1. Pragmatics: speech-acts What is a Speech Act? A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. A speech act might contain just one word, as in "Sorry!" to perform an apology, or several words or sentences: "I’m sorry I forgot your birthday. I just let it slip my mind." Speech acts include real-life interactions and require not only knowledge of the language but also appropriate use of that language within a given culture.
2. Types of speech-acts Here are some examples of speech acts we use or hear every day: Greeting: "Hi, Eric. How are things going?" Request: "Could you pass me the mashed potatoes, please?" Complaint: "I’ve already been waiting three weeks for the computer, and I was told it would be delivered within a week." Invitation: "We’re having some people over Saturday evening and wanted to know if you’d like to join us." Compliment: "Hey, I really like your tie!" Refusal: "Oh, I’d love to see that movie with you but this Friday just isn’t going to work."
3. Cultural sensitivities Sarah: "I couldn’t agree with you more. “ (Amercain) Cheng: "Hmmm…." (Thinking: "She couldn’t agree with me? I thought she liked my idea!") (Chinese) Exercice: Can you think of any in Arabic culture compared with western culture?
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5. ILLOCUTIONARY ACT Definition: In speech-act theory, a speaker's intention in delivering an utterance. Example: Kenneth Parcell: I'm sorry, Mr. Jordan. I'm just overworked. With my page duties and being Mr. Donaghy's assistant, there's not enough hours in the day. Tracy Jordan: I'm sorry about that. But just let me know if there's any way I can help. Kenneth: Actually, there is one thing. . . . Tracy: No! I was just saying that! Why can't you read human facial cues?(Matthew Hubbard, "Cutbacks," 30 Rock, April 9, 2009)
6. "Achieving pragmatic competence involves the ability to understand the illocutionary force of an utterance, that is, what a speaker intends by making it. This is particularly important in cross-cultural encounters since the same form (e.g. 'When are you leaving?') can vary in its illocutionary force depending on the context in which it is made (e.g. 'May I have a ride with you?' or 'Don't you think it is time for you to go?')."(Sandra Lee McKay, Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford Univ. Press, 2002) "When I say 'how are you' to a co-worker, I really mean hello. Although I know what I mean by 'how are you,' it is possible that the receiver does not know that I mean hello and actually proceeds to give me a fifteen minute discourse on his various maladies."(George Ritzer, Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science. Allyn & Bacon, 1980)
7. Perlocutionary act Perlocutionary act Definition: A perlocutionary act is a speech act that produces an effect, intended or not, achieved in an addressee by a speaker’s utterance. Examples Here are some examples of perlocutionary acts: Persuading Convincing Scaring Insulting Getting the addressee to do something
8. Conceptual and associative meaning Conceptual Conceptual: it covers basic meaning or essential components of the word, the literal meaning of a word. Example: “needle”, means thin, sharp, steel instrument. Associative meaning: linking the word with ‘pain’, ‘illness’
9. Exercice Give the conceptual and associative meanings for the following words: Alcohol: Gambling: Drugs: House:
10. Semantic features Consider the following examples: The hamburger ate the boy The table listens to the radio The horse is reading the newspaper What do these sentences share in common?
11. These sentences ate not semantically correct. NP V NP The hamburger ate the boy The sentence is syntactically good, but semantically odd. WHY?
12. The noun hamburger does not have the same semantic property as the noun boy To differentiate the meaning, we would choose the following criteria: (+) animate: denotes animal or human and (-) for inanimate: denotes non-human, non-animal
15. So what does this all mean? Example: The _____________is reading the newspaper. The ‘doer’ of the action, in this case a noun, must have the following property in terms of semantic roles: N [+human] This method allows us to identify which sentences are semantically odd, or unacceptable.
16. Exercices Find the likely subjects in the following sentences: The ------------------is driving the car. I saw a -------------flying in the sky. (eagle) I need a ------------to write this letter.
17. Semantic roles Instead of looking at words as containers of meanings, we can see them as having ‘roles’ fulfilling the situation the sentence is describing. For instance: the boy kicked the ball. We see the verb ‘kick’ as describing an action, we can see the doer of the action, as agent.
