Pragmatics

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Pragmatics

Pragmatics or intent is the study of how the arrangement of words and phrases can alter the meaning of a sentence, it deals with the structural ambiguity in a sentence. .The ability to understand another speaker's intended meaning is called pragmatic competence. An utterance describing pragmatic function is described as metapragmatic

Metapragmatics

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Metapragmatics

Metapragmatics is a term from linguistics and the semiotically-informed linguistic anthropology of Michael Silverstein, describing language that characterizes or describes the pragmatic function of some speech....
. Another perspective is that pragmatics deals with the ways we reach our goal in communication. Suppose a person wanted to ask someone else to stop smoking. This could be achieved by using several utterances. The person could simply say, 'Stop smoking, please!' which is direct and with clear semantic meaning; alternatively, the person could say, 'Whew, this room could use an air purifier' which implies a similar meaning but is indirect and therefore requires pragmatic inference to derive the intended meaning.

Pragmatics is regarded as one of the most challenging aspects for language learners to grasp, and can only truly be learned with experience

Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
.

Example of structural ambiguity

What does You have a green light mean? Without knowing the intent by the speaker and who the speaker is it is not possible to deduce because there is no language

Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
without a motive,will or intent.

It could mean you are holding a green light bulb.
Or you have a green light to drive your car.
Or it could be indicating that you can go ahead with the project.

Sherlock saw the man holding binoculars , could mean that Sherlock, using binoculars observed the man or it could mean that Sherlock observed a man holding physical binoculars. It depends on the intent by the speaker as to the true meaning of the sentence. . There is no such thing as a single sentence having one true meaning. The words or semantics

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in communication. The word is derived from the Greek language word s??a?t???? , "significant", from s??a??? , "to signify, to indicate" and that from s??a , "sign, mark, token"....
in a sentence are used to communicate intent. Survival of the fittest

Survival of the fittest

"Survival of the fittest" is a phrase which is shorthand for a concept relating to competition for survival or predominance. Originally applied by Herbert Spencer in his Principles of Biology of 1864, Spencer drew parallels to his ideas of economics with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by what Darwin termed natural selection....
for example was a term due to Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer was an England philosopher, prominent Classical liberalism political theorist, and sociological theorist of the Victorian era....
, and one would need to ask him what he meant by the term because it could mean different things in different contexts depending on the individual's background knowledge and intent.

Origins

Pragmatics was a reaction to structuralist

Structuralism

Structuralism is an approach to the human sciences that attempts to analyze a specific field as a complex system of interrelated parts. It began in linguistics with the work of Ferdinand de Saussure....
linguistics outlined by Ferdinand de Saussure

Ferdinand de Saussure

Ferdinand de Saussure was a Switzerland linguistics whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century....
. In many cases, it expanded upon his idea that language has an analyzable structure, composed of parts that can be defined in relation to others. Pragmatics first engaged only in synchronic

Course in General Linguistics

Course in General Linguistics is the influential book compiled by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, that is based on notes taken from Ferdinand de Saussure's lectures at the University of Geneva between the years 1906 and 1911....
study, as opposed to examining the historical development of language. However, it rejected the notion that all meaning comes from signs

Sign (semiotics)

In semiotics, a sign is "something that stands for something else, to someone in some capacity". It may be understood as a discrete unit of Meaning , and includes words, images, gestures, scents, tastes, textures, sounds – essentially all of the ways in which information can be communicated as a message by any sentient, reasoning m...
existing purely in the abstract space of langue. Meanwhile, historical pragmatics

Historical pragmatics

Historical pragmatics is the study of language use in its historical dimension....
has also come into being.

While Chomskyan

Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky is an United States linguistics, philosopher, cognitive science, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor emeritus and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....
linguistics famously repudiated Bloomfieldian

Leonard Bloomfield

Leonard Bloomfield was an United States linguistics, whose influence dominated the development of structuralism#Structuralism in linguistics in America between the 1930s and the 1950s....
anthropological linguistics

Anthropological linguistics

Anthropological linguistics is the study of the relations between language and culture, and the relations between human biology, cognition and language....
, pragmatics continues its tradition. Also influential were Franz Boas

Franz Boas

Franz Boas was a Germans-United States anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology"....
, Edward Sapir

Edward Sapir

Edward Sapir , was a Jewish-Germany-United States anthropologist-linguistics and a leader in American structuralism. He was one of the creators of what is now called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis....
and Benjamin Whorf

Benjamin Whorf

Benjamin Lee Whorf was an United States Linguistics. Whorf has had considerable influence in the field of sociolinguistics for his theory of linguistic relativity, which he developed with Edward Sapir....
.

Areas of interest

Pragmatics differs from linguistics in its main areas of interest, which are:

The study of the speaker's meaning, which means focusing not on the phonetic or grammatical form of an utterance, but instead on what are the speaker's intentions and beliefs.

The study of the meaning in its context, and the influence that a given context can have on the message. It requires knowledge of the speaker's identities, and the place and time of the utterance.

