Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Pragmatics 1
Pragmatics 1
Pragmatics 1
PRAGMATICS
George Yule, 1996
Oxford University Press
PRACTICE
WHICH MAXIMS HAVE BEEN FLOUTED IN THE
FOLLOWING?
1.The teacher punished the students who were
rude for good reasons.
2.Many people are lonely because they build
walls instead of bridges.
3.I’ve told you about this at least a million
times but you’re still so ignorant.
4.He drank the whole bottle.
5.There’s absolutely nothing on the telly this
evening.
6.The kettle is boiling.
PRACTICE
The following are examples of flouting the
maxims. Identify the figures of speech. Which
maxims do they flout?
1. He kicked the bucket.
2. They are protected from the cradle to the
grave.
3. He murdered me at badminton.
4. To those who are lucky, life is a fun-fair.
5. You can be sure she’ll always add salt to the
conversation.
PRACTICE
Which maxims have been flouted in the following?
1. Ann: Where are you going with the dog?
Sam: To the V-E-T.
2. Leila: Whoa! Has your boss gone crazy?
Mary: Let’s go get some coffee.
3. Teacher: Why didn’t you do your homework?
Student: May I go and get some water. I’m so
thirsty.
MEETING 4 HEDGES
PRACTICE
1. Which maxims are the speakers aware of in the
following utterances.
-I won’t bore you with all the details, but it was an
exciting trip.
-I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw a wedding
ring on her finger.
-I’m not sure if this makes sense, but the car had
no lights.
-Perhaps you can sit over here, sir!
-I’m sorry. He’s kind of lost his interest in buying
the car.
Low pragmatic speaking ability should be avoided.
MEETING 5 R E V I E W
1. Communication is governed by a ‘cooperative
principle’ and ‘maxims of conversation’. (Gricean
maxims).
2. In many cultures, it can be socially unacceptable
to always say exactly what is in one’s mind unless
one knows the hearer very well. Thus we might
prefer not to say to a shop assistant, as we hand
back a dress, “This looks awful on; I don’t want it
afterall”, but rather “I’ll go away and think about it
and maybe come back later.” We are not lying: we
know that she knows that we have no intention of
returning. (Cutting 2002: 36)
PRACTICE
1. True or False. For Grice, metaphors result from
the flouting of the first maxim (quality).
2. True or False. Irony is an offensive way of being
friendly.
3. True or False. Banter is a friendly way of being
offensive.
4. Irony consists of verbal irony and situational
irony and dramatic irony.
5. T or F. Pragmatics helps you (to) make sense of
people, and what they have in their mind.
6. Hedges are words whose job is to make things
fuzzier.
PRACTICE
I. Comment on the following implicatures!
Guest: Is Julie in, Ma’am?
Landlady: What time is it now?
Is the landlady a cooperative interactant?
II. Is John a teacher or a student?
John was on his way to school last Friday.
He was really worried about the math lesson.
Last week he had been unable to control the class.
It was unfair of the math teacher to leave him in charge.
Afterall, it is not a normal part of a janitor’s duty.
PRACTICE
I.Identify the illocutionary forces of the following
1. How about letting me do it for you? (an offer)
2. How about going for a walk? (a request)
3. I’m sorry for stepping on your toe. (an apology)
4. You are always coming late. (a complaint)
5. Shut up or I’ll lay one on you.(a command/ a threat)
6. If you don’t stop fighting, I’ll call the police.(a
warning)
II. Locution : The hedges have grown wild.
Illocution: an act of requesting the hearer to prune
the hedges.
Perlocution: The hearer pruned the hedges.
III. Are the following direct or indirect speech
acts? Identify the structural forms and the
communicative functions of the utterances.
1. Have you got a match?
2. Is that your coat on the floor again?
3. Are you going to wear that?
4. When someone says (that) I look like my
mother/ father, I take it as a ...........
5. Are the above maximally efficient
communication?
PRACTICE
I. Comment on these utterances.
1. I don’t suppose you could close the window, could you?
2. Could you pass the salt, please?
3. Perhaps, he might have taken it, maybe.
4. Excuse me, sir, would you mind if I ask you to close the
window?
5. I’ll just come along, if you don’t mind.
II. There are various factors which relate to social
distance and closeness. What are the external and
internal factors.
III. T or F Negative politeness belongs pre-eminently to the
DIRECTIVE class, while positive politeness is found pre-eminently in
the COMMISSIVE and EXPRESSIVE classes.
IV. Does the US belong to negative or positive politeness society?
Does the UK belong to negative or positive politeness society?
Does Indonesia belong to negative or positive politeness society?
MEETING 13 POLITENESS STRATEGIES (Brown & Levinson, 1987)
PRACTICE
1. Briefly explain how to do an FTA!
2. T or F Negative politeness is often used to make a
request seems less infringing/ imposing.
PRACTICE
1. Does accepting compliments result in the violation
of modesty maxim?
2. Does rejecting compliments result in the violation
of agreement maxim?
3. Have you ever paid a compliment to somebody? If
so, how did he/she response?
4. What is the topic of each of the compliment below?
What a marvelous meal you cooked!
You look good and healthy.
You did a good job.
PRACTICE
1.What are willy-nilly understood and do not have to be expressed?
2.Which of the following sentences presuppose which?
- I’m not an ambassador.
-If I were an ambassador, ….
- He made a mistake before.
-He made a mistake again.
3. Which one of B’s utterances is concerned with existential presupposition as
well as an implication of co-reference?
A: I’ve lost a diamond ring.
B: Well, Julie was wearing a ring this moning.
Well, Julie was wearing the ring this morning.
4.What’s the presupposition of We imagined we were in Hawaii?
5. What’s the difference between semantic and pragmatic presupposition?
E.g. A three-year-old boy named I Made was found at the bus station.
PRACTICE
1. Soldier about to pat someone down: “Put both your hands on the wall, up here.” What
does the soldier presuppose?
2. A: “Do you like Brook Shields?”
B: (after a puzzled pause): “What are they?”
What is illustrated about the use of proper names by A’s failed attempt to refer
to the actress Brook Shields?
3. Comment on the semantics of the underlined words below.
‘When you’re working with bling-blings, you’ve gotta wear bling-blings.(large, expensive,
sparkling jewellery).
4. Are the following antonym or synonym: quite a few/quite a lot; oversee/overlook; wise
man/wise guy?
. When used non-reciprocally by superiors to
subordinates, compliment may underline patterns of
societal power which place women in a clearly
subordinate position to men. When used between
equals and friends, a compliment could be considered
a quintessential of positive politeness strategy