Pragmatics quarter 1
Week 1, 36
What is Pragmatics?
The distinction between what a speaker’s words literally mean and
what they might mean.
Goal: Understand the cognitive abilities speakers and hearers use to
convey and interpret meaning in context.
“Pragmatics is the study of how language is used to communicate”
6 reasons why it makes sense to assume there is a lot we do not
know
1. The subject is scarcely a half century old.
2. Great deal of theory dates back to the foundational period, roughly
1960-1985.
3. Theory derives from Western philosophy and reflects foci an
preoccupations of Western scholars and societies.
4. Theory is very much focussed on familiar major languages, largely
European and English.
5. The work is done with relatively unsophisticated tools, new tools are
available.
6. There are still many underdeveloped topics of research.
Bottleneck in communication
Speech is slower than thought. Context, gestures, facial expressions,
and intonation help bridge this gap, this makes our communication
much faster and more efficient.
Optimizing utterances requires balancing speed and learnability
without overloading speech.
“The fly in the ointment is a tight bottleneck on speech production.”
“The bottleneck is a coding bottleneck.”
“This gap between the coding rate and the comprehension rate is of
fundamental importance for our subject. For this is the pragmatic niche,
the
zone that can be filled with ancillary means of communication. The rest of
this
Element is about how pragmatics fills this gap between frustratingly slow
production and fast comprehension.”
Five ways to circumvent the bottleneck/imaginary engineer:
1. Multiplying channels: Speech + gestures + facial expressions +
eye contact verbal + non-verbal).
2. Dual content: Austin’s speech theory, adding actions to utterances
so they both say and do something.
3. Choice of message: Word choice, sentence structure, and
speaking style (relates to Grice’s implicatures).
, 4. Non-literal use: Metaphors, irony, humor, hyperbole for multiple
interpretations.
5. Leveraging context: Only essential information is made explicit.
Multimodal binding problem
Putting different signals (like speech, gestures, and facial
expressions) together to make one clear message.
Underdeveloped areas: voice sounds (e.g., whispering) and listener
reactions (e.g., facial expressions, posture).
Week 2, 37
Two important principles
Speaking is not only describing
Language as/is action
John Austin: How to do things with words
John Searle: What is a speech act?
Constative: Representations of language can be true or false,
describing the world by stating or asserting something (truth).
Example: “My friend’s name is Sebastian and his kids are
called Marlene, Greta and Henrik.”
Performative: Representations of language can be successful or
not, changing the world by doing something (other than just stating
(action).
Example: “I bet five euros that it will rain soon.”
Felicity conditions (Austin)
For a speech act to work correctly, these rules must be followed:
1. There must be a usual way to do it that produces the expected
effect.
2. The context and people must be correct.
3. The act must be done properly and completely.
4. The people involved must have the right thoughts or intentions.
5. Any other required actions must also happen.
If these rules fail:
Misfires: The act fails (wrong procedure, wrong context,
incomplete).
Abuses: The act is done insincerely (without real intention).
Examples:
“The current king of France is bald” → misfire (France has no king).
“The cat is on the mat, but I don’t believe it” → misfire (logically
contradictory).
“France is hexagonal” → misfire (too vague, not clearly true or
false).
, “All Jack’s children are bald” → misfire if Jack has no children
(assumed condition fails).
Theory of speech acts (Austin and Searle)
Locutionary act: Producing the words.
Phonetic: Making the sounds of the words
Example: Saying the sounds /pliːz əˈtɛnd ˈmiːtɪŋz/
Phatic: Using correct words and grammar (utterance)
Example: “Please attend meetings.” (correct word order
and grammar)
Rhetic: Using words with a specific meaning (propositional
content)
Example: He said to me “Please attend meetings.”
Illocutionary act: The intention or purpose of what is said.
Example: He expressed the opinion that I should attend
meettings.
Perlocutionary act: The effect on the listener.
Example: He has convinded me that I should attend meetings.
Searle:
Phonetic + phatic = utterance/locutionary act.
Rhetic = propositional content.
Core of communication = illocutionary act.
Every sentence both expresses meaning and performs a
function in conversation.
Difference Austin’s and Searle’s speech act theory
Speaking always follows a double structure
An utterance act and a propositional act = illocutionary acts thus
also always have a propositional content.
Constitutive and regulative rules
Propositional content rule: Range of content, smallest common
denominator of the content.
Preparatory rules: Meaningfulness of the action,
conditions/prerequisites for the existence.
Sincerity rule: The utterance must be intended.
Essential rule: The utterance counts as a question, a statement, a
promise, etc. (under certain circumstances)
Week 1, 36
What is Pragmatics?
