1 / 23

Chapter 7 Pragmatics and discourse analysis

Chapter 7 Pragmatics and discourse analysis. Outline. 1. Pragmatics: meaning and contexts 2. Speech act 3. P resupposition 4. D eitics 5. Discourse and Analysis (1) New vs. old information (2) Co-operative principle (3) Relevance theory 6. Summary.

peggy
Download Presentation

Chapter 7 Pragmatics and discourse analysis

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Chapter 7 Pragmatics and discourse analysis

  2. Outline • 1. Pragmatics: meaning and contexts • 2. Speech act • 3. Presupposition • 4. Deitics • 5. Discourse and Analysis (1) New vs. old information (2) Co-operative principle (3) Relevance theory • 6. Summary

  3. Pragmatics • Linguistic contexts or settings refer to the occasions or timing when a dialogue or a conversation occurs.

  4. Pragmatics: Physical contexts • A: May I help you? B: Yes, I would like to see the bag over there. • Setting: Department store • The clerk (A) speaks in a polite way, and she is ready to offer any help you need.

  5. Pragmatics: Epistemic contexts • A：Hey, remember that? I’ve got it. B: Hey, you did, didn’t you? • There is no specific information revealed.

  6. Speech Acts (1)- locution • A locution happens when a statement is spoken without any specific reference to one’s intention or preoccupied ideas. • a. I have two books. b. There is a cow under the tree. c. He seems to be smart. A sentence containing a constative verb (e.g. appear, seem, look, taste, smell, etc.) is a locutionary sentence.

  7. Speech Acts (2-1)- Direct illocution • The will of the speaker is strongly conveyed in the verbs. The verbs used in illocutionary sentences are performativeverbs

  8. Speech Acts (2-2)- Indirect illocution • a. Don’t do it. • b. I’ll be there. • c. Stop it. what illocution refers to relies very much on the selection of verbs.

  9. Speech Acts (2-3)- Indirect illocution • Here comes John. (1) Now that John has come, why don’t you yield? (2) I warn you to yield, for my boss John has come. (3) I warn you that John has come.

  10. Speech Acts (3)- Recognition of illocutionary force • a. Can you help open the door, John? （ask） • b. John, go and open the door. （order） • c. Open the door, John, or I won’t give you candy.（threaten） • d. John, would you help open the door? （request） • e. John, open the door! （order） • f. I bet that John won’t open the door for us. （bet） • g. John, I advise you to open the door. （advise）

  11. Speech Acts (4)- Felicity condition • Felicity condition: The action or performance of the verb should be fulfilled without failure. (a) the speaker is able to have what he puts in the illocution carried out (b) the listener cares what is put in the illocution.

  12. Presupposition(1) • Deals with words in which some ideas have been preoccupied. • a. John has quit smoking. → John smokes or John has been smoking b. John’s brother does not live with that woman any more. → John has a brotheror John’s brother lived with a woman. c. John would like to have another cup of coffee. →The speaker has in mind that John had at least one cup of coffee.

  13. Presupposition(2) • a. Would you give him another chance? • b. Do you need more coffee? • c. John married once again.

  14. Presupposition(3):implication • John still keeps the Wall in his mind even though he has moved to West Germany for two years. → Background Knowledge: After 1945, there was a great wall built for the separation of West Germany from East Germany.

  15. Presupposition(4):entailment • The meaning of B can be implied or ensured from A. • 1a. Mary’s daughter is studying at that school. 1b. Mary has a daughter. 1c. Mary is a mother. → From (a), it can be entailed that (b) and (c) are true.

  16. Deitics(1): • It refers to pronouns like you, he, they, then, that, this, etc. • a. John told Bill that he1 would like to ask his2 father to meet his3 sister. → which refers to John or to Bill is far from clear. b. He is the greatest poet for the time being. → in the 19thor 21st century?

  17. Discourse Analysis (1): New vs. old information • New information: stress & is headed with an indefinite article(a or an) • a. He wanted to buy a bookfor her. The bookshould be concerned with English learning or teaching. b. When he took a walk to the park, he saw a squirrel. The squirrelwas so cute that he stopped for a while, looking at it.

  18. Discourse Analysis(2-1): Co-operative principle • In some contexts, a response to a dialogue or question would raise some misunderstanding because of no knowledge of cooperative principle (Grice) • Male: My love to you never changes, until the end of the earth. Female: (angrily) How come it would be so? We’ve just dated for less than one year, and your love won’t change, always staying at that level? Male: (embarrassing) → British philosopher H. P. Grice created a word implicature to account for such a mismatch.

  19. Discourse Analysis(2-2): Co-operative principles

  20. Discourse Analysis(2-3): Co-operative principle • Polonius: What do you read, my lord? Hamlet: Words, words, words. Polonius: What is the matter, my lord? Hamlet: Between who? Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. Hamlet: Slanders, sir. For the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold not honesty to have it thus set down; for yourself, sir, should grow old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.

  21. Discourse Analysis(2-5): Co-operative principle • A：Did you meet John yesterday? B：Sure. He wanted me to say Hello to you. A：What did he say? B：He wanted to show his best wishes to you. → each utterance is in coherence in quantity

  22. Discourse Analysis(3): Relevance Theory • (a) In order to make a conversation successful, the participant would tell the truth, therefore, the maxim of qualityis unnecessary. ‘I’m sick’ he is not yet ‘ill’, but he just feels uncomfortable. • (b) The relevance theory is in fact concerned with quantity, because only when it is relevant, the information exchanged is enough in quantity. • (c) Relevance theory is closely related to relation in terms of topic. • (d) It is redundant to require participants to be clear and brief in manner, because all the participants would make it the goal to communicate well.

  23. Summary • 1. pragmatics: physical context, epistemic context, linguistic context, and social context. • 2. speech acts: illocution forces (e.g. ask, promise, order, warn, request.) • 3. presupposition: e.g. againor another apparently implies something has been there • 4. deitics: deitics is used only when the speaker and the listener share some common backgrounds • 5. discourse analysis: (a) new vs. old information (b) cooperative principle (Grice) (c) relevance theory

More Related