Pragmatics:

Language in Communication
by: Chavie A. Magallanes
 Okay lets start!

Are you ready

to learn the
concepts of Yes I am. Can
Pragmatics? we now start?
Hi Praggie! How I’m good thank
are you? you Maticia.
Let’s start this discussion It’s my first time
by defining pragmatics. hearing that word,
Do you have any idea would you mind giving
about pragmatics? me insights about it?
Basically pragmatics
is the study of My apologies but I
speaker meaning as really don’t understand
distinct from word what you have said, can
or sentence you say that in more
meaning. easier words again?
 That’s okay Maticia, I
also don’t understand
Pragmatics way back I’m very willing to listen
then but I’ll try my best and learn about
to explain it to you in pragmatics Praggie, thank
much easier way. you for your patience.
 So pragmatics is the study of the
relationship between words and users of
the words. So for example, I have got a
new boat and now I have a specific picture
of the boat and you have a different one
in your mind. So it is about the
interpretation of the words and the Ahh okay. Now I
utterances and about trying to read what
the people mean by the utterances.
get it.
 What are those
Pragmatics have
four dimensions?
four different
dimensions.
Ahh I would love
to hear that from
Wait there’s you. Go on spill it.
more.
 Ohh I never thought about
First of all, pragmatics is the study of the
it from that perspective.
speaker meaning. That means it is
Can we now proceed to
concerned with the interpretation of the
the second dimension? I
speaker meaning by the listener. So for
got invented about this
example when someone asks “May I have a
topic already.
glass of water” the listener interprets that
the speaker is thirsty.
The second dimension is pragmatics is the study of
contextual meaning. So it is about the
interpretation of what people exactly mean in a
specific context and how the context influences Hmmm I’m not quite sure
what is said. For example, you are at my place and I
if I got that right, could
asked you if you could bring me a glass of water. So
the utterances are not fitting the context because
you give me an additional
usually I would offer you something to drink at my example?
place and not the other way around. So you can see
how the context influences the meaning.
 Not at all, this is a good
practice for me as an
aspiring educator.
And do you want to
know about the third Yes please, if you
dimension? don’t mind.
No problem, think about the beginning
of a conversation the first person ask
“Hi how are you” and the second
person answers with “Ahh! lovely
weather today” so you can see it is
Ahh now I got it.
grammatically correct but it doesn’t fit
the context and the situation.
 Maybe it’s easier to understand if I
give you an example. If someone ask
you “please close the window” the Okay I
invisible meaning of the person understand that
asking is that the person is freezing
that it is too noisy outside. It
way better.
depends on the situation.
The third dimension is that
What do you
pragmatics is the study of how
mean by invisible
more gets more communicated
meaning?
than a said. It means that you
as a listener have to investigate
the invisible meaning.
 The last dimension is pragmatics is the study of the
expression of the relative distance. So the physical
and the social closeness determines how much needs
to be said. An example of physical closeness would be
“take this” so only people close to the speaker know
what this refers to and social closeness can be found Oh okay yes that
between friends. An example would be if I tell you makes sense, it
“we had fun on the weekend” and you would know seems to be a vey
that it was last weekend an you know which friends of complex topic.
mine I meant be ‘we’.
 Yes it is, but it is super
interesting topic too. So I
think that is all that I can
share with you for now.
Thank you for listening and I
hoping that learned
something. Have a nice day
ahead Maticia.
The End
Yes I really learned a lot, I
was very hooked with this
topic I think I’m going to
do a research and dig
some information about
this topic as I go home.