Pragmatics Overview:

Definition and Scope

BY HAJER MRABET
Plan
I. Definition
II. The purpose of pragmatics
III. Pragmatic scope and its notions
IV. Practice exercice
V. Bibliography
Definition
• Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that deals with elements of
language the meaning of which can only be understood by
knowing the context of their use. This objective is one of the
goals of studies aimed at highlighting the inherent coherence of
natural language.
• Pragmatic = ‘‘Practical and sensible’’
Thinking in terms of the practical and logical rather than the
ideal situation

• Pragmatics(practical sense) ≠ semantics (actual definition)

implied meaning VS literal meaning
utterances words
A: “Don’t you think that Bill is a pain in the neck?” (said on a party)

B: “I like your tie.”

Sentence meaning: ‘The speaker communicates that the addressee’s

tie meets his taste.’

Utterance meaning: ‘Shut up, Bill is standing behind you.’

• “Will you crack open the door? I am getting hot.”

• ‘‘I heart you!’’

• ‘‘If you eat all of that food, it will make you bigger!’’

• “Can you pass the salt?”

• ‘‘[∙∙∙] the study of the way humans use their language in
communication ⸳’’
-Jacob Mey
Purposes
• Pragmatics is interested, on the one hand, in the phenomena of
contextual dependencies peculiar to indexical terms( I, here or
now) which have their reference determined by parameters
linked to the context of enunciation , as well as in the
phenomena of presupposition.
• ‘‘We had fun during the weekend’’

• “Paul was also there”

• On the other hand, Pragmatics also sometimes aims at making a
theory of the inferences that are drawn from linguistic
utterances on the basis of our general knowledge of the world
and hypotheses about the intentions of speakers Theory of
Relevance

• It is based in particular on the distinction introduced by the

American philosopher Paul Grice between the meaning for the
speaker and the strictly linguistic meaning of statements.
• ‘‘ Crowds rushing to see the Pope trample 6 to death ’’
Pragmatic scope
and notions
• "Pragmatics is the study of deixis (at least in part),
implicature, presupposition, speech acts, and aspects of
discourse structure.“
-Stalnaker
• Deixis
• Speech acts(Jl Austin)
• Conversational Implicature (Grice)
• Politeness (Levinson)
• Deixis is a reference based on the particular conditions of the
utterance, such as the identity of the speaker, time and place of the
utterance. I, you, this, that, today, yesterday, here, there are
examples of deixis.
• ‘‘Have you seen this ?’’
• ‘‘You asked me that before’’
• ‘‘I told you I did not come here before’’
• Speech act is an act exercised by the word

• It is a social act since it necessarily implies the presence of two

people or even more if there are several audiences

• However the act of language cannot be collective it can only be

individual in the sense that it is the result of an impulse or a desire
in a single individual
• ‘‘ You are fired’’
 an utterance used by employers as an action to fire someone

 The locutionary act : literal meaning

 The illucotionary act: the intention of the speaker
 The perlucotionary act: the effect of the utterance on the listener
• ‘‘ Move out of the way’’
• ‘‘ You’re standing in front of the TV ’’

A ‘‘Do you smoke ?’’

B ‘‘Yes, thanks’’
A ‘‘I wasn’t offering , I’m just asking’’
• Implicature is something meant, implied or suggested , distinct
from what is said

• A implicates B if Uttering A in a certain conversational context

systematically makes B true

A ‘‘Will Sally be at the meeting this afternoon?”

B “ Her car broke down”
• Politeness in conversation reflects the social relationships that
participants have with each other; it can also be used to modify or
solidify pre-existing relationships. It is influenced by two factors,
represented in two acts: hierarchical relationships between two
people, as well as closeness, in the sense of being "close" to
someone.
• ‘‘Excuse me Mr, Buckingham, but can I talk to you for a moment ?’’

• ‘‘Hey Bucky, got a minute?’’

Practice Time !
• Fill in the blanks

Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics and semiotics that studies

the ways in which -------- contributes to meaning.

It is not about the ---------- meaning of a word, but rather the

------- meaning of an -------- that is the --------’s intention⸳

Pragmatics encompasses three theories namely ----------,-----------

and ------------- ⸳
• Note both the sematic and the possible pragmatic meaning for
each of these utterances

‘‘Who the heck wants to read this book?’’

“ what time do you call this?”

• Find the deictical expressions and identify their types

‘‘You'll have to bring that back tomorrow, because they aren't here now.’’
• What is the implicature of these utterances :

(Two friends after a long school day)

A “can you walk me home before you go ?’’

B “my bag is heavy”

(another context)

A “How about having dinner ?”

B “ I don’t have money”
A “I’m inviting you”
Well done!
Bibliography :
 Leech, Geoffrey N. Principles of Pragmatics. , 1983
 Mey, Jacob. Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1993
 Locastro, Virginia. “Introductions to Pragmatics.” TESOL Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 1, 1997
 “What Is Pragmatics?” Pragmatics, by Chris Cummins, Edinburgh University Press,
Edinburgh, 2019, pp. 1–14. JSTOR
 Baicchi, Annalisa. “SPEECH ACT THEORY.” Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of
Language, edited by Siobhan Chapman and Christopher Routledge, Edinburgh
University Press, Edinburgh, 2009

Webography :
https://www.softschools.com/examples/grammar/pragmatics_examples/645/
https://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2005/ling001/pragmatics.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsPswzOBsK0
Thank you !