The distinction between what a speaker’s words literally mean and
what they might mean.
Goal: Understand the cognitive abilities speakers and hearers use to
convey and interpret meaning in context.
“Pragmatics is the study of how language is used to communicate”
6 reasons why it makes sense to assume there is a lot we do not
know
1. The subject is scarcely a half century old.
2. Great deal of theory dates back to the foundational period, roughly
1960-1985.
3. Theory derives from Western philosophy and reflects foci an
preoccupations of Western scholars and societies.
4. Theory is very much focussed on familiar major languages, largely
European and English.
5. The work is done with relatively unsophisticated tools, new tools are
available.
6. There are still many underdeveloped topics of research.
Bottleneck in communication
Speech is slower than thought. Context, gestures, facial expressions,
and intonation help bridge this gap, this makes our communication
much faster and more efficient.
Optimizing utterances requires balancing speed and learnability
without overloading speech.
“The fly in the ointment is a tight bottleneck on speech production.”
“The bottleneck is a coding bottleneck.”
“This gap between the coding rate and the comprehension rate is of
fundamental importance for our subject. For this is the pragmatic niche,
the
zone that can be filled with ancillary means of communication. The rest of
this
Element is about how pragmatics fills this gap between frustratingly slow
production and fast comprehension.”
Five ways to circumvent the bottleneck/imaginary engineer:
1. Multiplying channels: Speech + gestures + facial expressions +
eye contact verbal + non-verbal).
2. Dual content: Austin’s speech theory, adding actions to utterances
so they both say and do something.
3. Choice of message: Word choice, sentence structure, and
speaking style (relates to Grice’s implicatures).
, 4. Non-literal use: Metaphors, irony, humor, hyperbole for multiple
interpretations.
5. Leveraging context: Only essential information is made explicit.
Multimodal binding problem
Putting different signals (like speech, gestures, and facial
expressions) together to make one clear message.
Underdeveloped areas: voice sounds (e.g., whispering) and listener
reactions (e.g., facial expressions, posture).
Week 2, 37
Two important principles
Speaking is not only describing
Language as/is action
John Austin: How to do things with words
John Searle: What is a speech act?
Constative: Representations of language can be true or false,
describing the world by stating or asserting something (truth).
Example: “My friend’s name is Sebastian and his kids are
called Marlene, Greta and Henrik.”
Performative: Representations of language can be successful or
not, changing the world by doing something (other than just stating
(action).
Example: “I bet five euros that it will rain soon.”
Felicity conditions (Austin)
For a speech act to work correctly, these rules must be followed:
1. There must be a usual way to do it that produces the expected
effect.
2. The context and people must be correct.
3. The act must be done properly and completely.
4. The people involved must have the right thoughts or intentions.
5. Any other required actions must also happen.
If these rules fail:
Misfires: The act fails (wrong procedure, wrong context,
incomplete).
Abuses: The act is done insincerely (without real intention).
Examples:
“The current king of France is bald” → misfire (France has no king).
“The cat is on the mat, but I don’t believe it” → misfire (logically
contradictory).
“France is hexagonal” → misfire (too vague, not clearly true or
false).
, “All Jack’s children are bald” → misfire if Jack has no children
(assumed condition fails).
Theory of speech acts (Austin and Searle)
Locutionary act: Producing the words.
Phonetic: Making the sounds of the words
Example: Saying the sounds /pliːz əˈtɛnd ˈmiːtɪŋz/
Phatic: Using correct words and grammar (utterance)
Example: “Please attend meetings.” (correct word order
and grammar)
Rhetic: Using words with a specific meaning (propositional
content)
Example: He said to me “Please attend meetings.”
Illocutionary act: The intention or purpose of what is said.
Example: He expressed the opinion that I should attend
meettings.
Perlocutionary act: The effect on the listener.
Example: He has convinded me that I should attend meetings.
Searle:
Phonetic + phatic = utterance/locutionary act.
Rhetic = propositional content.
Core of communication = illocutionary act.
Every sentence both expresses meaning and performs a
function in conversation.
Difference Austin’s and Searle’s speech act theory
Speaking always follows a double structure
An utterance act and a propositional act = illocutionary acts thus
also always have a propositional content.
Constitutive and regulative rules
Propositional content rule: Range of content, smallest common
denominator of the content.
Preparatory rules: Meaningfulness of the action,
conditions/prerequisites for the existence.
Sincerity rule: The utterance must be intended.
Essential rule: The utterance counts as a question, a statement, a
promise, etc. (under certain circumstances)
