First Session : 17/02/2022

The meaning of meaning

The study of meaning in human language is often two perspectives :

Semantic (explicit) Pragmatic (implicit)

 the study of meaning, or more precisely, the study
of the relation between linguistic expressions and
their meanings.
 Semantics –meaning derived from linguistic
knowledge (from the words themselves)
 Is about what the word and sentence literally mean
 the study of visible meaning
 Concerned with denotative meaning (the literal
meaning / definition of the word) .
 Deals with words and sentences (what do we say)
 Mostly concerned with the literal meaning ,
dictionary meaning or the conventional meaning.
 Concerned with conceptual meaning.
 Semantic analysis focuses mainly on what the
words conventionally mean rather than on what an
individual speaker might want them to mean on a
particular occasion.
 Studies meaning in isolation (literal meaning of a
sentence)
 The study of meaning in the context, or more
precisely, a study of the way context can influence
our understanding of linguistic utterances.
 Is about what pp mean by their utterances rather
than what the words and phrases literally mean
 The study of invisible meaning
 Concerned with connotative meaning (beyond
the literal definition of the word , what does it
mean in our society).
 Deals with utterances “spoken meaning” (what do
we mean by not literally what do we say)
 Concerned with associative meaning.
 Pragmatic analysis focuses mainly on…….
 Studies meaning in context (intended meaning of
a speaker).

Ex : I am so happy for you.

Pragmatic: I really hope this works out badly for you.
Semantic: This is good news.

According to George Yule we have two types of meaning:

conceptual meaning ‫المعني المفاهمي‬ associative meaning ‫المعني الترابطي‬

Universal meaning, literal meaning, dictionary meaning, the Non-literal meaning, implied meaning of word… . Refers
core sense of a word, the denotative meaning... Simply, it is to associations or emotive attitude connected to the word
the literal meaning that we find in dictionaries. depending on how word had been used by a speaker.

Rose = flower… Rose= love, beauty…

Needle = thin, sharp Needle = pain , blood, illness…
2.Three levels of meaning :
Word meaning Sentence meaning Utterance meaning
Single distinct meaningful refers to the semantic content of the refers to the semantic content plus any
element of speech or writing, sentence: the meaning which derives pragmatic meaning created by the specific
used with others (or sometimes from the words themselves, regardless way in which the sentence gets used (when
alone) that can articulated or of context (when we take the words we use a sentence in context to mean
pronounce in isolation to convey and add together, they give a specific something or other that is called utterance)
semantic content(concept). meaning and whole idea). (the pragmatic use of sentence is
utterance. It is a sentence but it is used in
specific context to make utterance).
 sentences vs. utterances : A sentence is a linguistic expression, a well-formed string of
words, while an utterance is a speech event by a particular speaker in a specific context.
When a speaker uses a sentence in a specific context, he produces an utterance.

3.Relation between form and meaning :

The form of Word and it meaning
the relation between the form (i.e.,
phonetic shape) of the word and its
meaning is arbitrary. except the
Onomatopoetic words.
Because is there no natural
relationship or connection btw a
linguistics form and its meaning.
( pen)
The form of sentence and it meaning
The relation between the form of a sentence
(or other multi-word expression) and its
meaning is generally not arbitrary, it is
predictable (compositional) (we compose for
a reason). Except the idioms.
Because we have words that actually compose
sentence and they give meaning so that
meaning is not arbitrary (compositional
semantics).
The form of utterance and it
meaning
The relation between utterance
meaning and the form of the
utterance is neither arbitrary nor,
strictly speaking, compositional.
(pragmatics).
Because Utterance meanings are
derivable (or “calculable”) also it
is not always fully predictable.

4.What does mean mean?

---------------------
Second Session : 11/03/2022

Referring, denoting, and expressing

In this chapter and the next we will think about how speakers use language to talk about the
world. Referring to a particular individual and describing situations are important ways in which
we talk about the world.

When we look at the word meaning, all what we do is describe what we call the construal =
concept (the way we think about something in the world)

(Sometimes words are not enough to express what we want to say, because what we want to
say goes beyond the words, or our imagination is bigger than what words can describe)
Hence, our imagination, or our mind's capacity is way bigger than our reality.

