Discourse & Society

Discourse & Pragmatics

r e p a r e d b y:
P
le n e M ae T.
o l i n a , Ange
M oche
o c , R
Dogm
Discourse & Society
Discourse & Prag
matics
Discourse & Pragmatics

As a subject, discourse and

pragmatics looks at relationship
between language and context.
Discourse & Pragmatics
Pragmatics is an indispensable source for
discourse analysis. It is impossible to analyze
any discourse without having a solid basic
knowledge of pragmatic phenomena and the
ways in which they work and interact (Alba-
Juez, 2009).
Discourse & Pragmatics
It also looks at ways in which people
typically perform speech acts in spoken
and written discourse and the reasons we
choose to perform a speech act in a
particular way.
 SPEECH ACT

• Action performed by a speaker with an

utterance.

• We use the term speech acts to describe

actions.
 Types of Speech Acts
 Locutionary act
Refers to the literal meaning of the actual words
 Illocutionary act
Refers to speaker’s intention in uttering words
 Perlocutionary act
Refers to the effect of the utterance has on the
thoughts or actions of the other person.
Classifications of Illocutionary Acts
• Representatives
Commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition.
• Directives
Cause the hearer to take a particular action.
• Commissives
Commit a speaker to some future action.
• Expressives
Expresses the speaker’s attitudes and emotions towards the proposition.
• Declarations
Change the reality in accord with the proposition of the declaration.
 DIRECT & INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

Whenever there is a direct relationship between

a structure and a function, we have a direct
speech act.

Whenever there is an indirect relationship

between a structure and a function, we have an
indirect speech act.
 DIRECT & INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

“It’s cold outside”

I am telling you
I am asking you to
that it is cold
close the door.
outside.

Statement (Direct Speech) Request (Indirect Speech)

 COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

• A principle proposed by the philosopher Paul Grice

whereby those involved in communication assume that
both parties will normally seek to cooperate with each
other to establish agreed meaning.

• It is composed of four maxims:

quality, quantity, relation, and manner.
Conversational Maxims:

Maxim of Quantity

• Make your contribution as informative as is

required.
• Do not make your contribution more
informative than is required.
Conversational Maxims:

Maxim of Quality

• Do not say what you believe to be false.

• Do not say that for which you lack adequate
evidence.
Conversational Maxims:

Maxim of Relation

• Be relevant
Conversational Maxims:

Maxim of Manner

• Speak clearly
• Avoid ambiguity
• Be brief
• Be orderly
Example:

Husband: Where are the car keys?

Wife: They’re on the table in the hall.
 The wife has answered clearly (Manner) and
truthfully (Quality), has given just the right
amount of information (Quantity) and has directly
addressed her husband’s goal in asking the
question (Relation). She has said precisely what
she meant, no more and no less.
 Flouting a Maxim
A cooperative speaker can intentionally disobey a maxim, as long as (s)he
or the context
provides enough indicators for the hearer to notice it. This is called
flouting a maxim and
is used to indirectly convey information (e.g., using sarcasm or irony).

Example:
What an amazing baseball player John is!
This can either be a
– positive comment on John’s abilities (maxim of quality obeyed)
– negative comment on John’s abilities through irony (maxim of quality
disobeyed,
clear to hearer, e.g., when said right after John didn’t catch the ball)
Flouting quantity

Flouting quantity involves giving either too

much or too little information.

A: Where does Feby live?

B: Somewhere in Mintal.
Flouting quality

A: So you had a birthday last week, right?

B: Yes, I turned 40!
A: I’ll actually turn 150 next month.
Flouting quality: irony

“You know, there’s nothing I love more than

waking at four in the morning to the celestial
music of next door’s next door’s little angel
crying.”
Flouting quality: sarcasm

“Ah, undercooked potatoes again. Yummy!”

Flouting relation

If speakers flout the maxim of relation, the

expect hearers to infer or imagine what the
utterance did not say.

A: So what do you think of Mark?

B: His roommate’s a wonderful cook.
Flouting manner
 IMPLICATURE

Something the speaker suggests or implies

with an utterance, even though it is not
literally expressed.

Example:
A: Is that a scotch tape over there?
B: Help yourself.
 POLITENESS

“Polite social behavior” within a culture. We assume

that participants in an interaction are generally aware
of such cultural norms and principles of politeness.

Face: the public self-image of a person. It refers to

that emotional and social sense of self that everyone
has and expects the others to recognize.
 POLITENESS
Face Wants: A person’s expectations that their
public self-image will be respected.

• If a speaker says something that represents a threat

to another individual’s expectations, regarding
self-image, it’s described as a face- threatening
act.
• When someone says an utterance that avoids a
potential threat t a person’s face, it’s called face-
saving act.
 POLITENESS
Example:
• A: “I’m going to tell him to stop that awful noise
right
• now!!” (Face-threatening act)

• B: “Perhaps you could just ask him if he’s going

to stop because it’s getting late and we need to
sleep…” (Face- saving act)
Thank you for
listening!
https://slideplayer.com/slide/8105209/

http://www.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/~dm/04/spring/201/04-pragmatics-g
rice.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY_DgfnO7nA