English 302

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

KENNY H. ANAY
M.A. English Language - 2
Xavier University–ATENEO DE CAGAYAN

Maria Luisa S. Saministrado, Ph.D.

English 302 Professor

Topic: AN ANALYSIS OF THE WORLD IS AN APPLE USING PRAGMATIC STYLISTICS FRAMEWORK

This study aims to address the following questions:

1. What are the meanings of the main speech acts in the short story The World is an Apple
according to Pragmatic Stylistics?
2. What is the overall message of the short story based on Pragmatic Stylistics?
3. How does Pragmatic Stylistics affect the overall interpretation of the short story based on
the readers’ perspective?
4. How does Pragmatic Stylistics affect the overall interpretation of the short story based on
the author’s intended purpose?

Thesis Statement: The Analysis of the short story The World is an Apple based on the principles
of Pragmatic Stylistics Framework giving focus on the speech acts. The
speech acts found in the lines of the story explain the true nature or
identity of the main characters and as to how the overall interpretation of
the text is affected.
 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Pragmatics is an aspect of the study of language in use. It is concerned with how language
users interact, communicate and interpret linguistic behavior. Literary stylistics is the study of how
close attention to language use can contribute to accounts of how texts are understood and
evaluated (Chapman & Clark, 2014). “Yet despite the apparent overlaps and commonalities of
interest between the two disciplines,” added the authors, there has been relatively little work that
brings them together, or that explores the interface between them. This interface is central to the
ten separate essays brought together by the authors dealing mainly on all aspects surrounding the
underlying principles of pragmatics, all representative of recent significant developments within
the field that the linguists themselves are naming ‘pragmatic literary stylistics.’
Pragmatic Stylistic Framework (PSF) is anchored on pragmatic analysis which deals on
the study of what is intended by a speaker (or “author”) and how it should be interpreted by a
listener (or “reader”). Hence, dealing on the analysis of the text applying PSF mainly involves
taking a closer look at the flow of the story, as to what it tries to address to the readers, and what
the whole text conveys.
“Framework” (‘frame’) refers to the construct of the reader of the ‘title’ or ‘of the meaning
of the entire piece of literature,’ the entire text itself. More specifically, lines in a short story are
given emphasis, providing an interpretation of a certain ‘line’ that harmonizes the overall message
or theme of the text.
Pragmatic literary stylistics is developing within the framework of a broader range of work
which has been termed the ‘cognitive.’ Like other areas of the cognitive humanities, pragmatic
literary stylistics draws on a number of more established fields. Stylistics is an interdisciplinary
enterprise which involves applying ideas from linguistics in the study of how texts are produced,
understood and evaluated, and in addressing theoretical questions associated with this. It
necessarily has many branches, both because of the wide range of genres, modes and purposes of
the texts that are the object of study for stylistics, and because of the variety of frameworks from
linguistics within which they can be analyzed. Pragmatic literary stylistics is one such branch. Both
adjectives are necessary to identify it; not all pragmatic stylistics focuses on literary texts, and not
all literary stylistics applies ideas from pragmatics. The theoretical and analytical tools of stylistics in
general and of pragmatic stylistics in particular can be applied to any kind of text. Literary texts
(e.g. The World is an Apple), meanwhile, can be discussed in relation to a wide range of descriptive
and analytical tools developed in linguistics, for instance, in relation to their semantic, grammatical,
phonological or lexical properties. In principle all types of analysis might play a role in the discussion
of any linguistic text and in practice any such discussion is likely to involve more than one type of
analysis. Essays’ [mainly, interpretations] are distinguished by the fact that some specific area of
linguistic pragmatic theory plays a key role in their analysis of one or more literary text or texts.
Historically, the motivating force behind the initial establishment and the sub- sequent
development of modern pragmatics was to find a systematic explanation for observable
differences between literal, linguistic meaning (a notion which has become a problem in more
recent work among the linguists) and the meanings that particular utterances can convey in
context. And when dealing with “contexts,” there are such considerations such as the background
of the author, the historical bearing the country where the text has been originally written, the
practices of ‘that’ country [e.g. the Philippines], and so on.
Individuals working in pragmatics have pursued such an explanation for a variety of
reasons. Also, they have variously been driven by philosophical, linguistic or sociological interests.
But the shared goals of “pragmaticists” have been to establish the ways in which what words
literally mean and what speakers may use them to mean may differ, to identify some principles or
norms of language use which might explain those differences, and perhaps to offer some
explanation as to why such differences typically occur in various communicative situations.