So, when we talk about linguistics meaning we talk about the:

Cognitive semantics Denotational

semantics
 Has to do with imagination The link between
 How our mind represents what we want to say linguistic expressions
and the world. That
focuses on the link between linguistic expressions and mental is, to make sense of
representations. That is to say, how in our mind, we represent what what we want to
we want to say before we utter it. Sometimes what is going on in our express in a specific
mind is inexpressible, no words can denote how you feel. situation. We denote
Ex; when we feel certain pain that is beyond simple aww, then Indain the object; we name
lge comes out cuz there is no word to express that pain it or we label it

Our focus here is on Denotational Semantics because we are interested in how we make sense
of what we say using words (denoting-labeling ‫)داللة التسمية‬. The two foundational concepts
(process) in order to make sense of these linguistic expressions are truth and reference. The
latter is our focus here.
This will help us to code and decode the meaning in relation to ideas and concepts that we have.

· Reference deals with the relationship between language and the real world. (It is when
the speaker use of words to “point to” something, someone or what is so-called the
referent). Simply, reference is just a language expression to express the referent (to
identify something in the real world)

For example, if we say “the current head of the government is a scammer”

Here the reference is “the current head of the government”. And the word ‘current’ in the
sentence refers to the referent which is Aziz Akhannouch and the meaning is understood. The
referent is the actual Object/thing in the world.

The context, references are the factors that decide whether an expression is true or false (Truth
condition)

For example, if someone says ‘The King is dead’, I need time, place, person references to judge
whether the statement is true or false.

A referring expression is an expression (normally some kind of noun phrase) which a speaker
uses to refer to something. I went to visit my mom (“I” is a referring expression, and the
referent is me).
Types of referring expressions: (references)
There are two different types of reference:

 A constant reference: does not change its value over time. (Fix reference or fix
denotation, it denotes one reference)

Constant (physical) referent: one expression = one referent.

Ex: people, proper noun like Agadir.

 A variable reference: changes its value dependent on the equation.

Example: - I visited Agadir. “I” refers to the person who is speaking. This is the referent.

If “I” (Ali) said the sentence, the word “I” would be referring to the Human Ali.

The word, Agadir, however, has constant reference. The word Agadir will always refer to the city
of Agadir (denotes one specific area).

ü Definite reference: when an NP is marked to indicate that the speaker believes the
addressee can identify its referent.
Ex: Who brought in the cat?

Here we assume that the speaker knows which cat.

In English and many other languages, definiteness is marked by the choice of articles (the Vs. a)
or by demonstratives (this & that)

 Indefinite reference - when the NP is not marked with the assumption that the
addressee can identify the referent. (It is open to different interpretations)
Ex: She is waiting for a handsome boy (it could be any boy).

Another way to express the reference is through the Deixis/ deictic expression /deictic
references/ Indexicals/.

Deixis: A Greek word means “pointing to” or “show”. refers to words or phrases (such as this,
that, these, those Now, then, here) that point at the time, place, or situation in which a speaker
is speaking. Besides, the meanings of deictic expressions can be understood only in terms of
speakers' intended meaning (knowing by both of them). Simply, All the words used to refer to
people and places.

Ex:

 Speaker A: Did you buy it

 Speaker B: Yes

It = word that is obviously a deictic expression whose exact meaning can be understood only by
the speakers A and B.
However, sometimes it is impossible to understand some sentences even with Deixis
expressions unless in terms of the speakers' intended meaning. That is, who is speaking, about
whom, where and when. Ex:

 Speaker A: Did you buy it

 Speaker B: What are you talking about?
 Speaker A: Ohhh I forgot I didn’t tell you.

