UNIT 1: PRAGMATICS: DEFINITION AND SCOPE
1. WHAT IS PRAGMATICS?
Origin of pragmatics
● Can be traced back to classical tradition, rhetoric and stylistics. But its status as a
modern, independent field of study was not acquired until the first half of the 20th
century. Origin of pragmatics: early 1960s as a reaction to:
○ the limitations of Chomskyan linguistics
○ the extremes of logical positivism in philosophy and truth-conditional
semantics (only true sentences can belong in a language)
● Chomskyan linguistics and truth-conditional semantics prove inadequate to account
for the meaning of utterances
● Thus, pragmatic theories arise out of the idea that:
○ linguistic expressions have to be studied in context
○ truth-conditions are not central to language understanding
● Pragmatics deals with how, when, why…speakers/writers actually use language for
different purposes
Chomsky: the beginning of explanatory theories. Two approaches to linguistics:
- functionalist: how the object is used
- formalist: analyze the form out of context
Object study of pragmatics
● Pragmatics deals with meaning. But the concept of meaning goes further than the
word or the sentence.
● People do not always say what they mean:
○ speakers frequently mean much more than their words actually say
○ people can also mean something quite different from what their words say
Then how is it that people manage to understand one another?
- Semantics are concerned with the mechanisms of speaking, while pragmatics are
concerned with the process of going from what is said to what is meant. However, the
boundaries between the two are not clear
- Pragmatics: context and behavior (particular situations) rather than abstract system
- Functional perspective ( how the object of study is used) on language vs. a formal
(the object of study on its own) one
, Two levels of meaning:
❖ abstract meaning: possible meanings that a word, phrase or sentence could have
out of context
➢ Abstract of language: any given utterance could have more than one
meaning, depending on the conditions surrounding the speech event. It is
related to ambiguity. Three main causes of potential ambiguity:
■ Contextual sense: the sense in which the speaker/writer is using the
word. Extralinguistic information has to be used to decide on which
sense a word or expression has.
■ Reference: (who or what is being referred to). In assigning it, deixis
(pronouns) plays an important role
■ Structural: Most sentences when taken out of context can be
ambiguous, but in real life there is little difficulty interpreting them
correctly in context. So basically, context and syntax.
❖ speaker meaning, made up of:
➢ contextual or utterance meaning, what the speaker means on a particular
occasion
■ In order to interpret the meaning of a large number of utterances we
need to be acquainted with extralinguistic factors
■ Only from a pragmatic perspective can we have access to the type of
information (context) needed to interpret utterances
■ Pragmatics is concerned with the mechanisms used by human beings,
which allow them to produce and interpret utterances making use of
extralinguistic factors (contextual info)
➢ force or speaker’s intention
■ Someone might not have a problem understanding the contextual
meaning, yet they might not understand the intention
■ Someone does not understand the contextual meaning, but they can
grasp the force behind the utterance
Indirectness is typical of language use, and literal meaning is only one aspect of the
meaning of an utterance. Consciously chosen by the speaker. They are intentional, even if
risky. They are not said literally, so they have to be reached through cognitive process
2. BASIC CONCEPTS IN PRAGMATICS
Elements in a communicative situation:
1. WHAT IS PRAGMATICS?
Origin of pragmatics
● Can be traced back to classical tradition, rhetoric and stylistics. But its status as a
modern, independent field of study was not acquired until the first half of the 20th
century. Origin of pragmatics: early 1960s as a reaction to:
○ the limitations of Chomskyan linguistics
○ the extremes of logical positivism in philosophy and truth-conditional
semantics (only true sentences can belong in a language)
● Chomskyan linguistics and truth-conditional semantics prove inadequate to account
for the meaning of utterances
● Thus, pragmatic theories arise out of the idea that:
○ linguistic expressions have to be studied in context
○ truth-conditions are not central to language understanding
● Pragmatics deals with how, when, why…speakers/writers actually use language for
different purposes
Chomsky: the beginning of explanatory theories. Two approaches to linguistics:
- functionalist: how the object is used
- formalist: analyze the form out of context
Object study of pragmatics
● Pragmatics deals with meaning. But the concept of meaning goes further than the
word or the sentence.
● People do not always say what they mean:
○ speakers frequently mean much more than their words actually say
○ people can also mean something quite different from what their words say
Then how is it that people manage to understand one another?
- Semantics are concerned with the mechanisms of speaking, while pragmatics are
concerned with the process of going from what is said to what is meant. However, the
boundaries between the two are not clear
- Pragmatics: context and behavior (particular situations) rather than abstract system
- Functional perspective ( how the object of study is used) on language vs. a formal
(the object of study on its own) one
, Two levels of meaning:
❖ abstract meaning: possible meanings that a word, phrase or sentence could have
out of context
➢ Abstract of language: any given utterance could have more than one
meaning, depending on the conditions surrounding the speech event. It is
related to ambiguity. Three main causes of potential ambiguity:
■ Contextual sense: the sense in which the speaker/writer is using the
word. Extralinguistic information has to be used to decide on which
sense a word or expression has.
■ Reference: (who or what is being referred to). In assigning it, deixis
(pronouns) plays an important role
■ Structural: Most sentences when taken out of context can be
ambiguous, but in real life there is little difficulty interpreting them
correctly in context. So basically, context and syntax.
❖ speaker meaning, made up of:
➢ contextual or utterance meaning, what the speaker means on a particular
occasion
■ In order to interpret the meaning of a large number of utterances we
need to be acquainted with extralinguistic factors
■ Only from a pragmatic perspective can we have access to the type of
information (context) needed to interpret utterances
■ Pragmatics is concerned with the mechanisms used by human beings,
which allow them to produce and interpret utterances making use of
extralinguistic factors (contextual info)
➢ force or speaker’s intention
■ Someone might not have a problem understanding the contextual
meaning, yet they might not understand the intention
■ Someone does not understand the contextual meaning, but they can
grasp the force behind the utterance
Indirectness is typical of language use, and literal meaning is only one aspect of the
meaning of an utterance. Consciously chosen by the speaker. They are intentional, even if
risky. They are not said literally, so they have to be reached through cognitive process
2. BASIC CONCEPTS IN PRAGMATICS
Elements in a communicative situation:
