NOTES FOR PRAGMATICS “Pragmatics is needed if we want a fuller,

deeper, and generally a more reasonable

account of human language behavior.”
Pragmatics is the study of the
choices we make when we use language “Language is not a controlled experiment in
(locutionary acts) – the intentions that lie the physics classroom or laboratory.
behind our choices (illocutionary acts) and Whoever says: ‘Give me all the information,
the effects which our choices convey and I’ll predict what is going to happen,
(perlocutionary acts). what this or that utterance is supposed to
mean’ is at best a would-be pragmatician.
-David Crystal In such a conceptual framework, no matter
how hard we ‘milk’ the context, we will
never arrive at a pragmatic understanding.”

Pragmatics is the study of speaker “The dynamic development of the

conversation, that which gives us the clue
meaning, contextual meaning, how more is
to an understanding, cannot be predicted,
communicated than what is said, and the
as it depends entirely on the individuals and
expression of relative distance.
their individual choices at every moment.”
-Yule, 1996
“A dynamic context is an environment that
Speaker Meaning is meaning as is in steady development, prompted by the
communicated by the speaker vs the literal continuous interaction of the people
meaning of the utterance. This requires engaged in language use.”
unpacking effort from the part of the hearer
in understanding what’s meant beneath the “Context is the quintessential
words. pragmatic concept; it is by definition
proactive, just as people are.”
Contextual Meaning is the interpretation of
what people mean in a particular context, “Contrastingly, pure linguistic description is
and how the context influences what is said. retroactive and static.”
This invokes the WH questions and requires
an understanding of the circumstances. The Aims of Pragmatics
How more is communicated than what is “Description, as the ultimate aim of linguistic
said explores how listeners can make science, digs its own grave; but when all is
inferences about what is said in order to said and done, describing the language that
arrive at an interpretation of the speaker’s has disappeared has not done a thing for
meaning. The ‘unsaid’ is part of what is the people that went with it.”
communicated.
“… saving languages is thought of as a
The expression of relative distance. The process of putting away, cataloguing,
speaker/s determine how much needs to be describing; not as a process that saves the
said based on the closeness (implying how languages as saving their users, providing
much shared experience they have with the latter with living conditions that allow
each other) with the hearer. them to continue using their languages.”
The Uses and Aims of Pragmatics “A pragmatic look at the problems of
endangered languages tells us not just to
go out there and describe, but to fight what Ambiguities in pronouns are usually
has been called ‘linguistic genocide’ or because of reflexivity and gender issues.
‘linguicide.’”
Presupposition
“In contrast to the linguistic philosophers,
- Presuppositions are an important
for pragmaticians the truth value linguistic device in conversation,
of a sentence, taken in its abstract because when conveyed in
form, is of little interest. People rarely utterances, they put constraints on
utter something in order to be proven true the discourse context.
or false. We want to know ‘why’ people say
- Remain true even going through
something; whether what they say is true or
false is only interesting in special negation test, conditional test,
surroundings, such as the philosophical and question test.
debate or the courtroom.” - e.g. “Alex is a bachelor” implies that
Alex is male, but is this a
“The truth, or full meaning, of an utterance presupposition or entailment?
may not even be accessible to the users at
N: Alex is not a bachelor.
the time of speaking or hearing, as long as
they do not know what motivates the other’s “Alex is male” YES
use of language.” C: If Alex is a bachelor, then
“Alex is male” YES
“Ascertaining the truth of an Q: Is Alex a bachelor?
utterance is not enough; “Alex is male” YES
pragmatics rests on the Therefore, being a bachelor
presupposes being male.
cooperation between language
users.” - Presupposition triggers include:
- Possessive pronouns (e.g.
“Erika loves her husband”
presupposes that Erika has a
husband)
- Regret (e.g. “Erika regrets
lying” presupposes that Erika
lied)
DISCOURSE REPRESENTATION - Like (e.g. “Erika doesn’t like
THEORY mayonnaise” presupposes
that Erika knows what mayo
Pronouns is)
1. Anaphoric - find their antecedent in - Answer (e.g. “Erika couldn’t
the preceding text (e.g. Erika bought answer the test”
the food she’s craving.) presupposes that Erika has a
2. Cataphoric - pronouns after the test)
antecedent (e.g. As Erika stared at - Only (e.g. “Erika only loves
the mirror, she saw her beautiful her husband” presupposes
self.) that Erika has a husband)
 - Again (e.g. “Erika failed projected onto the context, but sometimes
again” presupposes that disappear.
Erika already failed before)
- Manage (e.g. “Erika “If Mia dates Vincent, then her husband is
managed to finish first sem” out of town.”
presupposes that Erika had
trouble during first sem) is a sentence presupposing that Mia has a
husband. But the similarly constructed