Sense vs. denotation

Sense Denotation ‫د اللة‬
 A mental image/concept (A picture of a  meaning that depends on the
thing in the mind) that doesn't have a context of use. Hence,
reference in the real world. (Heaven and denotations are context-
hell are concepts that we can understand dependent (depends on context
them but there is no reference in the real of use)
world about them).  need referent.
 Aspects of meaning which do not depend  Denotation is context-based
on the context of use (denotation may change
 The kind of meaning we might look up in a depending on the context)
dictionary.
 The dictionary meaning that we find. It The denotation of a referring
describes a lexeme or entry (a word in expression, such as a proper name or
dictionary) that has semantic content definite NP, will normally be its referent.
means it makes sense and when we say it (Need a referent in the real world).
makes sense it has dictionary meaning that
we can understand mentally or cognitively.
 Sense is static and fixed in terms of Ex : The president of Morocco is absent in
meaning and doesn’t have to be truth media nowadays.
condition.  Denotation is a face about the
 Senses/ expressions are different ways to world.
refer to the same object. (ex: Obama)
 Sense is face about the language.
ex: The president is the head of the government. (The
meaning will never change) .
So, in our cognition we make sense but in denotation it should be referent because we need
some context specific characteristics to make sense of it since in the sense, we understand the
entry of the word in the dictionary without context.
(Simply, the sense of a lexeme never changes, but its denotation changes depending on the context)

Ex, The King of Morocco has not made any claim regarding the Russo-Ukraine war yet. The sense of the
expression king will never change, but its denotation may change depending on the context. It this
example, the king refers to Mohamed the 6th, not the Hassan the 2nd or any other Moroccan king.
Two expressions that have different senses may still have the same denotation in a particular
situation depending on the historical background and the context. For example,

1. The phrases “the largest land mammal on earth in Africa” refers to the same
organism in our present world, elephant
2. But in the earlier period of our own world (e. g., 30 million BC, when the gigantic
Paraceratherium - estimated weight about 20,000 kg (about twice the weight of a school
bus) - walked the earth) was the largest land mammal on earth.

Two expressions that have the same sense (i.e., synonymous expressions) must always have
the same denotation in any possible situation.
For example: My mother in law and the mother of my spouse seem to be perfect synonyms
(i.e., identical in sense. But as Moroccans we can refute this if one of us has to wives, he could
say which one is my mother-in-law.

The donation and sense the relationship is not clear btw them. That’s why we have ambiguity

Ambiguity: Having more than one meaning.

· Lexical ambiguity: when a single term has two meanings or more / word that has
different meanings. In general, the polysemous words like: "bank": "financial institution"
and "edge of a river". Basically, words that have two senses (2 dictionary meaning) and
they need context (the referent = dentation) which referent exactly it denotes .
· Structural ambiguity: occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying
structure. Ex: The boy saw the man with the telescope

1- the boy has a telescope and he saw the man with it.

2- the boy saw the man who had the telescope.

Another type of meaning is: Expressive meaning (Ouch and oops) that lack semantic features

Expressive meaning: Ouch and oops (are interjection, extra sentential elements syntax)
 Expressives: convey a certain kind of meaning, yet they neither refer to things in the
world, nor help to determine the conditions under which a sentence would be true
(they can refer to various meanings).(can use it as response to mean a lot of things.

In fact, it is hard to claim that they even form part of a sentence; they seem to stand on their
own, as one-word utterances. The kind of meaning that such words convey is called expressive
meaning. Expressive meaning cannot be judged as true or false. This is because expressive
meaning relates to the speaker's feelings or attitude rather than to what words and utterances
refer to. So, they are neither sense nor denotation they are expressive meaning because they
cannot be described. Even if we find it in dictionary we find just when to use it not its
characteristics (it doesn’t have semantics features)
* Semantics feature: the basic elements involved in distinguishing the meaning of each word in language from every other word (is it male or …)

Expressive meaning vs. descriptive meaning

Expressive meaning is different from descriptive meaning (also called propositional meaning or
truth- conditional meaning), the "normal" type of meaning which determines reference and
truth values.

Example: If someone says I just felt a sudden sharp pain, he is describing what he feels; but
when he says Ouch! , he is expressing that feeling.

Sometimes, many "normal" words carry both types of meaning (expressive vs. descriptive
meaning) at once. Ex : Father vs Dad. / Woman vs broad / garrulous vs talkative.

 Father vs Dad: Have the same referent. The same description. The same sense. But their
expressive meaning is different: He is my father: there is distance. .He is my dad: a good
relationship with father
 garrulous vs talkative: The word garrulous essentially means the same thing as
talkative, but carries additional information about the speaker’s negative attitude
towards this behavior.

