Unit 1: Issues in Pragmatics, a document on languages

What is Pragmatics?

Semantics and pragmatics involve the study of meaning

SEMANTICS studies what a sentence or a word means: sentence meaning, word meaning, linguistic meaning or literal meaning.

PRAGMATICS studies what a speaker means by using a piece of language or the study of language in context: speaker meaning.

Pragmatics is the study of the speaker meaning:

• includes verbal & non-verbal elements
• varies depending on the context, the relationship between people, prior experience & knowledge.

Gap Between Semantics and Pragmatics

There is often a GAP between what speakers say and what they mean, i.e. between the linguistic meaning and the speaker's meaning.

Words (Semantics): provide a clue to what the speaker means (Pragmatics).

To fill the gap, hearers must build the speaker's meaning from words' meaning and the context.

If I am having a hard day, I may tell you: My day was a nightmare.

• semantic meaning of 'nightmare': bad dream experienced by someone asleep.
• pragmatic meaning (meaning intended in the context of my utterance): unpleasant experience.

Speakers usually mean much more that what they say: utterances may carry different meanings depending on:

• when it is said
• who the speaker is
• who the hearer is
• where it takes place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aeCxWyNAQQ Video about implications of 'hello'

• im here
• look good . are you awake
• are you listening
• warning: are you hearing it
• answering phone
• done sth
• attractive
• there they are
• surprise· get out of my place . is there someone
• greeting
• sth good to eat

Utterance, Sentence & Proposition

UTTERANCE: physical and ephemeral event. Use of a piece of language by a specific speaker in a specific context (occasion at a specific time).

• A cappuccino, please! . Liverpool won the last Champions League.

SENTENCE: abstract linguistic entity. A string of words following the grammatical rules of language.

• I would like a cup of coffee. · * Liverpool league the Champions won.

PROPOSITION: abstract non-linguistic entity. Meaning of a statement which may be true (if it matches reality) or false (if it doesn't). Constant meaning of a sentence that can be true or false, despite changes in the illocutionary force.

The same proposition may be expressed by different sentences: i.e. Prince William will inherit the throne.

• active: the throne will be inherited by Prince William.
• passive: Prince William will inherit the throne.
• interrogative: Will Prince William inherit the throne?

The same sentence can express different propositions:

• Groucho Marx: One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas (who was in his pajamas, the elephant of his?)
• what he was doing in my pajamas I'll never know. (same sentence different meaning)

Pragmatic Knowledge

Our knowledge of pragmatics is rule governed.

Speakers within a language community share knowledge about how to use language appropriately.

Pragmatic principles about language production and interpretation in context.

Our pragmatic competence is generally implicit.

Pragmatics studies how more get communicated than is said (implicit meaning) Physical, social and/or psychological closeness or distance between speakers and hearers determines what is said and what is left implicit.

Communication and Pragmatic Inference

How do humans communicate?

Communication involves 2-information processing devices (a speaker and a hearer).

1 +In oral communication:

• a speaker modifies the hearer's environment.
• a hearer entertains thoughts similar to the speaker's.

Human communication involves:

• coding: pairing words with acoustic signals for people to communicate
• inferring: reaching a conclusion from some evidence or premises

Comprehension involves:

• decoding: recovering a message associated to a signal by a code (linguistic processing).
• inferring to recover:
  • speaker's explicit proposition (explicature)
  • speaker's implicit proposition (implicature)
  • speaker's attitude to the explicature
  • speaker's attitude to the implicature

Exercise:

• What does the speaker say?
  • security
• What does the speaker implicate?
  • he's gonna steal in the house
• What is the speaker's attitude to what is said and implicated?
  • is serious supporting the implication of the message

Underdeterminacy

There are 3 levels of utterance meaning:

• linguistic meaning - decoding
• what the speaker says (proposition expressed) - inferring
• what the speaker means (implicature) - inferring

There are 3 sources of linguistic underdeterminacy:

Referential Indeterminacy

a) REFERENTIAL INDETERMIACY (requires contextually determining indexical references)

• You and you, but not you, stand up! - Physical context (eye contact or pointing)
• The authorities barred the anti-globalization demonstrators because they advocated violence - Extralinguistic information about who would advocate or fear violence.
• The authorities barred the anti-globalization demonstrators because they feared violence - Extralinguistic information about who would advocate or fear violence.
• It rained yesterday - Time reference of 'yesterday' has to be fixed.

Semantic Ambiguity

b) SEMANTIC AMBIGUITY: Context needed to select speaker meaning.