The study of implicatures, i.e. the things that are communicated even though they are not explicitly expressed.

The study of the relative distance, both social and physical, between speakers in order to understand what determines the choice of what is said and what is not said.

Non-referential uses of language

Roman Jakobson

Roman Osipovich Jakobson, , was a Russian linguist and literary critic, associated with the Russian Formalism school. He became one of the most influential linguistics of the 20th century by pioneering the development of structuralism of language, poetry, and art....
identified six functions of language, only one of which is the traditional system of reference

Reference

A reference is a relation between Object in which one object designates by linking to another object. Such relations as these may occur in a variety of domains, including logic, computer science, time, art and scholarship....
.

referential: conveys information about some real phenomenon
expressive: describes feelings of the speaker
conative: attempts to elicit some behavior from the addressee
phatic
Phatic

In linguistics, a phatic expression is one whose only function is to perform a social task, as opposed to conveying information. The term was coined by anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in the early 1900s....
: builds a relationship between both parties in a conversation
metalingual: self-references
poetic
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
: focuses on the text independent of reference

Émile Benveniste

?mile Benveniste was a France Structuralism linguistics, an apprentice of A. Meillet and his successor, who, in his later years, became enlightened by the structural view of language through the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, although he was unwilling to grasp it at first, being a convinced follower of the sociological stance of his teacher....
discussed pronouns "I" and "you", arguing that they are fundamentally distinct from other pronouns because of their role in creating the subject

Subject (philosophy)

In philosophy, a subject is a being which has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness or a relationship with another entity . A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed....
.

Michael Silverstein

Michael Silverstein

Michael Silverstein is a professor of anthropology, linguistics, and psychology at the University of Chicago. He has studied Indigenous Australian languages and Indigenous_languages_of_the_Americas#Greenland.2C_Canada_.26_USA....
has argued that the "non-referential index" communicates meaning without being explicitly attached to semantic content.

Related fields

There is a considerable overlap between pragmatics and sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used....
, since both share an interest in linguistic meaning

Linguistic meaning

Some arguei hate people meanings to be abstract logical objects but some philosophers, including Plato , Augustine of Hippo, Peter Abelard, Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein, J....
as determined by usage in a speech community. However, sociolinguists tend to be more oriented towards variations within such communities.

According to Charles W. Morris

Charles W. Morris

Charles W. Morris was an American Semiotics and Philosophy....
, pragmatics tries to understand the relationship between signs and their users, while semantics

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in communication. The word is derived from the Greek language word s??a?t???? , "significant", from s??a??? , "to signify, to indicate" and that from s??a , "sign, mark, token"....
tends to focus on the actual objects or ideas to which a word refers, and syntax

Syntax

In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing Sentence s in natural languages. In addition to referring to the discipline, the term syntax is also used to refer directly to the rules and principles that govern the sentence structure of any individual language, as in "the Irish syntax"....
(or "syntactics") examines relationships among signs.

Semantics is the literal meaning of an idea whereas pragmatics is the implied meaning of the given idea.

Suzette Haden Elgin

Suzette Haden Elgin

Suzette Haden Elgin is an United States science fiction author. She founded the Science Fiction Poetry Association, and is considered an important figure in the field of science fiction constructed languages....
has also written a number of books known of as the Gentle Art of Verbal Self Defense series, where she extensively outlines structured methods like those surveyed in pragmatics to defend against the use of pejorative

Pejorative

Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt. When used as an adjective, pejorative is synonymous with derogatory, derisive, dyslogistic, and contemptuous....
s in various common situations, drawing parallels between applied

Applied linguistics

Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems....
linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
and martial arts

Martial arts

Martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for combat. While they may be studied for various reasons, martial arts share a single objective: to physically defeat other persons and to defend oneself or others from physical threat....
techniques.

Linguistic anthropology

Pragmatics helps anthropologists relate elements of language to broader social phenomena; it thus pervades the field of linguistic anthropology

Linguistic anthropology

Linguistic anthropology is that branch of anthropology that brings Linguistics methods to bear on anthropological problems, linking the analysis of semiotic and particularly linguistic forms and processes to the interpretation of sociocultural processes....
. Because pragmatics describes generally the forces in play for a given utterance, it includes the study of power, gender, race, identity, and their interactions with individual speech acts. For example, the study of code switching

Code-switching

Code-switching is a term in linguistics referring to using more than one language or Variety in conversation. Multilingualism, who can speak at least two languages, have the ability to use elements of both languages when conversing with another bilingual....
directly relates to pragmatics, since a switch in code effects a shift in pragmatic force.

Pragmatics in philosophy

Jaques Derrida once remarked that some of linguistic pragmatics aligned well with the program he outlined in Of Grammatology.

