Discourse: Pragmatics

Pragmatics:

• The analysis of the unsaid
• Examining the deeper meaning of language 
• e.g. nous sommes Paris vs Je suis Charlie 
• The change in deitic reference (nous vs je) leads to an entirely different meaning
• from the personal to the universal
• Deitic references are often used in contrast with each other 
• The unsaid - the je/nous are excluding the tu/vous

What is the study of Pragmatics? 

• The study of the relationship between what is said and what is actually meant
• It focuses on the functions of language
• e.g. "you wouldn't pass the salt"
• literal meaning - an accusation - in the past, I asked you to pass the salt and you refused
• however because of our social experience, we know that what is actually meant is a request to pass the salt 

Studies on Pragmatics:

• Morris, 1938, coined the term pragmatics and defined it as the study of the relationship of signs to the user (speaker) and the interpreter (hearer)
• Katz, 1977, described pragmatic phenomena as those in which knowledge of setting and context of an utterance plays a role in its understanding
• Fesold, 1991, described pragmatics as the use of context to make inferences about meaning
• Bach, 2004, defined it as the theory of language use

A Working Definition of Pragmatics: 

A set of internalised rules which tell us how to use language in socio-culturally  appropriate ways, taking into account the participants in a communicative interaction and the features of the context within which the interaction takes place.

Speech Act Theory: 

• Austin and Serl
• Divides language into functions
• e.g. requests, apologies, compliments, advice, complaints, suggestions, insults, etc
• The study of utterances as functions
• They created two categories of language 
• Performatives - whereby saying and doing are conflated to perform an action 
• e.g. "I now pronounce you man and wife" 
• the words make the action happen 
• when the act of speaking changes a situation or physical circumstance
• Characterised by the first person pronoun and a valid speaker, hearer and context
• Constatives - whereby the utterance can be said to be true
• focused on truth values 
• e.g. "The cat is in the house" 

Focus of Pragmatics: 

• What's done with language and how it's accomplished
• The three major concerns of pragmatics
• the difference between literal and intended meaning
• directness vs indirectness
• conventional vs non conventional

Literal vs Intended Meaning:

•  Locutionary Act - the actual utterance
• the physical act of constructing utterance and meaning is determined by the rules of language
• Illocutionary Act - the intended meaning
• e.g. "It's really hot in here" could mean "Please open the window"
• Perlocutionary Act - the effect of the locutionary act and the illocutionary act
• e.g. Locution: "Vous ne pouvez pas m'aider."
• the literal meaning is "You can't help me" as in "you don't have the ability or the possibility of helping me"
• Illocution: a request for help 
• Perlocution: the person will help or refuse
• Therefore it is the illocutionary act which is the key to the success or failure of an exchange
• if the hearer understands the speaker's intention as voiced through the illocution, then it is a successful exchange 
• If the hearer's understanding differs from the speaker's intention then there is a mismatch between locution and illocution

Indirectness vs Directness:

•  With a Direct Act, there is no possibility of a mismatch
• With an Indirect Act, the possibility of a mismatch exists

Conventionalised vs Non-Conventionalised:

• Conventionalised - the normal, universal way of saying something
• e.g. "Vous ne pouvez pas m'aider" is universally recognised as a request for help
• no room for ambiguity
• Non-conventionalised - a personal way of expressing something, which is not universally recognised as having that meaning
• e.g. "T'as pas faim?" could mean "I am hungry and would like to eat."
• personal - depends on context for understanding
• the hearer will need to disambiguate the meaning

 The interpretation of speech acts is highly subjective and depends a lot on context.