Problems related to Presupposition sentence in example (7) does not carry this
(descriptions are from another source, bc presupposition:
libog ppt ni mam sksksk):
(7) If Mia is married, then her husband is out
The Binding Problem of town.
“A boxer nearly escaped his apartment.”
- The trigger his induces the This sentence does not presuppose that
presupposition that a male individual Mia has a husband. It is the bringing about
has an apartment. However, it does of Mia’s marital status in the antecedent of
not presuppose that just any male the conditional that neutralizes the
person has an apartment, nor that presupposition of Mia’s being married.
some boxer or other creature owns Hence, in complex sentences there is no
an apartment. It is the boxer who systematic way for dealing with
escaped who has an apartment. presupposition triggers, as sometimes
That is, the existentially quantified subparts of complex sentences carry
noun phrase ‘a boxer’ ties together presuppositions that are canceled in the
two types of information: ordinary main sentence.
asserted information (namely, that
a boxer nearly escaped from an Presuppositional Accommodation
apartment) and presuppositional (8) Vincent informed his boss.
information (the apartment (9) Butch didn’t realize there was a
mentioned in the assertion belongs difference between a tummy and a potbelly.
to the boxer mentioned in the
assertion). As assertions and The presuppositions conveyed by these
presuppositions obey different laws, utterances are that Vincent has a boss and
it is no trivial matter to tie them that there is a difference between a tummy
together, and many accounts of and a potbelly. Hearers have no problems
presupposition have been accommodating these presuppositions into
shipwrecked on this rock. the common ground, even in cases in which
the context includes no previous mention of
The Projection Problem them. Only if the discourse built up so far is
The presupposition projection problem incompatible with Vincent’s having a boss
manifests itself in complex sentences. (maybe he is a freelancer), then a hearer
Presupposition triggers occurring in would probably refuse to accept example
complex sentences, such as conditionals or (8). But with the absence of information
disjunctive sentences, sometimes are as to whether Vincent has a boss, the
hearer adjusts his or her - Presuppositions are cancelled out
presuppositions to make sense of the because of denial.
new utterance or sentence. This is
referred to as presuppositional Presupposition Triggers
accommodation.
The following structures have been isolated
(10) Fabian: What about the man you as sources of presuppositions. Of course
fought? presuppositions are not limited to these but
Butch: Floyd retired too. these are common presupposition triggers.
(32) Definite Descriptions (the X, that X,
Butch’s utterance in this dialogue …)
presupposes that someone distinct from
Floyd retired, a presupposition that is John saw the man with two heads
trivially true, as many people have retired >> There is a man with two heads
already. But spoken without the
knowledge that Butch ended his career, (33) Verbs
example (10) is odd, and a hearer will
most likely start a clarification dialogue i. Factive (regret, be aware, realize,
in such cases. However, example (10) is be odd, …)
completely acceptable when one knows that John is aware of how proud Mary is
Butch decided to retire after his fight with >> Mary is proud
Floyd. Nevertheless, although hearing
example (10) in an ongoing dialogue ii. Implicative (manage, forget,
without any mention of Butch’s planning happen, avoid, …)
to retire will certainly raise some John forgot to lock the door
eyebrows, somebody who just joins an >> John should have locked the door or
ongoing conversation and hears it will intended to do so
probably accommodate the associating
presupposition, expecting that one of the iii. Change of State (stop, start,
topics addressed in this conversation continue, finish, take, leave, enter, come,
was the retirement of somebody different go, arrive, …)
from Floyd. This is when the other role of John went to the movies
presuppositional accommodation comes >> John was initially not at the movies
into play, constituting a situation in which
hearers don’t have access to the context (34) Iteratives (again, anymore, return,
and use accommodation as a repair another time, restore, repeat, for the nth
strategy. time, …)

The Denial Problem John doesn’t like Mary anymore

“Franz does not regret feeding Erika, >> John liked Mary
because she did not feed Erika!”
“Franz is not a bachelor because she is a (35) Temporal clauses (before X, since X,
woman!” after X, whenever X, as X, during X, …)
During the War of 1812, the British burned
down the White House
>> There was a War of 1812

(36) Cleft sentences (it was X that Y (cleft),

what X V was Y (pseudo-cleft),)
What John ate was beef stew
>> John ate something

(37) Contrastives (contrastive intonation,

too, back, in return; comparative as-clause.)

John hit Mary back

>> Mary hit John

(38) Counterfactuals (conditional or modal

expressions stating facts contrary to how
the world is)

If John had entered the raffle, he would

have won
>> John didn’t enter the raffle

Hello sign na ni para matulog ka. Gudnyt

fren lavan lng tas exam. God bless you! <3