1、Pragmatics,The Definitions of Pragmatics,speaker listener context social interaction functions of language,Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning. ( Yule, 1996.3)Pragmatics is a theory which seeks to characterize how speakers use the sentences of a language to effect successful communication. (
2、Kempson,1975:84),Speaker,Listeners,Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said. ( Yule, 1996:3)Pragmatics is the study of understanding intentional human action. (Green,1996:2),Context,Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning. ( Yule,1996:3)Pragmatics can be usefully defi
3、ned as the study of how utterance have meanings in situations.( Leech,1983:x)Pragmatics, as a topic in linguistics, is the study of the use of context to make inferences about meaning.( Fasold,1993:119, from Schiffrin)Pragmatics is the study of the conditions of human language uses as these are dete
4、rmined by the context of society.( Mey,1993:42),Social interaction,Pragmatics is the study of the ability of language users to pair sentences with the contexts in which they would be appropriate.( Levinson, 1983:24)(In this book I shall be working towards a definition of )pragmatics as meaning in in
5、teraction.(Tomas, 1995:24)Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance.(Yule, 1996:3),Functions of language,Pragmatics (is) a general functional perspective on (any aspect of)language, i.e. as an approach to language which takes into account the full complexity of its cognitive, so
6、cial, and cultural(i.e. meaningful) functioning in the lives of human beings.(Verschueren,1995:13-14),deixis conversational implicature presupposition conversation analysis speech acts,5 units,Speech Acts,Speech Acts,IntroductionSpeech act theory is the first major theory in pragmatics , initially p
7、roposed in the 50s and widely discussed in the 60s and 70s.John L. Austin , one of the ordinary language philosophers at Oxford , began a series of lectures at Harvard University in1955. His posthumous work How to Do Things with Words had an enormous impact on linguistic philosophy, and thereby on l
8、inguistics, especially in its pragmatic variant.,Austins thinking (which in the course of time came to be known as speech act theory) was further developed and codified by the American philosopher John R. Searle, who had studied under Austin in the fifties, and subsequently became the main proponent
9、 and defender of the formers ideas.,Speech acts are verbal actions happening in the world. Uttering a speech act, I do something with my words: I perform an activity that brings about a change in the existing state of affairs.,The performative-constative dichotomyI name this ship the Queen Elizabeth
10、.I give and bequeath my watch to my brother.I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.,Three Dimensions of Speech ActThe locution is the actual form of words used by the speaker and their semantic meaning.The illocution is what the speaker is doing by uttering those words: commanding, offering, promi
11、sing, thanking, etc.The perlocution is the actual result of the locution.,Searles distinction Utterance acts uttering words (morphemes, sentences)Propositional acts referring and predicatingIllocutionary acts stating, questioning, commanding, promising, etc.,Austins Classification of Speech ActsVerd
12、ictives acquit convict hold read it asExercitives appoint name order sentence nominateCommissives promise undertake bet opposeBehabitives apologize thank welcome wish Expositives affirm remark accept mean,Searles Revision Four dimensions The illocutionary pointThe direction of fit between words and
13、the world The psychological state expressedThe propositional content felicity conditions: sets of necessary conditions for illocution to “count”.the essential conditionthe sincerity conditionthe propositional content condition,Indirect Speech ActsActs “in which one illocutionary act is performed ind
14、irectly by way of performing another.” The true illocutionary force of an indirect speech act can be inferred from the fact that one or more of the felicity conditions of the “surface” speech act have been obviously violated, while at the same time one or more of the felicity conditions for the indirect speech act have been mentioned or questioned.The feature of indirect speech acts is the origin of many polite turns of phrase .,Speech Act Theory and Discourse Analysis,
