언어의 이해

(UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE)

Topics: Pragmatics (I)

Reading: Language Files (Ch. 7)
 Today’s class outline

 Pragmatics
Semantics – argument structure
▪ Different kinds of verbs take a different number of NPs as
arguments—each verb takes a subject and:
▪ intransitive verbs such as sleep take no other arguments
▪ transitive verbs such as find take an additional argument (a direct
object)
▪ ditransitive verbs such as give take two additional arguments (direct
and indirect objects)
▪ The verb also determines the semantic properties of all the
arguments
▪ verbs such as find and sleep require human subjects
▪ verbs such as drink require a liquid direct object
▪ What is the argument structure of throw and show?
Semantics – Semantic roles
 1. The janitor opened the door. (Agent)
 2. The door opened easily. (Patient)
 3. His first record greatly expanded his audience.
(Instrument)
 4. Bad weather ruined the grape harvest. (Cause).
 5. Jorge heard his father whispering. (Experiencer)
 6. The young artist won the prize. (Benefactive or
recipient)
 7. Arizona attracts asthmatics. (Locative)
 8. The next day found us on the road to Alice Springs.
(Temporal)
Semantics – thematic roles
▪ Thematic roles help explain why some sentences
are semantically unacceptable (though grammatically
well-formed)
▪ What is the problem with the
following sentences?
The rock collection loves the boy.
The popsicle ate the shelf with
the hammer.

▪ There are selectional restrictions with respect to

thematic roles (e.g. rocks cannot be experiencers)
 Linguistics – Basic concepts
 Linguistics = the scientific study of language

PHONETICS PRAGMATICS
production/perception language (in) use
of sounds in speech

PHONOLOGY SEMANTICS
functions of sounds word & sentence
in language meaning

MORPHOLOGY SYNTAX
structure & meaning of sentence structure
word forms LINGUISTICS
Pragmatics – introduction
▪ What is pragmatics? (multiple definitions)
▪ Pragmatics = the study of language in use; the
study of meaning in context; the study of intended
speaker meaning; the study of utterance meaning
(≠word/sentence meaning)

▪ Steven Pinker on what pragmatics is and what it

covers...
Pragmatics – introduction
▪ Steven Pinker on language pragmatics

http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=VKbp4hEHV-s
Pragmatics – importance of context
▪ Why is it important to look at utterances in context?
▪ Consider this example:
Someone says to you “I like you a lot.” – Is that positive
or negative? Good or bad?

▪ The meaning of an utterance depends on its context

▪ We always have to ask ourselves if a particular utterance
is context-appropriate and what effect it has on others
(part of our communicative competence)
Pragmatics – effects of utterances
Speech Act Theory (J.L. Austin)
▪ The study of speech acts describes how people do
things with language
▪ Consider the following examples:

(a) It's pretty cold in here, isn't it?

(b) There's a piece of fish on the table.
(c) Could you pass the salt?
▪ In all three cases the speaker has a certain intention
and does not just make a statement or ask a question
▪ The action intended by the speaker is called the
illocutionary act
Pragmatics – effects of utterances
Speech Act Theory (J.L. Austin)
▪ Depending on the context, (b) above can express
different illocutionary acts or illocutionary forces; the
speaker does different things in different situations:
▪ complaint (e.g. addressed to a waiter): “could you please
clear the table properly”
▪ offer: “so if you're hungry, please help yourself”
▪ warning: “so don't let the cat in the kitchen”
▪ Austin divides speech acts into three parts:
1. locution/locutionary act: actual utterance
2. illocution/illocutionary act: speaker intention
3. perlocution/perlocutionary act: effect on the listener
▪ Example: “It’s me again.”
Important Terms

 Pragmatics = the study of language in use

 social, contextual, situated function of language
 speech acts, discourse structure, implicature, etc.

 Sociopragmatics = social rules of language use

 appropriateness, register, convention, taboo
 Pragmalinguistics = linguistic tools necessary for
implementing speech conventions
 relies on target language knowledge
Cooperative Principle

 A principle proposed by the philosopher Paul Grice

whereby those involved in communication assume
that both parties will normally seek to cooperate
with each other to establish agreed meaning.

 It is composed of four maxims: quality, quantity,

relation, and manner.
Maxims
 Maxim of quality
 Maxim of relevance
 Maxim of manner
 Maxim of quantity
Flouting Maxims
 Dear Colleague:
Mr. John Jones asked me to write a letter on his
behalf. Let me say that Mr. Jones is unfailingly polite,
is neatly dressed at all times, and is always on time
for his classes.

Sincerely yours,
Harry H. Homer