Some properties which distinguish expressive meaning from descriptive meaning:

1. Independence: Expressive meaning is independent of descriptive meaning in the sense

that expressive meaning does not affect the denotation of a noun phrase or the true
value of a sentence. Ex: - That broad over there is a jazz singer.

2. Non displaceability: Cruse (1986: 272) notes that this capacity for displacement holds
only for descriptive meaning, and not for expressive meaning. A person can describe his
own feelings in the past or future, e.g. Last month I felt a sharp pain in my chest, or I will
probably feel a lot of pain when the dentist drills my tooth tomorrow; or the feelings of
other people, e.g. She was in a lot of pain. But when a person says Ouch! it must
normally express pain that is felt by the speaker at the moment of speaking. you cannot
say ouch for a slap you got yesterday.

3. Immunity

Descriptive meaning can be negated (I am not feeling any pain) , questioned (Are you feeling
any pain?), or challenged:
 1. Patient: I just felt a sudden sharp pain.
2. Dentist: That’s a lie — I gave you a double dose of Novocain.

The expressive meaning is "immune" to all of these things.

3. Scalability and repeatability:

Expressive meaning can be intensified through repetition, or by the use of intonational features
such as pitch, length or loudness.

Descriptive meaning is generally expressible in discrete units which correspond to the lexical
semantic content of individual words. Repetition of descriptive meaning tends to produce
redundancy.

4. Descriptive ineffability: Effability" means 'expressibility'. The effability hypothesis

claims that Each proposition can be expressed by some sentence in any natural language".

Descriptive meaning can be paraphrased, but for many expressives there is no descriptive
paraphrase available, and speakers often find it difficult to explain the meaning of the expressive
form in descriptive terms. For example, most dictionaries do not attempt to paraphrase the
meaning of oops, but rather “define” it by describing the contexts in which it is normally used.

Third Session: 17/03/2022

Word meanings
Questions of the lesson:

1. What is the difference between Ambiguity, vagueness, /ˈveɪɡnəs/ and indeterminacy?

2. What are the types of lexical ambiguity according to our handout?
3. What are the tests proposed for distinguishing between ambiguity and vagueness?
4. How do we disambiguate ambiguity?
5. How do we figurative sense extend the established meaning of the lexical item (lexeme=
dictionary entry). One word can have different lexeme =different senses.

Word meanings as construals of external reality

We can describe the world through words, in choosing a word to describe a particular thing or event, we
choose to express certain bits of information and leave many others unexpressed.

For ex: I am holding a rag in my right hand and moving it back and forth across the surface of a table.

The response will be either: I am wiping the table. or I am cleaning the table. In this situation both
answers would be true descriptions of the event but they don’t mean the same thing because clean is
not as wipe.

Lexical ambiguity:
Sense is essential when it comes to ambiguity and Vagueness

Ambiguity (various Vagueness (one sense) Indeterminacy (one sense)

senses)
A linguistic item that has
several senses. It is a
linguistic expression that
shows semantic ambiguity
when it can have multiple
senses, at least when
uttered out of context.
That is, the same lexical
item in another context
should have another
sense.
ex:
She was hit by a flying bat
1- by baseball bat (the bat
slipway and hit one of the
spectators)
2- or by animal bat.
So, we can have two
senses or more from one
statement.
‫عدم التحديد‬
A linguistic item that has several Ex:
interpretations. It is Imprecise meaning *My child is well-behaved.
(inaccurate meaning) but the sense is the
same. In Vagueness there is same kind of The child is not very clear.
relativity ‫النسبية‬ Which gender?
Ex:
A girl who is 6 years old says: You have * Man Punched a Kangaroo in
really big feet. the Face to Rescue His Dog.
S6 student just had a course in
semantics: How big? What are the Which hand was used ? did he
criteria that makes you say that? based use his right or left hand?
on what
Semantically speaking: so according to
her, that size she saw is big. So, the item is not clear and
the sense doesn’t change.
Ex: I met a tall guy outside. How tall
according to Pilipino guy? What about a
basketball guy?
Vagueness depends on the person
making decisions (based on subjective
data ‫)شخصي‬

 Distinguishing vagueness from ambiguity and indeterminacy:

1. Context-dependent truth conditions:
The state of the real world (it is context-based)

Ex: if I am tall with a bunch of very short people, my sense of height will be different if I'm with a bunch of
tall people. So, short can be tall in another context and vice versa. So, it is relative. So, this is what makes
vagueness vagueness.

