Pragmatics: Introduction

By:
Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar

http://www.kau.edu.sa/SBANJER
http://wwwdrshadiabanjar.blogspot.com

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DR. Shadia Y. Banjar

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References



The Levels of Language and
Linguistics
Text
Discourse Analysis
Text Linguistics

Meaning Situation and context
Semantics Pragmatics

Sentences, clauses, phrases, words
Grammar (Morphology & Syntax)

Sounds and letters
Phonology, Phonetics, Graphology.



Background of “Pragmatics”
• Charles Morris (1903 – 1979)
• Was concerned with the study of
the science of signs, which he called
semiotic;
• Distinguished 3 branches of
semiotics: syntactics (or syntax),
which studies the formal relation
among different signs; semantics,
the study of the relation between
the signs and the objects they
denote; and pragmatics, the study
of the relation of signs to their
interpreters, i.e. people.


Pragmatics
The word pragmatics derives from
the Greek word ‘pragma’, which
means 'matter', 'thing', but also
'action' (cf. Linke, Nussbaumer &
Portmann (1996)).



Definitions
1: “Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning.”
2: “ Pragmatics is the study of contextual
meaning”
3:“ Pragmatics is the study of how more gets
communicated than is said”
4:“ Pragmatics is the study of the expression of
relative distance.” ( Yule:2008).



Pragmatics
When a diplomat says yes, he means ‘perhaps’;
When he says perhaps, he means ‘no’;
When he says no, he is not a diplomat.
When a lady says no, she means ‘perhaps’;
When she says perhaps, she means ‘yes’;
When she says yes, she is not a lady.
Voltaire (Quoted, in Spanish, in Escandell
1993.)



The essence of pragmatics

• syntax addresses the formal relations
of signs to one another,
• semantics the relation of signs to what
they denote,
• and pragmatics the relation of signs to
their users and interpreters



• The central rationale for pragmatics:
sentence meaning (semantics) in natural
languages vastly underdetermines
speaker’s meaning (intentions).
• The goal of pragmatics is to explain how
the gap between sentence meaning and
speaker’s meaning is bridged



• Semiotics tries to separate “objective”
definitions of the structure and meaning of
words and sentences in syntax and
semantics from subjective and context-
dependent senses (often: requests or
demands of actions) in pragmatics.



Pragmatics - the study of meaning as it relates
to speaker’s and addressee’s background
attitudes and beliefs, their understanding of the
context in which a sentence is uttered, and their
knowledge of how language can be used to
inform, persuade, mislead, etc.
Focuses on utterances - sentences that are
spoken within a given context (the same
sentence spoken 2 different times is 2 different
utterances - why?)



• Pragmatics is the study of the relationships
between linguistic forms and the users of
those forms. In this three-part distinction,
only pragmatics allows humans into the
analysis.
• The natural realization is that grammatical
analysis alone is not enough.



The difference between grammatical analysis
and pragmatic analysis

First, grammatical studies look for rules while pragmatic studies look for
•
principles. Rules are black and white, i.e. you are either right or wrong. For
instance, you have to say “He studies linguistics”; the –s is required by a
rule. Principles are not black and white; you can obey them to some
extent and violate them to some extent. For example, one principle says
we should tell the truth and another says we should be polite in our
speech.
Secondly, in grammar studies, we end up with products while in
•
pragmatics we always deal with processes. In other words, after we have
analyzed a sentence grammatically, our job is done; in a pragmatic inquiry,
we deal with an ever-unfolding process-as the discourse goes on and on,
the extra meaning of some words become clearer and clearer.



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