PRAGMATICS

• Victoria Fernández
• Fernanda García
• Esmeralda Ramírez
• Pragmatics is concerned with our understanding of
language in context. There are two types of
context that are relevant: linguistic context (the
discourse that precedes the phrase/sentence to be
interpreted) and situational context (everything
non-linguistic in the environment of the speaker).
PRONOUNS
• Pronouns provide a good way to illustrate the two
kinds of context. Pronouns are lexical items that can
get their meaning from other NPs in the sentence or
in a larger discourse. Any NP that a pronoun
depends on for its meaning is called an antecedent.
There are three aspects that pronouns are sensitive
to for their interpretation: syntax, discourse and
situational context.
 Pronouns and syntax
• There are various types of pronouns. For example
reflexive pronouns always depend on NP
antecedent for their meaning:

Jane bit herself. In this case the reflexive

pronoun is in the same sentence as its antecedent.

Jane said that the boy bit herself. In this case,

herself is in the embedded sentence and it’s
structurally too far away from the antecedent.

Herself left. There is no antecedent.

• Pronouns cannot refer to an antecedent in the same
clause, but they are free to refer to an NP outside
this clause:

John knows him. This case is ungrammatical

relative to the interpretation. We know that John ≠
him.

John knows that he is a genius. The pronoun he

can be interpreted as John himself or it can refer to
someone else. The latter can get its reference from
a larger discourse or nonlinguistic context.
 Pronouns and discourse

• Pronouns may be used to refer to entities previously

mentioned in discourse or to entities that are
presumably known to the participants of a
discourse. When that presumption fails, it may result
in miscommunication or misunderstanding.
• In a discourse, context plays a primary role in
pronoun interpretation:

 It seems that the man loves the woman.

 Many people think he loves her.

• In this case, it would be natural to believe that the

second sentence makes reference to the first. Yet
the pronouns he and her could be referring to
someone else. Intonation and emphasis provide
clues as to whom you’re referring to.
 Pronouns and situational context
• When a pronoun gets its reference from an NP antecedent
in the same sentence, we say the pronoun is bound to that
noun phrase antecedent.
 Mary thinks he loves her.

• If her refers to ‘Mary’, it would be a bound pronoun.

Pronouns can also be bound to quantifier antecendent such
as ‘every N’:
 Every girl in the class hopes john will ask her out on a date.

• In this sentence, her is bound to each of the girls (every

girl). The pronouns I/we/you are bound to the
speaker/hearer of the discourse.
DEIXIS
• It is the point or specifying function of some words
whose detonation changes from one discourse to
another.

• It is pronounce as "dike-sis"
• Expressions such as:
– This person
– That man
– Those women
– Those children
• Are deictic because they need situational
information for the listener to understand.
 Types of deixis

Person Time Place

• First person ( I, • Now • Here
we, us, • This time • That place
ourselves our • Then • There
ours) • Next week • This place
• Second person • •
Next april These parks
(you) •
• Third person Seven days ago
( he, she, it)
This help us to understand different
utterances even when they are not
complete or totally coherent.

Situational Context
• Refers to the knowledge of who is
speaking, who is listening, what
objects are being discussed and
general facts about Things around
us.
Permit a person to understand
different utterances such as it`s cold
in here means “shut the window” or 2
turn up the thermostat”

The cooperative principle says that there

are four conversational maxims:
 Quantity. Say neither more
nor less tan the disscourse Maxims Of
requires.
 Relevance. Conversation
 Manner. Be brief and orderly,
avoid ambiguity.
 Quality . Do not lie
 Implicatures
• An implicature can be understand as the inference that
can be drawn from an utterence in context.
• Deductions that are not made strictly on the basis of
the context.
• An implicature can be cancelled by adding extra
information.
Mary: it`s cold in here.
Implicatures: Mary wants a sweater
She wants the heat turn up
SPEECH ACTS
• We are attuned in everyday conversation not primarily to the
sentences we utter to one another, but to the speech acts
that those utterances are used to perform:

 requests
 warnings
 invitations
 promises
 apologies
 predictions

• The theory of speech acts describes how this is done.

• In the sentence “I warn you that there is a sheepdog in
the closet”, you not only say something, you warn
someone.

• Verbs like bet, promise, warn, and so on are

performative verbs.

• Using them in a sentence (in the first person, present

tense) adds something extra over and above the
statement.
• There are hundreds of performative verbs in
every language. The following sentences
illustrate their usage:

1. I bet you five dollars the Yankees win.

2. I challenge you to a match.
3. I dare you to step over this line.
4. I move that we adjourn.
5. I promise to improve.
6. I resign! I pronounce you husband and wife.
• An informal test to see whether a sentence contains
a performative verb is to begin it with the words I
hereby. . . Only performative sentences sound right
when begun this way.
• Compare:

 I hereby apologize to you

 I hereby know you.