1. vague predicates have borderline cases: ‫المسندات الغامضة لها حاالت حدودية‬:
Ex: We all agree that Elon Musk is one of the most successful and famous entrepreneurs in the world.

But if we say SimoLife is the best freaking expert marketer in Morocco, here it is hard to draw the line for
some people whether this person is an expert or not. So, we can say this is vague borderline cases. (There
are no clear cuts between things)

2. vague predicates give rise to “little-by-little” paradoxes: ‫تؤدي المسندات المبهمة إلى ظهور‬
‫"مفارقات "شيًئا فشيًئا‬:
Ahmed went bald.

Is that mean he loses the entire hair, a lock of hair, just 10% of it.
 let's say he lost the entire hair except for one strand of hair. Can we say this person is bald? of course we
cannot draw the lines between these extremes.

So, this is what makes vagueness vagueness.

 Distinguishing ambiguity from vagueness and indeterminacy:

1. The identity test:
1.1 The identity test for ambiguity

If we want to draw the line if something is ambiguous or not, we may use one of these references: do so,
so is, so has, do so too.... So that we can have interpretations based on which we will build multiple
scenarios that lead to various senses.

Ex; Sarah was hit by a flying bat; So was Laura! (The main clause)

Ex:Mary visited the bank

R1= is that Mary visited money institute R1 = So did Linda. (Money institute)
R2= is that Mary visited river embankment. R2 = So did Linda (river embankment).

if Mary visited the money institute and so did Linda. That means Linda must have also done the same
thing and cannot have gone to the river embankment and vice versa and if she does that then it won't
make any sense and she is not a human btw. However, in both parts, only one sense /reading is possible.

1.2 The identity test for indeterminacy:

Ex: Mary adopted a child

R1= Mary adopted the boy R1 = So has Linda (boy)
R2= Mary adopted the girl R2 = So has Linda (girl)
R3 = Mary adopted a girl or a boy R3 = So has Linda and vice versa.

Drawing alternative interpretations will not change the sense due to the fact that gender refers to boy
and girl. This is just indeterminacy not ambiguity. So, conflicting interpretations are possible here since
the sense stays the same. This explains that the child that was adopted by Mary does not need to have
the same gender as the one adopted by Linda.

2. The sense relation test ‫ اختبار العالقة‬:

Connecting the lexical items of a language Two lexemes are claimed to be ambiguous if they have
genuinely Distinct sense relations: synonyms, antonyms, etC

2.1 The identity test for ambiguity (impossibility of overlap)

Ex : The word Bank is a homonym that involves different sense relations. It can be Money institute or
River embankment. (Lead to the alternative senses since they are genuinely independent lexemes)

So, in the ambiguity there is No overlap between these two sense relation networks (they don't intersect
at any point) arbitrary between them because they are not close to each other.

2.2 The identity test for indeterminacy (possibility of overlap)

Ex: Child = can be any boy-girl, infant, or baby but even that it leads to one sense and they are all part of
the same network.

In the indeterminacy or vagueness, we always have Overlap (they intersect at one point) because they are
close to each other (the are in the same network)

3. The truth-conditions test: (we should have been mind that there is a fact)
This test is to say that if there exists some state of affairs or context in which a sentence can be both truly
affirmed and truly denied, then the sentence must be ambiguous.(It accepts yes/no answers)

3.1 The truth-conditions test ambiguity

Ex: Did Mary visit the bank (the statement is ambiguous but we know that Mary went to the bank
institute. So, we could say:
 Yes, she did
 No, she didn’t visit the bank embankment.

3.2 The truth-conditions test for indeterminacy.

(This sentence involves the vague item which is the child. Hence, we could not choose yes or not at the
same time as an appropriate answer)
Ex: Did Mary adopt a child? (We know that she does)
 Yes, she did (adopt a boy)
 No, she didn’t (adopt a girl)

But here even that we cannot say Yes/No because we know the truth. (It accepts only one answer) since
we already have an established truth.