• Lexical ambiguity I'M A HUGE METAL FAN. ME TOO!
• Syntactic ambiguity: They're cooking apples
  • What are they doing?
• Visual ambiguity (is it a duck or a rabbit?)
  • What kind of apples are those?

Semantic Incompleteness

c) SEMANTIC INCOMPLETENESS: the linguistic meaning has to be pragmatically completed.

• Madrid is far [from?] - Missing constituents have to be inferred
• This fruit is green - Unspecified range of elements: green inside or outside? Vague! . I'm not drinking. I have to drive - Linguistic meaning of 'drink' has to be specified to 'drink alcohol'. . The room was silent - meaning of 'silent' has to be extended to mean 'not literally in complete silence.'

Sub-sentential utterances: utterances whose linguistic meaning does not determine a full proposition

• He's too young [to?]
• Where are my keys? On the table . He went to the bank [financial institution or sloping land?]
• I have temperature

Their linguistic meaning has to be contextually completed by inferring:

• He's too young to work . Your keys are on the kitchen table . He went to the Bank of England proposition Speaker's full
• I have [higher than normal] temperature

Inference

When we come across texts or conversations, we often make some inferences. E.g. If we hear: John was assassinated - INFERENCE - John died for political or religious reasons.

Linguistic expressions enable us to derive other propositions or information.

INFERENCE: process of connecting previous knowledge to new information to create further meaning beyond what is said.

The role of inference in communication is to allow hearers to interpret speakers' meaning.

• Tom: Have you seen my Shakespeare? Inference: name of the writer of the book
• Ann: It's on the desk

Similar inferences to understand:

• Picasso is in the museum
• I saw Shakespeare in London
• I enjoy listening to Mick Jagger

There are 3 types of inference:

Entailment (Semantic Inference)

a) ENTAILMENT (semantic inference) A semantic relation between 2 sentences such that, if the 1st is true, the 2nd must also be true. It is a necessary implication.

Necessary implication - Non-defeasible: an entailment can't disappear in any context.

• The president was assassinated - entails - The president is dead
  • If the president was assassinated is T - The president is dead is also T
  • The president was assassinated (T) - The ambassador isn't dead (F)
  • The president wasn't assassinated (T) - The ambassador died (F)

Presupposition (Pragmatic Inference)

b) PRESUPPOSITION (pragmatic inference) Inferences whose truth a speaker assumes to be inferable or known to the hearer; background assumptions necessary to understand the meaning of an utterance.

• Mary's dog no longer barks at the neighbour presupposes: Mary has a dog, the dog once barked at Mary's neighbour, Mary has a neighbour.

Characteristics:

• The presupposition survives when the utterance is negated (not p), questioned or embedded in context:
  • The king of Spain is tall - presupposes - There is a king of Spain
  • The king of Spain isn't tall (negation)
  • Is the king of Spain tall? (question) The presupposition survives
  • It seems that the king of Spain is tall (embedment)

Implicature (Pragmatic Inference)

c) IMPLICATURE (pragmatic inference) What an utterance means or suggests (extra meaning attached to an utterance); what a speaker implicates (versus what they say =.

• Ann: Will Sally come to class today?
• Bob: She's sick.
  • implicature: Sally won't come to class today - extra meaning meant by Bob's utterance when connecting it with Ann's question.

Characteristics:

• Cancellability: implicatures can be cancelled:
  • there are 80 students in class ... if not more - cancels implicature: no more than 80 students
• Non-detachability: they depend on what the speaker says:
  • Ann: How well did Jack do in the match?
  • Phil: He didn't manage to score - Jack didn't do very well (implicature He scored - Jack did well (implicature)
• Indeterminacy:
  • Anne is a machine - She is efficient, emotionless, workaholic ... (implicatures)
• Non-conventionality: It is not part of the speaker says:
  • there are 80 students in class ... - no more than students (implicature)
• Enforceability: It can be reinforced by being made explicit:
  • The water isn't cold in the lake - The water is warm (implicature)
  • The water isn't cold in the lake; it's warm.

Exercise: Entailments, presuppositions or implicatures?

• Hilda eats apples and bananas
  • Hilda exists
  • Hilda eats healthy food
  • Hilda eats apples
• Jack stopped smoking
  • jack has ceased smoking
  • jack won't have health problems
  • jack used to smoke

Summary: Semantic-Pragmatic Distinction

Linguistic meaning:

• Also called sentence or word meaning
• Context-independent
• A semantic notion

Speaker meaning:

• Also called utterance meaning
• Context-dependent
• Depends on speaker's intentions
• A pragmatic notion

Inference covers the gap between word meaning and utterance or speaker meaning [linguistic knowledge (coding) + inferring]