Linguistic pragmatics underpins Judith Butler's

Judith Butler

Judith Butler is an United States post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics....
theory of gender performativity

Gender performativity

Gender Performativity is a term created by feminist philosopher Judith Butler in her 1990 book Gender Trouble. In it, Butler characterizes gender as the effect of reiterated acting, one that produces the effect of a static or normal gender while obscuring the contradiction and instability of any single person's gender act....
. In Gender Trouble

Gender Trouble

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler is a highly influential book in academic feminism and queer theory. It is also the book credited with creating the germinal notion of gender performativity....
, she claims that gender and sex are not natural categories, but called into being by discourse

Discourse

Discourse means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion or debate." The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis....
. In Excitable Speech she extends her theory of performativity

Performativity

Performativity is a concept that is related to speech act theory, to the pragmatics of language, and to the work of J. L. Austin. It accounts for situations where a proposition may constitute or instantiate the object to which it is meant to refer, as in so-called "performative utterances"....
to hate speech

Hate speech

Hate speech is a term for speech intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or group of people based on their Race , gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, language ability, ideology, social class, list of occupations, appearance , mental...
, arguing that the designation of certain utterances as "hate speech" affects their pragmatic function.

Gilles Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosophy of the late 20th century. From the early 1960s until his death, Deleuze wrote many influential works on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art....
and Felix Guattari

Félix Guattari

Pierre-F?lix Guattari was a France militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy. Guattari is best known for his intellectual collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, most notably Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
discuss linguistic pragmatics in the fourth chapter of A Thousand Plateaus

A Thousand Plateaus

A Thousand Plateaus is a book by the France philosophy Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalysis F?lix Guattari. It forms the second part of their Capitalism and Schizophrenia project ....
("November 20, 1923--Postulates of Linguistics"). They draw three conclusions from Austin: (1) A performative utterance

Performative utterance

The notion of performative utterances was introduced by J. L. Austin. Although he had already used the term in his 1946 paper "Other minds", today's usage goes back to his later, remarkedly different exposition of the notion in the 1955 William James lecture series, subsequently published as How to Do Things with Words....
doesn't communicate information about an act second-hand—it does the act; (2) Every aspect of language ("semantics, syntactics, or even phonematics") functionally interacts with pragmatics; (3) The distinction between language and speech is untenable. This last conclusion attempts to simultaneously refute Saussure's

Ferdinand de Saussure

Ferdinand de Saussure was a Switzerland linguistics whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century....
division between langue and parole and Chomsky's

Noam Chomsky

Surface structure

In the field of linguistics, specifically in syntax, surface structure refers to the mental representation of a linguistic expression, derived from deep structure by transformational grammar....
and deep structure

Deep structure

In Linguistics In linguistics, and especially the study of syntax, the deep structure of a linguistic expression is a theoretical construct that seeks to unify several related structures....
.

Significant works

J. L. Austin
J. L. Austin

John Langshaw Austin was a British philosophy of language, born in Lancaster, Lancashire and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford....
's How To Do Things With Words
Paul Grice
Paul Grice

Herbert Paul Grice , usually publishing under the name Paul Grice, was a British-educated philosopher of language, who spent the final two decades of his career in the United States....
's cooperative principle
Cooperative principle

In social science generally and linguistics specifically, the cooperative principle describes how people interact with one another. As phrased by Paul Grice, who introduced it, it states, "Make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are...
and conversational maxims
Brown & Levinson's Politeness Theory
Politeness theory

Politeness is the expression of the speakers? intention to mitigate Face threats carried by certain face threatening acts toward another . Being polite therefore consists of attempting to Face for another....
Geoffrey Leech
Geoffrey Leech

Geoffrey Leech was Professor of Linguistics and Modern English Language at Lancaster University from 1974 to 2002.Leech's main academic interests are:...
's politeness maxims
Politeness maxims

According to Geoffrey Leech, there is a politeness principle with gricean_maxims similar to those formulated by Paul Grice. He lists six maxims: tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement, and sympathy....
Levinson's Presumptive Meanings
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas

J?rgen Habermas is a Germany philosopher and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory and American pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his work on the concept of the public sphere, the topic of his first book....
's universal pragmatics
Universal pragmatics

Universal pragmatics, more recently placed under the heading of formal pragmatics, is the philosophical study of the necessary conditions for reaching an understanding through communication....
Dan Sperber
Dan Sperber

Dan Sperber is a French anthropologist, linguist and cognitive scientist, currently a Research Director at the Institut Jean Nicod, CNRS. He is known, amongst other things, for his work on pragmatics and in particular relevance theory; and also for his theory on ?epidemiology of representations?....
and Deirdre Wilson's relevance theory
Relevance theory

There are two ways to conceive of how thoughts can be communicated from one person to another. The first way is through the use of strict coding and decoding, which makes explicit use of symbols, rules, and language....

Footnotes

External links

Liu, Shaozhong, "What is Pragmatics?",
from
wiki project in comparative pragmatics: (directed by Joachim Grzega)

Pragmatics

Example of structural ambiguity

Origins

Areas of interest

Non-referential uses of language

Related fields

Linguistic anthropology

Pragmatics in philosophy

Significant works

See also

Footnotes

See also

External links