 One sense at a time

Each meaning is used in different contexts. Fo example, the bank it has to with … and... They are not
related. So, when I used the term, I went to the bank I cannot vague which one I meant (check 1:10:00)

 Disambiguation in context
We Disambiguate by the determinacy with the help of the context.

 Context-dependent extensions of meaning

 How figurative senses become established.

Lexical Sense Relations

A traditional way of investigating the meaning of a word is to study the relationships between its
meaning and the meanings of other words: which words have the same meaning, opposite
meanings, etc.
Strictly speaking, these relations hold between specific senses, rather than between words; that
is why we refer to them as sense relations. For example, one sense of “mad” is a synonym for
anger, while another sense is a synonym of crazy.

Polysemy: Refers to the phenomenon that a word has more than one meaning (polysemous
word) face (multiple meaning). Bank (sense are related)

Homonymy: Refers to the phenomenon that two or more words have the same form, but
different meanings (Same pronunciation and spelling but Different meaning) (sense are
unrelated)

Note: these are Types of Lexical Ambiguity

-----------------------------------------(Pragmatics)---------------------------------------

Literal and Non-Literal Meaning

Implicature
(‫)المعنى الذي يقصده المتحدث ويفهمه السامع من سياق‬

In conversation, we don’t merely make random.

Conversations have purposes: we engage in them for reasons

According to Grundy, it is Any meaning which is conveyed indirectly or through hints, and understood
implicitly without ever being explicitly stated.

It can be defined as an indirect speech act that doesn’t need to be encoded (It is something beyond the
meaning of words). It is an indirect speech act that is not directly encoded in words.

*Indirect speech act covers verbs such as; mean, suggest, and imply.

Ex: A- would you like to go on a date? B- I am tired (linguistic meaning).

+>She doesn’t want to do out with me (implied meaning).

what is meant by the speaker often goes beyond what is said (Implicature) and what the listener infers
from what is meant by the speaker is also called Implicature
 The implicature can only happen when one of these maxims is violated.
(When the relevance maxim is violated). ‫أنا فشرق هو فالغرب‬

1. The maxims of Quantity

be economical: How old are you? According to my parents and the day that I was born. Am 15+2.

2. The maxims of Quality

Tell the truth: How tall are you? Am 4 meters

3. The maxims of Relation

Be relevant: How old are you? I like you.

4. The maxims of Manner

Be accurate/clear: How old are you? I am old enough to be old

So

The relevance maxim is fulfilled

Ali = do you love her? Khalid = Yes

The relevance maxim is violated

Ali = do you love her? Khalid = Can't imagine life without her.
(Khalid implied that he loves her, but he didn't say that literally and Ali understands that Khalid loves her, even Khalid
didn't say that literally. This is called implicature because the maxims of Manner is violated)

We have two types of implicature

1. Conventional Implicature:

has to do with the literal meaning and not part of the truth-condition.

It is not based on Grice's four Maxims.

It does not have to occur in conversation.

It does not depend on special texts for their interpretation.

It is associated with specific words (and, but, therefore, even/ yet).

Ex : Ahmed is poor, but he is happy.

+> The poor are not happy (this is what Ahmed tries to convey)

By using the connector “but” which shows “contrast” , the speaker implies that the poor are not happy.
(The word “but” creates an implicature of a sense of contrast).

2. Conversational Implicature: derives from the cooperative principle of conversation and a

number of maxims expected to be followed by participants in a speech event.

Types of conversational Implicature

Particularized Implicature: context-based + speakers' intended meaning (The listener has knowledge of the context of
the utterance made) are the inferences that are worked out while depending or drawing totally on the specific context of
the utterance.

Leila: Wow! Has your boss gone crazy?

Mary: Let go get some coffee

Leila has walked into Mary's office and noticed all the work was on her desk. She has addressed Mary
without realizing that the Boss is in some corner in the office.

Generalized implicature: no-context-based + The listener has knowledge of the context of the utterance
made+ is inferable or drawn without reference to a special context+ It does not refer to a special context.

