1 Introduction to Linguistics II Ling 2-121C, group b Lecture 9 Eleni Miltsakaki AUTH Spring 2006

2 Pragmatics What we say is not always what we mean Situational context affects linguistic meaning Pragmatics studies the interaction of context with meaning

3 Conversational implicature Meaning implied (implicated) by virtue of the fact that the speaker and hearer are cooperatively contributing to the conversation. Such conversations, according to Grice, are governed by the Cooperative Principle

4 Indirect communucation Can you think of examples of indirect communication? (I.e., say one thing but mean another?)

5 The door is over there (request, leave) I want 10 gallons of regular (request, give me) I’m sure the cat likes having its tail pulled (imperative, stop doing that) You’re the boss (agree) I should never have done that (apologize) Did you bring any tennis balls? (inform that the speaker hasn’t brought any)

6 Grice’s cooperative principle 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 Conversational maxims –Maxim of quality –Maxim of quantity –Maxim of relevance –Maxim of manner

7 Maxim of quantity Make your contribution as informative as is required Do not make your contribution more informative than is required

8 Maxim of quality Try to make your contribution one that is true: –Do not say what you believe to be false –Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

9 Maxim of relevance Make your contributions relevant (in a room with an open window) It’s cold here!

10 Maxim of manner Be perspicuous –Avoid obscurity –Avoid ambiguity –Be brief –Be orderly

11 Conversational conventions combine with sentence meaning and context to derive discourse meaning Same as sentence grammar (words combine to derive sentence meaning)

12 Humor Humor often is based on violations of maxims Can you think of any?

13 He: Your nagging goes right in one ear and out the other. She: That’s because there is nothing in between to stop it.

14 a. Quality "Why did the Vice-President fly to Panama?" "Because the fighting is over." b. Quantity "Excuse me, do you know what time it is?" "Yes." c. Relation "How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?" "Fish!" d. Manner "Do you believe in clubs for young people?" "Only when kindness fails."

15 Speech acts Performative verbs –We can use language to do things –You warn when you say: I warn you that there is a thief in the closet –You give a promise when you say: I promise I’ll love you for ever

16 Some performative sentences I bet you five dollars the Yankees win I challenge you to a match I dare you to stop over this line I fine you $100 for possession of oregano I move that we adjourn I nominate Batman for mayor of Gotham city I promise to improve I resign! I pronounce you husband and wife

17 Test To check if you have a performative verb trying add I hereby … before it. I hereby apologize to you –act of apologizing # I hereby know you

18 Every utterance is a speech act, even when there is no performative verb It is raining – I state that it’s raining Is it raining? – I ask if it’s raining Leave! -- I order you to leave

19 The role of context Band practice, my house, 6-8 –Could be a reminder –Could be a warning The underlying purpose of an utterance is called illocutionary force

20 Illocutionary acts Performed by performative sentences Central to linguistic communication One performs them successfully simply by getting one’s illocutionary intentions recognized

21 Perlocutionary acts Inspiring, impressing, embarrassing, intimidating, persuading, misleading, irritating

22 Perlocutionary acts Not performed by uttering an explicit performative sentence Involve effects of the utterance and illocutionary acts on feelings, thoughts, actions of the hearer S tells + H believes … =S persuades H that…

23 Speech acts recap Utterance acts (shouting, whispering, murmuring) Illocutionary acts (promising, reporting,asking) Perlocutionary acts (intimidating, persuading, deceiving) Propositional acts (referring, predicating)

24 Presupposition Speakers make implicit assumptions about the world Presuppositions of an utterance are facts whose truth is required for the utterance to be appropriate

25 Find the presuppositions Have you stopped hugging your sheepdog? Who bought the badminton set? John doesn’t write poems anymore. The present King of France is bald. Would you like another beer?

26 When presuppositions are inconsistent with the actual state in the world, the utterance is felt to be strange

27 Failing presuppositions! From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 1.“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. 2.“I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone, “so I can’t take more.” 3.“You mean you can’t take less,” said the Hatter: “It’s very easy to take more than nothing.”

28 Accommodation Presuppositions can be used to communicate information indirectly My brother is rich –The hearer accommodates the presupposition that I have brother Much of the information communicated in discourse is of this type

29 Presuppositions are indispensable Compare: –John doesn’t write any more –A person we both know and agree that his name is John, and who knows how to write, and who is able to write poetry, wrote poetry in some past time, and know he does not write poetry

30 Legal language The use of language in a courtroom is restricted so that presuppositions cannot influence the court or jury. “Have you stopped beating your wife?” –Is not a permissible question in court

31 Pragmatic inference Sometimes some sentences invite an inference on the part of the hearer which doesn’t follow from semantics –1a If you mow the lawn, I will give you five dollars –1b If you don’t mow the lawn, I will not give you five dollars

32 Deixis Some words can only be interpreted in context These words are called deictic (or indexical expressions): –My mine you your yours we ours us (personal deixis) –This that these those (demonstratives) –Now, this/that X, X time ago, tomorrow, last X, next X (time deixis) –Here, there, this/that X, (place deixis) –Before/behind, left/right front/back (directional deixis)

33 Types of deixis You, you, but not you, are dismissed (gestural deixis) What did you say? (symbolic) You can never tell what sex they are nowadays (non-deictic)

34 Discourse deixis … That was the funniest story I’ve ever heard

35 Deixis is common in language and marks one boundary between semantics and pragmatics I, behind me, an hour from now: have meaning to the extent that they have reference, to determine their reference you need context

36 The facts of deixis should act as a constant reminder to theoretical linguists of the simple but immensely important fact that natural languages are primarily designed, so to speak, for use in face-to-face interaction, and thus there are limits to the extent to which they can be analysed without taking this into account (Lyons, 1977)

37 Summary points in pragmatics The cooperative principle –Four maxims of conversation Speech acts Presuppositions Deixis Pronouns and other pro-forms