Summary & notes pragmatics

WEEK 1 | Introduction




1 sentence can have a different context, depending on the situation. For example: “my bike is
broken”.  Utterance meaning is that the bike is broken. The pragmatics meaning depends on the
context. For example when someone arrives late in class, the pragmatic meaning is that the reason
the student is late, is because her bike is broken.

Literal/sentence meaning vs. speaker/utterance meaning.

The difference between those two is in the type of speech, tone of voice.
It is based on the knowledge of the speaker

What is pragmatics
“Let us solve this problem pragmatically!”
- Goal oriented, benefit-oriented
- In a practical, realistic way
- Oriented to the use and function of something
-

Language use and doing actions and is always situation-dependent.
Linguistic actions: insulting someone, asking a question, proposing, reading, etc.

A high degree of analytical surplus’  you have to bring a lot to understand its relationships, context,
etc.

There’s not 1 definition of ‘Pragmatics’, but according to Huiskes the best definition is:
Pragmatics is a general functional perspective on (any aspect of) language, an approach to language
which takes into account the full complexity of its cognitive, social, and cultural (i.e., meaningful)
functioning in the lives of human beings.

Another definition:
- The distinction between what a speaker’s words (literally) mean and what the speaker might
mean by his words.

- The goal of pragmatics is to understand the cognitive abilities that speakers and hearers can
employ when conveying and understanding meaning in context.



Sentence meaning  To be understood as a description of a syntactic structure with a certain
semantic context.

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, Literal meaning, semantic meaning  grammatical objects

Utterance meaning  To be understood as a sentence put to use and so inviting a pragmatic
interpretation.
 What the speaker really means (speaker meaning)  more than ‘just words’.

Optimality  That the speaker tries to achieve an optimal form for the meaning she seeks to convey
and a hearer tries to determine an optimal meaning for the form of utterance he hears.
 Not less, not more, but the best you can do  Optimal  the best you can do in this context.
Ideal doesn’t exist in pragmatics. You can only do your best.
 a speaker related term.
The speaker tries to say the exactly right sentence so that the hearer will interpretate it right.
 Match input (a meaning) to output (an utterance) in an optimally effective way

Intention  The intention is what the speaker tries to convey with their sentence and use a different
way to come across. Then there’s a difference between the form (imperative) and the function or
force associated with the use of the form (making a request).

It’s about cognition. It’s about what you want to say.
“it’s cold” What the speaker wants to say is that someone should close the window, so that’s the
intention, but she doesn’t say that.

In pragmatics is all about finding the intention behind the sentence.

Felicitous  When the speaker doesn’t succeed

Symbols are conventions (and most of our words are symbols, like the table is table and a chair is a
chair).
Icons  pictures of something
Index  point to something. Smoke is the sign that there’s fire. So, smoke points to fire. Words like
you, that, it, there. But also crying or ‘ouch’, something hurt.
The tone of voice is an index. Based on somebody’s voice gives a lot of information. For example,
about the age. Or if it’s a men or a women.

Indexicality  We interpret.

When you interpretate the following:
“can you come to my party at Saturday?:”
“I have soccer practice”
Indexicality is that you interpretate the last sentence as a response on the invitation. So you’re not
asking about the soccer practice.

Context  You use the context to give meaning to a sentence. Context is something we create. This
is a classroom, but it’s only a classroom if there’s someone teaching.


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,Inference  Reasoning about the world.
The gap between the sentence meaning and utterance meaning. The inference is what’s happening
in your head when you fill in the gap.

Metapragmatic marking  When a speaker wants to facilitate the interpretation of an utterance,
they’re likely to guide the addressee towards the intended interpretation or to limit the processing
effort required.
 The utterance might otherwise be open to an unintended interpretation or might simply be too
challenging to interpret in the time available in the ongoing interaction.




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, WEEK 2 | Truth and action




3 important researchers:
1) Austin – How to do things with words
2) Searle – What is a speech act
3) Grice – Logic and conversation



2 important principles:

1) Speaking is not only describing

“The traffic light in front of us is green!”
A kid who’s learning the colors  constative
If the driver isn’t paying attention  alerting performative
 It can be a description, request or suggestion
Description = true or false
Request or suggestion = no truth values

School of Ordinary Language Philosophy: we do things with words  speech act
theories.

2) Language as action
It isn’t the sentence meaning that matters, but what I do as a speaker when I use the
sentence. We call the use of language for an intentional purpose [..] a speech act.

The term ‘act’ reflects the fact that we do something by using language, just as the driver
does something by smiling and raising his hand to acknowledge the compliment.

“Please, pick up the banana peel, otherwise someone might slip.”

Intention: knowledge for action, evaluation of the situation.
Motivation: S wants that X picks up the banana peel
Consequence: S picks up the banana peel

Those 3 things are always there with a speech act.

Language as action is meaning, function, and effect related.

Speech act  The use of language for an intentional purpose. Act reflects the fact that we do
something by using language.

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