1、Lecture 10,Pragmatics (1),Teaching focus,The historical development of pragmatics The scope of pragmatics The differences between pragmatics and semantics The notion of context Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning Speech act theory Austins model of speech acts Searles classification of speech acts
2、,The origin and the development of pragmatics,Pragmatics is a young science. G.Leech remarked in 1983: “fifteen years ago, pragmatics was mentioned by linguists rarely, if at all.” Pragmatics originates from philosophy and logic and it was first mentioned by Charles W. Morris in 1971.,Since the earl
3、y 1970s, a growing interest in pragmatics and pragmatic problems has witnessed worldwide.The international journal of pragmatics came into being in1977.The International Pragmatic Association (IPA) has been existed since 1985.,Major works on pragmatics,Austin, J.2002.How to do things with Words. Bei
4、jing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Leech,G. Principles of pragmatics. London: longman. Mey,J.L.2001.Pragmatics: An introduction. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.,What is pragmatics?A general definition is that it is the study of how speakers of a language use se
5、ntences to effect successful communication.,Pragmatics is the study of language use from a functional perspective and is concerned with the principles that account for how meaning is communicated by the speaker /writer and interpreted by the listener/reader in certain context. It studies the context
6、ual meaning.,Pragmatics is the study of language in use.Pragmatics is the study of speakers meaning (the speakers intended meaning or even the invisible meaning),What is the main difference between semantics and pragmatics?,Discussion,My bag is heavy.( semantic analysis)My bag is heavy.( pragmatic a
7、nalysis),Semantics focuses on the meaning that comes from linguistic knowledge without considering the context.Pragmatics studies the meaning in a certain context taking our knowledge about the physical and social world into account.,Semantic analysis look for rules which are black and white, i.e. y
8、ou are either right or wrong.Pragmatic analysis look for principles. You can obey them to some extent and violate them to some extent.,What is context,The notion of context is essential in the pragmatic study of language. It is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speak
9、er and the hearer. The knowledge of what has been said Knowledge about the world, Knowledge about the specific situation Knowledge about each other,Analyze the possible contexts for the following sentences:,How did it go ?It is cold in here.It was a hot Christmas day so we went down to the beach in
10、the afternoon and had a good time swimming and surfing.,The room is messy.Oh, it is raining! The music of the movie is good. You have been keeping my notes for a whole week.,The scope of pragmatics,Micro-pragmatics: reference; deixis; anaphora;presuppositionMacro-pragmatics: Speech act theory; indir
11、ect language; the cooperative principle; the politeness principle,Pragmatics Vs. semantics,Both semantics and pragmatics are linguistic studies of meaning.Pragmatics is the study of meaning in a certain context.Semantics is the study of meaning without considering context.,Sentence meaning VS. utter
12、ance meaning,Sentence meaning is abstract and de-contextualized.Utterance meaning is concrete and context dependent,Say cheese!Lights , please. A: Do you like rugby?B: I am a New Zealander.,Newspaper advertisement,BABY & TODDLER SALEWhat is the advertisers intended meaning ?It is advertising clothes
13、 for babies.,Pragmatics can also be defined as the study of speakers meaning.It is the study of language use in a certain context.,Speech Act Theory言语行为理论,This is the first major theory in the study of language in use , which originated with the Oxford philosopher John Langshaw Austin in1962. Senten
14、ces are not always uttered just to say things, but rather, they are used to do things.,The main assumption of the speech act theory is that all linguistic activities are related to speech acts. Therefore, to speak a language is to perfrom a set of speech acts , such as statement, command, inquiry an
15、d commitment.,Austins distinction of“constatives”and“ performatives:,Look at the following sentences,I teach linguistics. The course is a bit difficult and usually not welcome to the students. There are more than 1300 islands in Zhoushan. The United States is located in the Western Hemisphere.,These
16、 statements are used either to state a fact or to describe a state of affairs. ( constatives),I do”.“I name this ship Elizabeth.”“I give and bequeath my apartment to my son.”“I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.”I declare the 10th English Cultural Festival of Zhejinag Ocean University officiall
