DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION

WOMEN DIVISION, ARAR

TERM-I-1444H (2022-2023)
PRAGMATICS-1606-421
LECTURE - I

Lecture-1

Jacob L.Mey,2004, Pragmatics an

Introduction
(2ndEdition),Blackwell Publishing.
USA

Huang, Yan. 2007. Pragmatics.

Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics
series, Oxford University Press.

TOPICS – Lecture -I
1. Introduction to Pragmatics
a. Definition and Status in Linguistics
b. The Notion of Context: Discourse, Background Knowledge and Mutual
Knowledge as Context
c. Schools of Thought in Pragmatics

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 DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION
WOMEN DIVISION, ARAR
TERM-I-1444H (2022-2023)
PRAGMATICS-1606-421
LECTURE - I
Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics and semiotics that studies the ways in
which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory,
conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior
in philosophy, sociology, linguistics and anthropology.

Unlike semantics, which examines meaning that is conventional or "coded" in a given language,
pragmatics studies how the transmission of meaning depends not only on structural and
linguistic knowledge (grammar, lexicon, etc.) of the speaker and listener but also on the context
of the utterance, any pre-existing knowledge about those involved, the inferred intent of the
speaker, and other factors.

The ability to understand another speaker's intended meaning is called pragmatic competence.

These definitions throw some light on the nature, principles and scope of pragmatics.

(i) Leech & Short (1981:290) - Pragmatics is “the investigation into that aspect of meaning
which is derived not from the formal properties of words, but from the way in which utterances
are used and how they relate to the context in which they are uttered.” Notice the word
“utterances” not necessarily sentences.
(ii) Leech (1983:6) - Pragmatics is “the study of meaning in relation to speech situations”. The
speech situation enables the speaker use language to achieve a particular effect on the mind of
the hearer.” Thus the speech is goal-oriented (i.e. the meaning which the speaker or writer
intends to communicate).
(iii) Levinson (1983:9) – Pragmatics is “the study of those aspects of the relationship between
language and context that are relevant to the writing of grammars.” Notice in this definition
that interest is mainly in the inter-relation of language and principles of language use that are
context dependent.
(iv) Yule (1996:127) – Pragmatics is “the study of intended speaker meaning.” It is “in many
ways … the study of invisible meaning or how we recognize what is meant even when it isn’t
actually said (or written)
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 DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION
WOMEN DIVISION, ARAR
TERM-I-1444H (2022-2023)
PRAGMATICS-1606-421
LECTURE - I
Principles/Goals of Pragmatics

The principles and goals of pragmatics: All the definitions stress the following:

 Language use i.e. language in actual speech situations (language performance rather than
mere cognitive skills). In other words, what is important is how language users communicate in
oral conversations or in writing, not necessarily how grammatically correct the sentences are.

 Discourse/utterance rather than sentence

 The context of the speech – location of participants in a conversation/discourse

 Goal of utterance/discourse or speaker’s intention

 Participants in a conversation/discourse situation, their roles, relationship and identities, since

these have some influence on how meanings are encoded and interpreted

 Shared assumptions/knowledge, cultures, or conventions of participants in communication

The Scope of Pragmatics

In recent times however, extended researches in cultural studies and social discourse argue in
favor of discourse pragmatics rather than the traditional linguistic pragmatics. Fairclough
(1989) for instance argues that rather than see language use as an individual’s strategies of
encoding meaning to achieve some particular effects on the hearer or reader, we should be
concerned with the fact that social conventions and ideologies, define peoples roles, identities
and language performances; people simply communicate in some particular ways as the society
determines..

Utterance Meaning versus Sentence Meaning

Sentence meaning Utterance meaning

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 DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION
WOMEN DIVISION, ARAR
TERM-I-1444H (2022-2023)
PRAGMATICS-1606-421
LECTURE - I
A sentence must satisfy some basic An utterance on the other hand doesn’t even
grammatical rules (e.g. have to be a sentence.
subject/verb/complement structural
pattern.)

While sentence meaning is a function of the It may be a word like “settle,” a phrase like
words in the sentence together with the “area boy,” a contracted form like “what’s
overall sense of the sentence, utterance up?” or an exclamation like hei or Ooh! The
meaning relies much more on the intention “meaning” we associate with these
of the utterance in relation to the context. utterances is defined in terms of their
functions or the intention of the speaker in
uttering them.

