Introduction to linguistics

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Introduction to linguistics

• Meaning
• Pragmatics

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Semantics and Pragmatics

• sentence
• no context
• utterance
• in context
• Semantics
• No (larger) context
• Pragmatics
• In context

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Semantics and Pragmatics

• Semantics
• Meaning in language
• Pragmatics
• Meaningul use of Language
• Semantic meaning
• Potential, habitual, encoded in language
• Pragmatic meaning
• Actualization of that meaning, encoded in social
  situations, in speech acts

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Semantics and Pragmatics

• In semantics
• We decipher a sentence
• i.e. we recognize the forms
• We can associate the forms with certain habitual
  meanings
• In pragmatics
• We interpret a sentence
• Basing on our knowledge of the rules of human
  behaviour, knowlegde of the world, etc.

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Pragmatic meanings

• Reference
• Use of a form-meaning item to point (refer) to
  something
• Is based on denotation but is not the same
• Words refer in propositions only
• A proposition is a sentence with a certain truth
  value (true or false)

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Communicative act

• Speakers use words to communicate something
• This is beautiful
• This is a dog
• When they talk, they communicate
• i.e. they enter into a communicative act
• They perform a type of illocution
• Their utterances have illocutionary force

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Perlocution

• Speakers, when uttering something
• Use denotation
• To point refer to something
• To communicate something (illocution)
• To achieve something from the other person
• Their utterances have a perlocutionary effect
• When they intend to achieve something

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Speech acts

• To help us interpret properly utterances
• Pragmatic meanings are not isolated
• They form a part of larger wholes, called
• Speech acts
• Speech acts are a sort of scenario, a known
  framework for our actions
• Cf. Greetings, partings, thanksgiving

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Schema

• There are habitual meanings in language
• There are habitual activities of human beings
• Normal patterns of reality
• Schema

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Schema

• The achievement of pragmatic meaning is a matter
  of matching up the linguistic elements of the
  code with the schematic elements of the code

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Negotiation of meaning

• Schema can be insufficient to interpret an
  utterance
• An utterance can be ambiguous
• The hearer may not be skilled in interpreting an
  utterance
• The meaning then is negotiated

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Negotiation of meaning

• When people communicate
• They WANT to communicate
• And they are willing to cooperate with the other
  speaker
• they help each other to interpret the utterance

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Relations between utterances

• general conventions that people usually observe
• cohesion
• agreement in reference
• turn-taking rules
• pragmatic genres
• conventional and non-conventional
• written and spoken

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cohesion and coherence

• An effective text needs to be coherent and
  cohesive.
• coherence refers to the underlying logic and
  consistency of a text.
• The ideas expressed should be relevant to one
  another so that the reader can follow the meaning.

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coherence and cohesion

• cohesion refers to the grammatical features in a
  text which enable the parts to fit together.

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Coherence and cohesion

• Structure of discourse
• sentence utterance
• text discourse

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Cohesion

• One way of creating cohesion is the use of
  connectives
• I sat down and turned on the television. Just
  then, I heard a strange noise.
• The phrase 'just then' relates these events in
  time.

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Cohesion

• Cohesion is also achieved by the use of words
  (such as pronouns) that
• refer back to other parts of the text.
• In these examples, such words are underlined
• There was a man waiting at the door. I had never
  seen him before. We haven't got a car. We used
  to have one, but we sold it. I wonder whether
  Sarah will pass her driving test. I hope she
  does.
• ( I hope Sarah passes her driving test)

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Coherence, anaphora and reference

• Anaphora is the name for the relationship between
  she and Mary in
• Mary looked out of the window. The sky looked
  threatening, so she decided to take an umbrella.
• What the two highlighted words share is the fact
  that they both refer to the same person - they
  have the same reference.
• The word she refers back to the word Mary without
  repeating the name.
• This 'reference back' is called anaphora.
• Successful writers keep track of the various
  people and things that they mention by building a
  reference chain by means of anaphoric devices
  such as pronouns.

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Reference chain

• A simple reference chain tracks a single
  character through the text.
• Usually the first link introduces the character,
  so this link needs to provide enough information
  to distinguish the character from everything else
  in the world.
• This typically requires a full noun phrase (e.g.
  the people next door or a large grey cat).
• Once 'on stage', however, the character is much
  easier to identify because it only needs to be
  distinguished from the other characters that are
  already on stage.
• Consequently the subsequent links give just
  enough information for this, using one of the
  anaphoric devices that you can look at in more
  detail if you wish.

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Connectives

• Connectives are words such as but, if and
  therefore which indicate logical relations
  between two clauses or sentences.
• They belong to three different word classes
• coordinating conjunctions but, and, or
• subordinating conjunctions if, because, until,
  etc.
• adverbs therefore, nevertheless, then,
  meanwhile, etc.

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Connectives

• We use connectives to show how ideas are
  connected logically, but in many cases
• these logical relations are so obvious that we
  can leave them implicit.
• In other cases, however, it is important to make
  the logical relations explicit.
• Connectives help the reader to navigate through
  the logic of the passage.

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Implicit connectives

• The structure of the sentences that form a text
  suggests some cohesion.
• Mary had been working for hours. Feeling tired,
  she was still doing it.
• though she felt

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Time and tense

• An text-level skill is the ability to use verb
  tenses (past or present) consistently throughout
  a long passage.
• Tense classifies verbs as
• present tense
• or past tense
• Time classifies situations described by verbs
  according to whether they occur at some time
• in the past,
• in the present
• or in the future

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Time and tense

• The choice of tense provides a time framework for
  the "world" being described.
• The chosen tense must be maintained when
  describing the same world.

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Person and viewpoint

• The term person is usually defined as follows
• first person the speaker or writer
• second person the person addressed, i.e. the
  listener or reader
• third person anyone else.
• The obvious devices for distinguishing 'persons'
  (in this sense) are the
• personal pronouns and
• their related possessive determiners.

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Person and viewpoint

• The viewpoint expressed in any writing can be
  that of
• the writer
• a character
• a fictitious narrator

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Person and viewpoint

• The system of grammatical 'person' is important
  as
• one of the main devices that we use in order to
  show
• whose viewpoint is being expressed,
• though they may leave some uncertainty which is
  sometimes deliberate.

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Person and viewpoint

• As for the content of the viewpoint
• the judgements and opinions expressed
• these are often expressed subtly,
• through the choice of words,
• so that readers or listeners may be influenced
  without realising why.
• This potential of language allows one either to
  manipulate or to help the reader.

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Viewpoint

• Viewpoint can be attributed to a person in many
  different ways
• Direct statement (Alison writing)
• This is outrageous!
• Direct speech
• Alison said, "This is outrageous!"
• Verbs such as think and seem
• I think this is outrageous.
• nouns such as view or opinion
• My view is that this is outrageous.

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Viewpoint

• Impersonal language and evaluating judgements
• Some language is 'impersonal', giving the
  impression that viewpoints or judgements are not
  the responsibility of any identifiable
  individual.
• These judgements are anonymous and presented as
  the view of some Higher Authority - the
  Government, God etc.
• The question "Who says ...?" is not invited.
• We meet a lot of impersonal language, and most of
  it is beneficial and necessary but it is
  important for them to be aware that
• impersonal language does not, in itself, put the
  judgements expressed beyond question.
• Riders must always wear a crash helmet (in the
  Highway Code)