A: Did you invite Rachid, Ahmed, and Cathy?

B: I invited Rachid and Cathy.

Generalized implicature divided into two types

It needs cooperation adhering between the two
Scalar implicature: is an implicature that attributes an implicit meaning beyond the explicit or literal
meaning of an utterance

<All, most, some, few> <always, often, sometimes> <certain, probable, possible> <do badly, progress, do
well>

The courses are sometimes interesting.

+> the courses are not always/ not often interesting

Indefinite implicature: The use of indefinite articles (a, an, the)

Rachid: What did you do this morning

Ahmed: I played with a dog

It was not a dog of Ahmed.

Entailment Vs Implicature and presupposition

Entailment is a relationship that implies between two sentences, where the truth of the one implies the
truth of the other because of the meanings of the words involved

Entailment is essential when you have sentence A asserts that sentence B is true (given some sentence we
can make another statement about that sentence).

Ex : I have a blue pen this would entail that I have a pen (so if I have a blue pen, then surely It must be
true that I have a pen) but if we say the dog is Brown here, we cannot get that the dog is loud because
there is nothing about the dog being brown that makes believe that this dog loud. SO, there is no
Entailment here.

What is tricky about the entailment is when we have something specific it would entail a more general
statement but when we have a general statement it doesn’t entail something more specific. So, we can
 say entailment is kind of like saying we have the specific scenario and from this specific scenario we can
maybe say something more general.

In Implicature the truth of (A) suggests it doesn’t entail (it does not require it) and be canceled but in

Entailments cannot be canceled.

Entailments cannot be canceled. Ex: This dog is fears (it entails that dog is dangerous) can be negated.

Implicatures can be canceled. Ex: This dog is not fears (what it entails completely change meaning)

The Speech Acts

(To speak is to act)
When we speak, we are not only just informing people but we invite them to do some actions
that we are trying to convey.

Speech act studies how words are used not only to present information but also to carry out
actions.

If you say: I will buy you a car. here, you seem to be performing the speech act of 'promising' not
just speaking. so, we are not just producing a statement but we are performing an action.

I warn you = this utterance is likely to be understood as a warning. Which means if you don’t do
what I asked you to do, I should react, I should do an act.

So , Uttering doesn't only mean that you speak, or just speak something but also you act
something.

Speech Acts Theory identifies that there are two kinds of utterances:
Constative we express facts, some state of affair, situations... we describe something we do not
do an act (something that is just descriptive of our feelings and situations) + can be true or false
but in performative it is used to perform an act.

for ex: I apologize to Mr. Rachid (I mean that I do the act of apologizing).

She walked out (by this I mean I describe something that happened).

if you say happy birthday (I am just expressing feelings, am not doing speech events: warning,
requesting... and so on).
speech events = functions Dayl Bac.

The nature of the verb identifies whether an utterance is Performative or constative.

For ex: Promise is a speech act term (a Performative verb) but intend is not. That is, we can
perform the act of promising but we cannot perform the act of intending something by virtue of
saying that we intend it.
I intend to vote. doesn't mean you or going to do it even I have the intention to do it (u are not decided
yet to do something, so this not performative way) ‫ رغم أن النية أبلغ من العمل‬I promise to vote....

Performative utterances are always in the present tense because we cannot perform an act reporting
that it was done previously or will be done later. Instead, such a report would be what Austin called a
constative (a declarative utterance reporting a state of affairs).

Ex:

I will be there for you: here we are doing an action (I Promise indirectly).

Rachid said: he will be there always for me: here we are just reporting (describing). There is no action.
Hence, Performative utterances in nature invite us to do things.

All speech acts have to follow certain

Felicity conditions
(Appropriate conditions)
In speech-act theory, the term felicity conditions refer to the conditions that must be in place and the
criteria that must be satisfied for a speech act to achieve its purpose.

For example,
A boy says to his father: I warn you, next time there will be consequences (the father as the interculture
knows that his boy doesn’t have the authority, so the performative it is invalid because the boy doesn’t
have the validity of a warning. So here one felicity condition has been violated by the boy.

A sentence must not only be grammatical to be correctly performed. It must also be felicitous” or well suited for the
purpose -Mark Liberman-.

