Pragmatics Gives Context to Language

Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics concerned

with the use of language in social contexts and the
ways people produce and
comprehend meanings through language.

Pragmatics is concerned with how factors such as

time, place and the social relationship
between speaker and hearer affect the ways in
which language is used to perform different
functions.
Background

Charles Morris laid out his theory of pragmatics in his book "Signs, Language and
Behavior," explaining that the linguistic term "deals with the origins, uses, and effects
of signs within the total behavior of the interpreters of signs." In terms of
pragmatics, signs refers not to physical signs but to the subtle movements, gestures,
tone of voice, and body language that often accompany speech.

Morris states that communication involves much more than just the words people use:
It involves the all-important social signs people make when they communicate.

Pragmatics vs. Semantics

Morris explained that pragmatics is different from semantics, which concerns the
relations between signs and the objects they signify. Semantics refers to the specific
meaning of language; pragmatics involves all the social cues that accompany language.

Pragmatics focuses not on what people say but how they say it and how others
interpret their utterances in social contexts, says Geoffrey Finch in "Linguistic Terms
and Concepts." Utterances are literally the units of sound you make when you talk, but
the signs that accompany those utterances give the sounds their true meaning.

Pragmatics in Action

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) gives two examples of

how pragmatics influences language and its interpretation. In the first, ASHA notes:

"You invited your friend over for dinner. Your child sees your friend reach
for some cookies and says, 'Better not take those, or you'll get even bigger.'
You can't believe your child could be so rude."

In a literal sense, the daughter is simply saying that eating cookies can make you
gain weight. But due to the social context, the mother interprets that sentence to
mean that her daughter is calling her friend fat. The first sentence in this
explanation refers to the semantics—the literal meaning of the sentence. The second
and third refer to the pragmatics, the actual meaning of the words as interpreted by a
listener based on social context.
In another example, ASHA notes:

"You talk with a neighbor about his new car. He has trouble staying on
topic and starts talking about his favorite TV show. He doesn't look at you
when you talk and doesn't laugh at your jokes. He keeps talking, even
when you look at your watch and say, 'Wow. It's getting late.' You finally
leave, thinking about how hard it is to talk with him."

In this scenario, the speaker is just talking about a new car and his favorite TV show.
But the listener interprets the signs the speaker is using—not looking at the listener
and not laughing at his jokes—as the speaker being unaware of the listener's views (let
alone his presence) and monopolizing his time. You've likely been in this kind of
situation before, where the speaker is talking about perfectly reasonable, simple
subjects but is unaware of your presence and your need to escape. While the
speaker sees the talk as a simple sharing of information (the semantics),
you see it as a rude monopolization of your time (the pragmatics).

Pragmatics has proved helpful in working with children with autism. Beverly Vicker, a
speech and language pathologist writing on the Autism Support Network website,
notes that many children with autism find it difficult to pick up on what she and other
autism theorists describe as "social pragmatics," which refers to:

"...the ability to effectively use and adjust communication messages for a

variety of purposes with an array of communication partners within
diverse circumstances."

When educators, speech pathologists, and other interventionists teach these explicit
communication skills, or social pragmatics, to children with autism spectrum
disorder, the results are often profound and can have a big impact in improving their
conversational interaction skills.

Importance of Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the "meaning minus semantics," says Frank Brisard in his essay
"Introduction: Meaning and Use in Grammar," published in "Grammar, Meaning and
Pragmatics." Semantics, as noted, refers to the literal meaning of a spoken utterance.
Grammar, Brisard says, involves the rules defining how the language is put together.
Pragmatics takes context into account to complement the contributions that
semantics and grammar make to meaning, he says.