17、y open,These statements are not used to state a fact or describe a state of affair.These states are used to perform something. ( performative),Therefore John Austin made a distinction between what he called “constatives(表述句）” and “performatives（施为句”.,Constative were statements that either state or d
18、escribe a state of affairs and were thus verifiable .,Performatives are utterances that do not state a fact or describe a state of affairs. Instead of stating something, the speaker is actually doing something or performing certain acts.,Austin further divided performatives into explicit performativ
19、es and implicit performatives. p163Look at the two exercises on page 166.,Therefore, according to J.Austin, all utterances not only mean whatever they literally mean,but also perform specific actions ( or do things) through specific forces.,An action performed by the use of an utterance to communica
20、te is called a speech act.,Austins model of speech theory,John Austin , the British philosopher, suggested the speech act theory first in 1962,John Austin(1911-1960) is a philosopher in Cambridge university. He made a series of lectures in Harvard University in 1955 and he died five years later. His
21、 student Urmson collected Austins lecture notes and had them publishedis in 1962 which was entitled “ How to do thing with words” 论言有所为 (1962);,According to John Austins new model, a speaker , while making an utterance, is in most cases performing three acts simultaneously(言语行为三分说):locutionary act (
22、言内行为)、（表述性的言语行为）（以言指事 ）illocutionary act(言外行为) （施为性的言语行为 （以言行事）perlocutionary act(言后行为)(成事性的言语行为）（以言成事）,Good Morning! What did he do ? He produced a sound, word, or sentence. The act performed in this sense is called locutionary act.言内行为,He offered a greeting.illocutionary act言外行为,Locationary act (言
23、内行为) is the act of saying something . It is an act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.言内行为就是说话行为，是一种发音行为，其内容可以是句子，短语，单词等，以表达某一种感念和意义 .,You have left the door wide open.,illocationary act (言外行为) is the act performed in saying something. Its force is identical with
24、the speakers intention 言外行为是通过说话而实施的一种行为，它涉及说话者的意图.,Perlocutionary act (言后行为) is the act performed or resulting from saying something. It is the consequence of or the change brought about by the utterance .言后行为是指话语在听话者身上产生的效果，如使某人开心，成功地劝说某人做某事等 .,Lets look at the example utterance to exemplify the t
25、hree acts:the context: suppose it is a cold evening. John is going out and then the mother says to him “ John , its very cold outside .”母亲说出这句话的本身（即按英语的要求，把声音组成词，把词组成句子，并用正确的语调读出来）是言内行为。母亲说出这句话的意图是要John穿上大衣再出去，这就是言外行为.John听了母亲的话后，便穿上大衣再出门，这就是言后行为。,Please illustrate the three speech acts in groups.,A
26、ustins classification of illocutionary act:,John Austin specifies five types of illocutionary speech acts : Verdictives(判定 ) Executive (执行 ) Commissives( 承诺) Descriptive(描述 ) Expositives(反应 ),J.Searles classification of illocutionary act,John Searle disagreed with Austin about the classification of
27、illocutionary speech acts . He specifies another five general types of illocutionary speech acts as follows: Representatives ( 描述 ) Directives(指令 ) Commissives (承诺 ) Expressives(表达 ) Declarative (宣布 ),When performing an illocutionary act of representative(描述), the speaker is making a statement or gi
28、ving a description which he himself believes to be true.e.g.“ I swear I have never seen the man before”. “ I state to you the earth is a globe”.,When performing an illocutionary act of directives(指令),the speaker is getting the hearer to do something, such as “ inviting, suggesting, requesting, advis
29、ing, warning, ordering, and threatening.”e.g.“ Open the window.”- order“ Dont you think its a bit stuffy here?-advise“ Your money or your life ?”-threatening,When performing an illocutionary act of commissives(承诺),the speaker is putting himself under obligation such as “ promising, undertaking, vowi
30、ng”. E.g.“ I promise to come” “Ill buy the book without fail.”,When performing an illocutionary act of expressive(表达), the speaker is expressing his feeling or attitudes towards an existing state of affairs, such as “apologizing, thanking, congratulating.” e.g.“ Im sorry for the mess in my room.”“It
31、s really kind of you to call me on my birthday,Summery and practice exercises,How can we define Pragmatics? Who are the main representatives of Pragmatics both at home and abroad? What is the main difference between grammatical analysis and pragmatic analysis? What is the difference between constati
32、ves and performatives? Please illustrate them. What do you know about speech act theory?what is the relationship among the three acts.,Give as many different illocutions as possible for the utterance “Its cold outside”. Imagine the context in which each of those illocutions would apply. Give at least five different utterances which express the illocutionary force of request.,Explain how coherence is achieved in the following dialogue: A) Thats the phone. B) Im in the bathroom. A) Okey.,Son: I need a ten-speed bicycle.Mother: Im sure you do.,Read through the text from p.161 to169.,