For a performative speech act to be felicitous (successful), Austin argued that there are several conditions
that must be met, which he termed felicity conditions.

 Prepositional content: which requires participants to understand language, not to act like actors.
 Preparatory condition: Where the authority of the speaker and the circumstances of the speech
act are appropriate to its being performed successfully (it must be licensed to perform the act)
 Sincerity condition: Where the speech act is being performed seriously and sincerely
 Essential condition: where the speaker intends that an utterance be acted upon by the
addressee.
So, in other words, for a speech to be felicitous / successful and validate in reality.
 The sender believes the action should be done.
 The receiver has the ability to do the action.
 The receiver has the obligation to do the action.
 The sender has the right to tell the receiver to do the action.

So, performative it could be true or valid if it has certain conditions of validity. Simply, in order for an
utterance be felicitous. It must have one of these conditions
Besides that, utterances are used to perform actions, speech act theory assumes that speakers are
simultaneously involved in three different speech acts when uttering a sentence. Let's analyze these acts
using the example. It is cold in here

locutionary act illocutionary act perlocutionary act

The act of performing words
into utterances that make
sense in a language with
correct grammar and
pronunciation.
 Literal meaning
 What is said
The speaker feels cold in this
place
What the speakers try to convey
with words used in the utterance
 Intended meaning
 what is meant by the
speaker.
A request to close the window/
turn off the fan
the effect that the utterance can
have on the hearer.
 Understood meaning
 what is understood by
the receiver
The hearer accepts / refuses the
request

The intended meaning behind the utterance is called illocutionary force

There are utterances in which there is direct relationship between what is stated and what is intended as
the examples below, other utterances can be used to invite people to do something which is not directly
or explicitly expressed. In other words, speakers can choose to make their illocutionary force either stated
directly or stated in directly.

An utterance seems to be direct speech act when there is a direct relationship between the structure and
the communicative function of the utterance. Therefore, it explicitly illustrates the intended meaning the
speaker has behind making that utterance.

These following examples show that the form corresponds with function (there is a clear relationship
between the structure and their functions).

But in Indirect speech act, there is an indirect relationship between the form and the function of the
utterance (there is no direct correspond with the function)

Ex : It is cold in here. : declarative used to make a request.

The problem here is with the Indirect speech act because the The speaker does not explicitly state the
intended meaning behind the utterance. It is the hearer’s task to Analyse the utterance to understand its
meaning

According to Yule, The main reason we use indirect speech acts seems to be that actions such as requests,
presented in an indirect way (Could you open that door for me?), are generally considered to be more
gentle or more polite in our society than direct speech acts (Open that door for me!).

Talking of Politeness
 It Can be defined as showing awareness and consideration of another person’s face.

Generally, Politeness has to has to do more with being nice and considerate to other people when you are
communicating to them.

If you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self-image, that is called

A face-threatening act: refers to an act that would damage the face of the hearer or the speaker by
acting in opposition to the wants and desires of the other.

For ex:
A student says to his teacher: Sign this document for me. (He is causing damage to his face and hurting his
self-image as teacher how is supposed to be addressed with more respect by his student).

And whenever you say something that lessens the possible threat to another’s face, it can be described as
a face-saving act: the act of saying something to lessen a possible threat or to maintaining a good self-
image of either of the interlocutors.

For ex : Prof. Aziz asked me: why are you late?

I will create any excuse in order to save my face in front of him.

case study for Face-threatening and face-saving acts

Your neighbor is playing loud music late at night, and you can’t sleep.

1. “Stop awful music; it is so loud!” (Face-threatening act)

2. “I wonder when you could stop the music because don’t you think it is too late, and we need to
sleep.” (face-saving act). (Save the social image of your interlocutors)

In pragmatics, when we talk about face theory, we have negative and positive.

Negative face: is the need to be independent and free from imposition (we get the feeling of being less
free and restricted to an action and the decision) ‫غير بيت ندير صواب أما فخاطري كاع مبيتكش تجي‬
Positive face: is characterized by the desire to be admired, esteemed, and related to positively ‫بغيتك تجي‬

negative face says leave me alone and positive face says interact with me.
I want to save him from negative face.