Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the study of how context affects meaning, such as how sentences are interpreted in certain situations (or the interpretation of linguistic meaning in context). Linguistic context is a discourse that precedes a sentence to be interpreted and Situational context is knowledge about the world. In the following sentences, the kids have eaten already, and surprisingly, they are hungry, the linguistic context helps to interpret the second sentence depending on what the first sentence says. The Situational context helps to interpret the second sentence because it is common knowledge that humans are not usually hungry after eating.
Maxims of Conversation
Grice's maxims for conversation are conventions of speech such as the maxim of quantity that states a speaker should be as informative as is required and neither more nor less. The maxim of relevance essentially states a speaker should stay on the topic, and the maxim of manner states the speaker should be brief and orderly and avoid ambiguity. The fourth maxim, the maxim of quality, states that a speaker should not lie or make any unsupported claims.
Performative Sentences
In these types of sentences, the speaker is the subject who, by uttering the sentence, is accomplishing some additional action, such as daring, resigning, or nominating. These sentences are all affirmative, declarative, and present tense. An informal test to see whether a sentence is performative or not is to insert the words I hereby before the verb. I hereby challenge you to a match or I hereby fine you $500 are both performative, but I hereby know that girl, is not. Other performative verbs are bet, promise, pronounce, bequeath, swear, testify, and dismiss.
Presuppositions
These are implicit assumptions required to make a sentence meaningful. Sentences that contain presuppositions are not allowed in court because accepting the validity of the statement means accepting the presuppositions as well. Have you stopped stealing cars? is not admissible in court because no matter how the defendant answers, the presupposition that he steals cars already will be acknowledged. Have you stopped smoking? implies that you smoke already, and Would you like another piece? implies that you've already had one piece.
Deixis
Deixis is a reference to a person, object, or event which relies on the Situational context. First and second-person pronouns such as my, mine, you, your, yours, we, ours, and us are always deictic because their reference is entirely dependent on context. Demonstrative articles like this, that, these and those and expressions of time and place are always deictic as well. To understand what specific times or places such expressions refer to, we also need to know when or where the utterance was said. If someone says "I'm over here!" you would need to know who "I" referred to, as well as where "here" is. Deixis marks one of the boundaries of semantics and pragmatics.
Context and Meaning
We distinguish several types of contextual information:
1. Physical context – this encompasses what is physically present around the
speakers/hearers at the time of communication. What objects are visible, where
the communication is taking place, what is going on around, etc?
a. I want that book.
(accompanied by pointing)
b. Be here at 9:00 tonight.
(place/time reference)
Linguistic context – what has been said before in the conversation. The “history” of things said so far.
a. I can’t believe you said that!
b. If my mom heard you talk like that, she’d wash your mouth out with soap!
3. Social context – the social relations of the people involved in communication.
a. # Mr. President, stop bugging me and go home.
(You can’t talk like this to the President.)
b. # I do hereby humbly request that you might endeavor to telephone me with
news of your arrival at your domicile when such arrival occurs.
(A bizarre sentence if said to a friend instead of “call me when you get
home”.)
Note: # commonly used to mark a sentence that is inappropriate for a given context.
Epistemic – knowledge, and beliefs of the speaker/hearer.
Speech Acts
Whenever we use language to accomplish something, we are performing a speech act.
There are many different types of speech acts, such as
– stating/asserting
– questioning
– ordering
– threatening
– confirming
– promising
– requesting
– advising
Sentence Types and their typical usage
Each of the three different sentence types has a typical usage:
1. Declarative sentences are typically used in assertions. They serve to convey
information about what is true and what is false.
a. The dog ate the bone.
b. John slept until 11 and missed his first two classes.
c. If I don’t get this paper in by 5:00, I’ll lose a letter grade.
2. Interrogative sentences are typically used in questions. They serve to elicit (bring
out) information from the hearer.
a. Is it raining today?
b. Did you put the cat out?
c. How many times have you been to Cleveland?
3. Imperative sentences are typically used in orders and requests. They are meant to
affect the behavior of the hearer.
a. Go to the end of the line.
b. Don’t even think of trying to cheat on this test.
c. Tell me what happened.
Performative Verbs
There is a special class of verbs that are special in that they name speech acts, and when they are uttered they perform the speech acts they name.
Thus they are a direct indication of the power of language to perform various tasks.
a. I request that you stop that.
b. I order you to go to your room.
c. I bet you five dollars the Yankees win.
d. I fine you $100 for possession of oregano.
e. I nominate Batman for mayor of Gotham City.
f. I promise to improve.
g. I pronounce you man and wife.
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