Review and Introduction

The sixth and last of the subdivisions of linguistics is pragmatics. We have already learned that phonetics and phonology both deal with the study of speech sounds. Phonetics looks at the speech sounds themselves. Phonology looks at the rules that govern how the sounds combine together. Morphology is the study of how words are formed. Where phonetics and phonology can best be seen as issues of teaching pronunciation in an ESL classroom, morphology is best seen as the issue of teaching vocabulary in an ESL classroom. Syntax looks at how sentences are formed and includes the description of the rules that combine words together into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax is typically what is meant when most people say the word grammar, and it forms the bulk of what is traditionally called grammar study. Semantics focuses on the study of meaning in language and looks at words and their relationships to each other, to their referents, and to the users of the language.

This lesson focuses on the relationship of language to the context within which it is used: pragmatics. In looking at the relationship of language to the context, we again will look at the users of the language because they are part of the context. We will also look at some of the features of language that convey contextual information, and we will look at how context helps humans communicate more efficiently.

Definitions of Pragmatics

• The study of language use and its relation to language structure and context of utterance.


• The study of how meaning is related to context and situation.


• The study of the effect of context on meaning.


• Speakers’ and addressees’ background attitudes and beliefs, their understanding of the context of an utterance, and their knowledge of how language can be used for a variety of purposes.


• The beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge of the world that speakers and listeners assume in communication.


• The study of how language is used to communicate within its situational context.


• The branch of linguistics that studies language use, in particular the relationship among syntax, semantics, and interpretation in light of the context of the situation.

What these various definitions of pragmatics tell us is that pragmatics deals with meaning and context. They all underscore that users of the language and their attitudes and knowledge matter in determining meaning. Let's look at how this happens more closely.

Activity: Mini-Dialogs

Explanation of Dialogs

What we learn from this activity is that the context really does help users of a language understand what is being communicated through language. There are also certain words in language, such as that, whose job it is to connect the language to the context.

When speakers understand the different contexts within which a certain language form is used, they know that its meaning changes. Often polysemy comes from words having diffferent but related meanings in different contexts.

Activity: Different Meanings, Different Contexts

Consider each of these statements. Identify the meaning of the word go in each, and identify the context within which the statement would be made.

Go ahead and take another cookie.
Go to a movie tonight.
Go left on Wall Street.
Go as slowly as you can.
Go in peace.
Go! Go! Go!

Explanations

If the same forms can have different meanings in different contexts, and if the relationships between words and their meanings is arbitrary, and if the referents of words are images in people's heads, not things in the real world,

How is it that people ever know what another person means?

The Negotiation of Meaning

Essentially, what happens is that we negotiate meaning with each other as we construct our conversations. Part of a native speaker's proficiency in the language comes as they develop their pragmatic abilities. Proficiecy in pragamatics often comes late, in one's young adult years. That is, the ability to relate the language forms to the context, to understand that each person's mental images are unique, and to use language to negotiate the difference between others, their mental images, and one's own images are the particular abilities of a langauge user who is proficient in the pragmatics of the language.

The pragmatically proficient language user knows what others assume he knows, what he actually knows, and how to work out any errors in assumptions.

H. P. Grice’s Cooperative Principle of Conversation outlines what speakers assume in their dealings with each other.

Grice developed 4 Maxims that he claimed govern our conversations with each other:

1. Relation –Make your utterance relevant to the context, including prior utterances.
2. Quality – Make your contribution to the discourse true.
3. Quantity – Make your contribution no longer or shorter than necessary.
4. Manner – Avoid ambiguity and obscurity, be brief and orderly.
   

An Illustration of the Cooperative Principle

Joe College: Do you want to go to a movie? Jill College: I have to study. Did Jill answer Joe’s question?

It means, “No, I don’t want to go to a movie because I have to do something else during that time period.”

• Maybe the assumption that Jill is telling the truth is wrong.
• What does her response to Joe mean then?

Perhaps Jill simply doesn’t like Joe and lies to avoid spending time with him. Perhaps the statement should be intrepeted as:

The study message will be interpreted as no, but won’t hurt Joe’s feelings. So there is truth (no), and there is no more than necessary (all you need is no, I don’t need to say I don’t like you).

Of course, this leaves Jill open to future invitations from Joe.