David Lodge, writing in the Paradise News, says that pragmatics gives humans "a
fuller, deeper, and generally more reasonable account of human language behavior."
Without pragmatics, there is often no understanding of what language actually means,
or what a person truly means when she is speaking. The context—the social signs, body
language, and tone of voice (the pragmatics)—is what makes utterances clear or
unclear to the speaker and her listeners.
Adapted from: https://www.thoughtco.com/pragmatics-language-1691654
Companion to English Linguistics._ https://es.slideshare.net/souben58/companion-to-english-linguistics-42995548
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6099790/
Why Studying Pragmatics
Due to globalization, the English language has entered several spheres of everyday life. Being able to handle the
language is often required in higher education, when gathering information and when travelling. Within different
communication situations users encounter different contextual factors to which language should be appropriated
for meaning to get across successfully. Knowledge about how meaning is dependent on context and how to use
language accordingly, is what makes up pragmatic competences.
Most people have heard funny stories of communication gone wrong due to a misunderstanding between a
foreigner and a native speaker of English. Such situations could, however, also have negative consequences.
Interlocutors could end up feeling embarrassed, or even worse, perceived as rude. Knowledge about what type
of language is suitable for different language situations and how context affects the meaning of language,
decreases the frequency of such misunderstandings taking place. Such competences are recognized as
pragmatic competences.
Pragmatic competence, which is an important part of the language proficiency construct (Bachman, 1990; Canale,
1983; Canale and Swain, 1980), is the ability to use language appropriately according to the communicative
situation. The importance of the pragmatic dimension in the language ability construct is not disputed, yet its role
in interlanguage development has only recently begun to be researched empirically, particularly within the aspect
of comprehension (Bardovi-Harlig, 1999; Kasper & Rose, 1999). Pragmatic comprehension refers to the
comprehension of oral language in terms of pragmatic meaning. English language learners need to be able to
comprehend meaning pragmatically in order to:
 understand a speaker's intentions;
 interpret a speaker's feelings and attitudes;
 differentiate speech act meaning, such as the difference between a directive and a commissive;
 evaluate the intensity of a speaker's meaning, such as the difference between a suggestion and a warning;
 recognize sarcasm, joking, and other facetious behavior; and
 be able to respond appropriately.

Pragmatic ability, which is an important part of the language proficiency construct (Bachman, 1990; Canale, 1983;
Canale and Swain, 1980), is the ability to use language appropriately according to the communicative situation.
Pragmatic comprehension refers to the comprehension of oral language in terms of pragmatic meaning. English
language learners need to be able to comprehend meaning pragmatically in order to:
 understand a speaker's intentions;
 interpret a speaker's feelings and attitudes;
 differentiate speech act meaning, such as the difference between a directive and a commissive;
 evaluate the intensity of a speaker's meaning, such as the difference between a suggestion and a warning;
 recognize sarcasm, joking, and other facetious behavior; and
 be able to respond appropriately.

Take for example the following exchange between two roommates:

A: Are the neighbors on vacation?
B: I haven't seen their car all week.

How could we explain the response given by B? In fact, it is entirely relevant. Speaker B hasn't seen the
car, and therefore, he thinks the neighbors are indeed on vacation.
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.
What would happen to language if Pragmatics did not exist?
Pragmatics acts as the basis for all language interactions and contact. It is a key feature to the
understanding of language and the responses that follow this. Therefore, without the function of
Pragmatics, there would be very little understanding of intention and meaning.

We would like to demonstrate this by showing you how life would be WITHOUT Pragmatics:

‘Can you pass the salt?’

Literal Meaning: Are you physically able to do this task?
Literal Response: ‘Yes’
(Pragmatic Meaning: Will you pass me the salt?
Pragmtic Response: pass the salt to the speaker.)

‘What time do you call this?’

Literal Meaning: What time is it?
Literal Response: A time (e.g. ‘twenty to one.’)
(Pragmatic Meaning: a different question entirely, e.g. Why are you so late?
Pragmatic Response: Explain the reason for being so late.)

“John likes Sam”

Literal Meaning: John is a man. Sam is a woman. John likes a woman.
Pragmatic Meaning: John is the company owner. Sam is an employee. John thinks Sam is a good worker.

Bob: I wonder who is coming to the party

Jane: You know, I'm really busy.

Literal Meaning: Is anybody coming to the party?

Literal Response: Somebody (e.g. ‘me’)
(Pragmatic Meaning: a different question entirely. Are you coming to the party?
Pragmatic Response: Jane does not have the intention to come.

Pragmatics in comic strips:

Literal Meaning: Have you ever won a big prize?

Literal Response: Yes
(Pragmatic Meaning: Did you win something valuable?
Pragmatic Response: I haven´t won anything valuable yet.
http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=177220
Adapted from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/458f/8283cd046092be78471b73042cb6cc0607ab.pdf
http://tesl-ej.org/ej30/a1.html
https://all-about-linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-linguistics/pragmatics/what-is-pragmatics/
https://ielanguages.com/pragmatics.html
http://www.sfu.ca/~jeffpell/Ling324/fjpSlides10.pdf

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