Pragmatics – is the study of the meaning in context and it deals with implied

meaning as opposed to the mere lexical meaning expressed.

It assumes communicate with each other and ability to understand on how
you should cooperate.
How utterances are used
About interpreting the speakers mean
In short Pragmatics is how people interpret each other linguistically
Example:

UTTERANCE: The use of sentence, in a particular context. It should be

actual.

INTERPRETATION:
Knowledge of the meaning of the word
Knowledge about the context.

ASPECTS:
 Situational context - Considered of giving an interpretation written or
spoken.What you see and know people around them. Crucial to
understand the meaning. A situation is involved, and you saw it by
yourself.

 Background knowledge context- knowledgeable in the background. Will

help you think in a deeper context. Includes cultural knowledge and
interpersonal knowledge.

 Co-textual Context – in terms of what people know about what they are
saying.

 Contextual Knowledge – Involves social life, political life, and cultural

understanding.
  Speak acts and Discourse
 Austin and Searle – argued that language is used to do things. Language
is not only express that truth or the falseness of a particular statement.
 Physical Acts- Actions without direct communication.

SPEECH ACT THEORY

Austin founded speech act theory on the belief that speakers not only utilize
language to say things but to do things.

When we use language to do something, we are performing a speech act.

Speech of acts Examples:

Assertion- a statement that you strongly believe is true. (FACTS)

Question- an interrogative expression to know something.
Request- an act of asking politely or formally for something.
Warning- indicates a possible or impending danger, problem, or
another unpleasant situation.
Order- an authoritative command, direction, or instruction.
Promise - a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something
specified
Threat-: an expression of intention to inflict evil, injury, or damage.
Austin Distinguish 3 components of speech acts
1. The Locutionary Act
- Speaker’s Utterance
Example: CLOSE THE WINDOW

2. The Illocutionary Act

- Speaker’s Intention
Example: The person who is talking is cold.
3. Perlocutionary Act
- Hearer’s Reaction
Example: The action of closing the window

Searle’s work: A speech of act is a way of performing an action through

words.
SEARLE’S VIEW FIVE ILLOCUTIONARY POINT
I.
A. Assertives(or representatives): Illocutionary acts that represent a
state of affairs.
E.g. stating, claiming, hypothesizing, describing, telling, insisting,
suggesting, asserting, or swearing that something is the case
B. Directives: Illocutionary acts designed to get the addressee to do
something.
E.g. ordering, commanding, daring, defying, challenging
C. Commissives: Illocutionary acts designed to get the speaker (i.e
the one performing the act)
to do something
E.g. promising, threatening, intending, vowing to do or to refrain
from doing something
D. Expressives: Illocutionary acts that express the mental state of the
speaker.
E.g. congratulating, thanking, deploring, condoling, welcoming,
apologizing
E. Declarations: Illocutionary acts that bring about the state of
affairs to which they refer.
E.g. blessing, firing, baptizing, bidding, passing sentence,
excommunicating