Pragmatics Summary
CHAPTER 1
DEFINITIONS AND BACKGROUND
Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener ( or reader) and it has more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves. Pragmatic is the study of the speaker meaning. It is involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the context influences what is said. It is study of how speakers organize what they want to say in accordance with who they’re talking to, where, when and under what circumstances. Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning. It also explores how listeners can make inferences about what is said in order to arrive at an interpretation of the speaker’s intended meaning. Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said. Closeness also implies shared experience on the assumption of how close or distant the listener is, speakers determine how much needs to be said. Pragmatics is the study of the expressions of relative distance.
CHAPTER 2
DEIXIS AND DISTANCE
Diexis means “pointing” via language (deictic expression). For example when you notice a strange object and ask, “What’s that?” you are using deictic expression (“that”) to indicate something in the immediate context.
Diexis divided into three expressions:
1. Person deixis (me, you) can be used to indicate people. Social deixis, person deixis distinction between forms used for a familiar versus non familiar addressee in some languages or T/V distinction, ‘tu’ (familiar) and ‘vous’ (unfamiliar), for example: Would his higness like some coffee? There is also an exclusive “we” (speaker plus other(s), excluding addressee) and inclusive “we” (speaker and addressee included), for example: We clean up after ourselves around here.
2. Spatial deixis ( here , there) can be used to indicate location, for example the verb motion ‘come’ and
DEFINITIONS AND BACKGROUND
Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener ( or reader) and it has more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves. Pragmatic is the study of the speaker meaning. It is involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the context influences what is said. It is study of how speakers organize what they want to say in accordance with who they’re talking to, where, when and under what circumstances. Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning. It also explores how listeners can make inferences about what is said in order to arrive at an interpretation of the speaker’s intended meaning. Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said. Closeness also implies shared experience on the assumption of how close or distant the listener is, speakers determine how much needs to be said. Pragmatics is the study of the expressions of relative distance.
CHAPTER 2
DEIXIS AND DISTANCE
Diexis means “pointing” via language (deictic expression). For example when you notice a strange object and ask, “What’s that?” you are using deictic expression (“that”) to indicate something in the immediate context.
Diexis divided into three expressions:
1. Person deixis (me, you) can be used to indicate people. Social deixis, person deixis distinction between forms used for a familiar versus non familiar addressee in some languages or T/V distinction, ‘tu’ (familiar) and ‘vous’ (unfamiliar), for example: Would his higness like some coffee? There is also an exclusive “we” (speaker plus other(s), excluding addressee) and inclusive “we” (speaker and addressee included), for example: We clean up after ourselves around here.
2. Spatial deixis ( here , there) can be used to indicate location, for example the verb motion ‘come’ and