conventional signs Prof. Walid Amer

Pragmatics: a branch of linguistics that is concerned with meaning. What is correct in a particular instance is pragmatically appropriate.

Pragmatics and Semantics: They are different aspects of the same general study. Both are concerned with people’s ability to use language meaningfully. Semantics: is concerned with a speaker’s competence to produce meaningful utterances. Pragmatics: is concerned with a person’s ability to derive meanings from speech situations.

Natural and conventional signs: Language: a complex system of symbols or signs that are shared by members of a community. Dialects: consistent differences in speech of a certain language that people who have the same native language use. Vocabulary differences: Petrol vs gasoline, Lift vs elevator Ways of framing certain questions: Have you a pencil? vs Do you have a pencil? vs Have you got a pencil? Cultural features are almost always more widespread than any one language.

Natural signs: it’s a natural unintentional sign that communicates a message. Footprint: it’s the natural result of a foot treading on a soft surface. It communicates a message that someone was recently there. Other examples: Smoke, black clouds, and all sorts of sights, sounds, and smells.

Conventional signs: It’s like horns, whistles, siren, buzzes and bells. Also visual signs like signs to indicate a slippery road, or a bicycle path, etc. Humans produce not only single symbols but systems of symbols. For example, different bell tones can form a repertory of messages. Conventional signs have human senders as well as human receivers. The message can be personal or impersonal.

The process of getting information consists of three types: 1. Perception: The sign attracts the observer’s attention, so the observer sees or hears something. For example, in this stage, a person hears some sound, or reads something, or sees a certain image.

2. Identification: When we recognize the phenomenon that we have a previous experience about, that is stored in our memories. We observe a sign and derive some meaning from it. This means that we have seen a similar sign before.

3. Interpretation: To interpret the meaning of a sign and form a reaction to it. Meanings are often personal, that depends on the space-time context in which we observe it.

Conventional signs can have different meanings in different contexts. The whistle of a policeman directing traffics, and the whistle of the referee in a soccer game sound exactly the same, but they convey different meanings due to the difference of contexts in which the signal occurs.

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