1. Introduction to Linguistics
Pragmatics
Introduction to Linguistics

2. What does pragmatics study?
Context
Meaning

3. I love coffee
as a sentences
as an utterance

4. Utterance
An utterance is an event.
An utterance has a context.

5. Context affects meaning
妳是小三嗎?
You are involved in a love affair with a married man.
You are 小三.

6. Types of context Linguistic context What speakers are talking about
Situational context
Gives information about the situation in which an utterance is uttered.
In which allows speakers to make references in the world.
Social context
speakers and their roles

7. Felicity: whether an utterance is appropriate in a setting
Situationally appropriate
Related to the specific context
To be felicitous

8. meaning
felicity
context

9. Rules of conversation

10. Cooperative principle: 4 maxims
Quality
Say what you believe to be true
Do not say for which you lack adequate evidence.
Quantity
Provide information contribution
No more, no less
Relevance
Be relevant
Manner
Avoid obscurity and ambiguity
Be brief and orderly

11. What happens if the maxims are flouted?
Flouting
Inferences

12. Drawing conclusions

13. Entailment
Implication
Inference
Implicature

14. Entailment Based on literal meaning
Ignore the context of an utterance.

15. Implication vs. inference
John and Mary are sitting in a romantic restaurant. John takes out a ring and puts it on the table.
What does John imply by doing so?
What can Mary infer from it?

16. Implication
Sending a message without saying it directly
Inference
A conclusion that a person can reasonably draw on a set of conditions

17. implicatures
When a speaker uses language to imply something, the utterance contains an implicature.
Conclusions that are drawn about what people mean based on what we know about how conversation works.

18. I’d like a cup of coffee.
Go to Starbucks.

19. Speech acts

20. What is a speech act?
Actions performed via utterances

21. Common types of speech acts
Assertion
Conveys information
Question
Elicit information
Request
Elicit action or information
Order
Demand action
Promise
Commit the speaker to an action
Threat
Commit the speaker to an action that the hearer does not want

22. Performative speech acts
Come with performative verbs.
Use the present tense.
Associated with the authority of the speaker.
I promise to take you to a bar tonight.
I will promise to take you to a bar tonight.

23. Test of performative verbs
I hereby V …
I _______ name the ship ‘Elizabeth’.
I _______ warn you not to sleep in class.
I _______ believe that there’s no Santa Claus.

24. Felicity conditions
The appropriate circumstances for the performance of a speech act to be recognized.

25. Felicity conditions “I promise to see you tomorrow’.
General conditions
The utterance is understood.
Content conditions
The content of the utterance is about a future event and the speaker is committed to the act.
Preparatory conditions
The event does not happen by itself.
The event will have a beneficial effect.
Sincerity conditions
The speaker does have a genuine intention to carry out the future act.
Essential conditions
The utterance changes the speaker’s state from non-obligation to obligation

26. The performative hypothesis
To assume that every utterance (U) underlies a clause that contains a performative verb, which make the illocutionary forces explicit.
I (hereby) Vperformative you (that) U
Open the door.
Implicit/primary performatives
I hereby order you that you open the door.
Explicit performatives

27. Speech act classification
Declarations
Representatives
Expressives
Directives
Commissives

28. Declarations
The speech acts that change the state of the world via utterances.
I now pronounce you husband and wife
We find the defendant guilty.

29. Representatives
The speech acts that states what the speaker believes to be the case or not.
Statements of fact, assertions, conclusions, and descriptions
The world is flat.
It is a sunny day.

30. Expressives The speech acts that state what the speaker feels.
Psychological stats (pleasure, pain, likes, joy, sorrow…)
I am sorry.
Congratulations.

31. Directives
The speech acts used by the speaker to get someone else to do something.
Commands, orders, requests, suggestions.
Go away!

32. Commissives
The speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to some future actions
Promises, threats, refusals, pledges.
I can’t do that.

33. QUESTIONS?