Pragmatics and Semantics

SEMANTICS PRAGMATICS

Semantics is “the formal relation of signs to pragmatics is defined in relation to the

the objects they refer,” (Morris 1938). speaker and the context of the
While Semantics is defined as meaning of communication event, with particular
words or linguistic expression in a given interest on the functions, intentions, goals
language, (without reference to the speaker and effects of utterances
and the situation

Semantics simply concerns with the Scholars in defense of pragmatics, argue

conventional meaning of words, phrases that pragmatics covers those areas that
and sentences rather than what a speaker or semantics has hitherto overlooked,
writer might want the words to mean in a especially the concept of speech acts.
particular context/situation. This technical
approach to meaning centres on the

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 DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION
WOMEN DIVISION, ARAR
TERM-I-1444H (2022-2023)
PRAGMATICS-1606-421
LECTURE - I
objective and general (Yule, 1996). Hence,
we talk of meaning in terms of universal
applications.

So linguistic semantics emphasizes It throws more light to what

conventional meaning expressed by the use speakers/writers actually do with language
of words and sentences of a language and what effects they expect from their
hearers/reader. In semantics you ask,
“what does gyp mean? But in pragmatics
the question is “what do you mean by gyp?”
So the focus of pragmatics is the user rather
than the linguistic code.

"MICROPRAGLNATICS" "MACROPRAGMATICS."

Micro pragmatics deals with context, implicature, reference, pragmatic principles, speech
acts, and conversation analysis and coincides more or less with the research interests of
Anglo-American pragmatics, while the part entitled macro pragmatics adds a range of topics
are only part of Continental European but not Anglo-American pragmatics, such as literary
pragmatics, intercultural pragmatics, and the social of pragmatics.

Exercises
1. The ability to understand another speaker's intended meaning is called pragmatic
competence.

2. Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics and semiotics that studies the ways in

which context contributes to meaning.

3. Pragmatics is the study of contextual Meaning.

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 DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION
WOMEN DIVISION, ARAR
TERM-I-1444H (2022-2023)
PRAGMATICS-1606-421
LECTURE - I
4. Semantics is the study of relationship between linguistic forms and entities in the world.

5. Semantics is concerned with the truth conditions of propositions expressed in sentences.

6. Pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning.

7. Pragmatics encompasses phenomena including implicature, speech acts, relevance and

conversation.
8. What are the three main components of pragmatics?
These components are form, content, and use. Form involves three sub-components of
syntax, morphology, and phonology. Content is also known as semantics and use is also
known as pragmatics.

9. What is the function of pragmatics?

'Pragmatic function' is is the meaning a speaker wishes to convey to the person they are
speaking to (the addressee). Now usually the meaning of the individual words will give the
addressee the meaning that the speaker wants to give, but NOT always.

10. Why do we study pragmatics?

We need pragmatics to understand how language is used in a specific context and to be able to
use it appropriately.

11. Pragmatics is a set of skills which allow us to know what to say, to whom and how to
communicate ones message in a specific context (what, how, whom, and when)

12. What are pragmatic skills?

Pragmatic language refers to the social language skills that we use in our daily interactions
with others. This includes what we say, how we say it, our non-verbal communication (eye
contact, facial expressions, body language etc.)

13. Utterance versus Force Meaning

Utterance meaning is the first level of speaking meaning. It is a sentence context pairing. Force
meaning is the speaker communicative intention.

14. Sentence meaning is the literal meaning of a sentence, derivable from the sense of its words
and the syntax that combines them.

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 DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION
WOMEN DIVISION, ARAR
TERM-I-1444H (2022-2023)
PRAGMATICS-1606-421
LECTURE - I
15. Sentence meaning is “sense” as applied to entire clauses rather than individual words and
phrases.
16. Speaker meaning, on the other hand, is the meaning that a speaker intends, which usually
includes the literal meaning of the sentence but may extend well beyond it.
17. Write the possible meaning for the following utterance in a different context.
I’m cold.
a. Close the window.
b. Bring me a blanket.
c. Turn off the air conditioner.
d. Snuggle up closer.
e. The heater is broken again.
f. Let’s go home. [uttered, say, at the beach]

Different Meanings, Different Contexts

Consider each of these statements. Identify the meaning of the word go in each,
and identify the context within which the statement would be made.
Go ahead and take another cookie.
Go to a movie tonight.
Go left on Wall Street.
Go as slowly as you can.
Go in peace.
Go! Go! Go!
Go ahead and take another cookie. - have permission
Go to a movie tonight. -attend
Go left on Wall Street. - follow a direction
Go as slowly as you can. - move
Go in peace. - leave-taking
Go! Go! Go! - encouragement and support for an action

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