Speech acts are a crucial consideration when dealing with interpreting the text. They can
be drawn both from the “character’s speech acts” (main lines of the character in a story) and the
so-called “narrator’s speech acts” (lines are being described by the narrator yet being
attributed/directed toward a character in a story).
Pragmatic Stylistic Framework’s focus is relevant and is useful in providing a context-based
interpretation of a text of literature of which the short story The World is an Apple. The narrator’s
speech acts [speech acts that directly attributed to the character] have been considered. Much
more so the main character’s speech acts have been considered accordingly. In line with this,
Wodak (2007) states that “within other trends of pragmatics there are also relevant insights about
what a [reader] does when constructing an ad hoc contextualization while processing an
utterance, starting from a ‘context’ in the broad sense.” The Framework as well will be considered.
In doing so, the contexts will have been given consideration. Thus, a harmonized interpretation of
“speech acts” as to the character’s true nature will be achieved.
Linguists says that Kasper (1997) argues that a further aspect of [a person’s] pragmatic
competence is his awareness of what is, and is not appropriate in the given contexts. About this
point, he has mentioned that pragmatics is a field of knowledge that makes people know how to
appropriately achieve the mutual comprehension, and politely face the challenges, that are caused
by the miscommunication and misunderstanding in international situations.
 Pragmatics is a type of knowledge that makes people detect the intercultural interaction
structures and speech act strategies in order to resolve problems of misunderstanding
encountered in the international social settings (House, et al, 2003). Through pragmatics training,
English speakers should be able to perceive different interpretations of cross-cultural languages,
and get accustomed to assorted conventions, structures, and forms in speech acts in the other
cultures. This implies that texts, especially short stories that mirror a certain culture can even be
interpreted differently depending on the background of an individual giving interpretation to the
text.
In the field of language, context, and discourse, an understanding of how language
functions in context is central to an understanding of the relationship between what is said and
what is understood. Hence, the context of situation of what someone says is ‘crucial’ to
understanding and interpreting the meaning of what is being said. Physical context, social context,
the mental worlds and roles of people involved in the interaction do have impact as to how people
interpret both in spoken and written discourse.
Accordingly, “meaning is not something that is inherent in the words alone, nor is it
produced by the speaker alone or the hearer alone. Making meaning is a dynamic process, involving
the negotiation of meaning between speaker and hearer, the context of utterance (physical, social
and linguistic), and the meaning potential of an utterance” (Thomas, 1995).
Generally, as far as the linguists themselves are concerned, as to the importance of learning
and applying the fundamentals backing up pragmatics, its importance has not been emphasized in
a level that it needs to be emphasized. According to Kasper (2001), pragmatics has played a
considerable role in first and second language classroom research, but classroom research has
played only a minor role in “inter-language” pragmatics thus far. Well, classroom research
pertaining to pragmatics especially its very application to interpreting various texts is vitally
important and crucial. Students demand that this should be taught practically. Considering various
texts from different background [e.g. The World is an Apple] is quite relevant when dealing with
this quest. Each text would give the students the liberty to analyze it within the bound of context
of the literary piece. The overall interpretation of a literary piece is solely founded on how the
interpretation is rendered applying the pragmatic stylistics.
All in all, some of the major proponents of pragmatic stylistics believe that the pragmatics
needs to be taught from the very first year that language learners study with giving special
attention to those who are learning a certain target language. Especially, the issues of politeness
and appropriateness need to be taught. The reason behind is that the language learners need not
only to learn the language itself, but also need to notice the importance of politeness and
appropriateness. ‘Politeness’ is made apparent owing to the fact that a certain piece of literature
is ‘packed’ with the culture and practices, or the norms of a certain society. The reader himself is
still bound to render an analysis of the said text based mainly on the context of the society where
the literature piece has been produces or has been intended to. The implication? Learning and
applying both the “language” and the good “attitude” of communication should benefit the
students when dealing with various texts of ‘various contexts.’ Really, then, Pragmatic Stylistics
Framework is just that important in dealing any piece of literature. It can be treated as a holistic
approach in rendering interpretation of texts.

Main Sources:
Abushihad, I. (2014). A pragmatic stylistic framework for text analysis. English Department,
Alzaytoonah University of Jordan, Jordan. International Journal of Education.

Kasper, G. (1997). Can pragmatic competence be taught? University of Hawaii, Second Language
Teaching & Curriculum Center.