PRAGMATICS AND

DISCOURSE
ANALYSIS
 Discourse Pragmatics
Analysis

*Meaning*
through
*Meaning* Discourse/
text Context and other
through pragmatics
Grammar and principles as
discourse implicature,
mechanism conversational
implicature, speech
act etc.
⦿ Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that
learns about the speaker’s meaning, which
considers the context of the language and
other principles, such as implicature,
conversational Maxims, speech act etc.

⦿ It seeks to explain aspects of meaning which

cannot be found in the plain sense of words,
phrase or sentence structures, as explained
by semantics.
 Pragmatics is different from Semantics

Mike: What happened to that bowl of cream?

Annie: Cats drink cream.

⦿ Semantically, "Domestic cats consume the liquid fat

of milk,"

⦿ Pragmatically, Annie probably implies "That bowl of

cream was probably eaten by our cat."

⦿ Semantics focuses on the meaning from linguistic

knowledge, words, sentences

⦿ Pragmatics concentrates on:

⦿ aspects of meaning that cannot be predicted by
linguistic knowledge alone and takes into account our
knowledge about the physical and social world.
 Setting and scene
Jane: Black? Participant
Steve: Black . Ends
Act Sequence
Jane: Sugar? Key
Steve: Nope Instrumentalities
Norms
Genre
 ⦿ Pragmatics also differs
from syntax

⦿ Pragmatics :
Jane : Black? ⦿ the appropriateness
Steve: Black . ⦿ of naturally occurring
utterances.
Jane : Sugar?
Steve: Nope ⦿ The four utterances in
the dialogue are all
syntactically incomplete,
but pragmatically they
are all "appropriate" in
the particular context.
Pragmatics
Speech Act Theory
⦿ Austin in 1962 ‘How to do things
with Words’and John Searle 1969
‘Spech Acts’ :
⦿ Speech act = uttered to say things +
to do things.

⦿ Speech Act Theory > as one of the

basic theories of pragmatics.

⦿ All linguistic activities > speech acts.

⦿ To speak a language is to perform a
set of speech acts : act of stating,
commanding, committing.
 Austin (1962) states that
speakers performs three kinds of
speech acts simultaneously:

1. locutionary act,
2. illocutionary act,
3. perlocutionary act .

Pragmatists > illocutionary act >

speaker's intention > the focus
for verbal communication.
 Actions performed via
utterances are generally
called speech acts
People perform actions via utterances
Theory of Speech Acts
 Example:

It’s cold in here.

❖The locutionary act is the saying of it
with its literal meaning.
❖The illocutionary act can be a request of
the hearer to turn off air conditioning.
❖The perlocutinary act can be the
hearer’s turn off air conditioning or his
refusal to do so.
Felicity Condition

For example:
I sentence you to
six months in
prison
A locutionary act :
different illocutionary forces
different contexts.

An utterance may be interpreted

as a direct or indirect speech
act.

"Don't you think it's too stuffy in

here?"
What is the speaker is saying?
Illocutionary Force
“Don’t you think it’s too stuffy in here?”

(a) as a direct speech act : literally as an

inquiry for the addressee's opinion

(b) as an indirect speech act : describing

the stuffy atmosphere in the place

(c) as an indirect request:

for the addressee to open the window or
to turn on the air-conditioner.
⦿ Anillocutionary act can be performed
by different locutionary acts.

⦿ For example, the illocutionary act of

asking the addressee to open the
door
⦿ Three different locutionary acts:
⦿ a. Command: Open the door please.
⦿ b. Request: Would you please open
the door?
⦿ c. Statement: The doorbell is ringing.
Indirect Speech Act
⦿ Indirect speech act refers to an
indirect relationship between
the propositional content and
illocutionary force of an
utterance.
⦿ A sentence which expresses an
indirect speech act is an
indirect performative.
A. I request that you help me
with the luggage.
B. Can you help me with the
luggage?
C. Do you think that you can
help me with the luggage?
A is an explicit performative in which the
speech act of request is directly coded
by the performative verb request.

B & C are indirect performative in which

the speech act of request is indirectly
expressed by a question:

As revealed in Example A, the speaker's

intention can be directly identified in
the performative verb in an explicit
performative,
but in the indirect performative like
Example BC, the speaker's intention
can only be inferred through its literal
force.
 ⦿ A: May I take your order Now?
⦿ B: Can I have nuggets and chips
with sauce?

⦿ A: Let's go to the movie tonight.

⦿ B: There is an exam tomorrow

⦿ CanI have nuggets and chips with

sauce? : speech act of ordering
⦿ There’san exam tomorrow : speech act
of refusing
Pragmatics
The Maxim of Conversation
Paul Grice 1975
‘Logic and Conversation’
The Cooperative Principle/Maxim
Paul Grice (1967)

⦿ Paul Grice stated that tacit agreement

exists between the speaker and the
hearer in all linguistic communicative
activities.

⦿ They follow a set of principles in order

to achieve particular communicative
goals.
Maxim
⦿ The maxim of Quality
⦿ true contribution :
⦿ (i) do not say what you believe to be
false
⦿ (ii) do not say that for which you lack
adequate evidence.

⦿ The maxim of Quantity

⦿ (i) make your contribution as
informative as is required
⦿ (ii) do not make your contribution
more/less informative than is
required.
⦿ The maxim of Relevance
⦿ make your contribution relevant.
⦿ The maxim of Manner
⦿ Be perspicuous, and specifically:
⦿ (i) Avoid obscurity of expression;
⦿ (ii) Avoid ambiguity;
⦿ (iii) Be brief (avoid unnecessary
prolixity)
⦿ (iv) Be orderly
⦿ Flouting the cooperative principles:
⦿ ‘What time will you come tomorrow’
⦿ ‘I’ll take the first train to the university’

⦿ Violating the cooperative principles

⦿ “How much is your salary?”
⦿ “The train station isn’t far, is it?”

⦿ Infringing the cooperative principles

(lack of proper vocabulary-no intention)
⦿ Opting out the cooperative principles
⦿ (for ethical or legal reason)
 Implicature

Refers to the inference a hearer makes

about a speaker’s intended meaning that
arises from their use of the literal
meaning of what the speaker said.

It needs context and common ground

between the speaker and the hearer
A: The hostess is an
awful bore, don't
you think?
B:Well, Her dress is
lovely, isn’t it?
My car ran out the gas

There’s a gas station

at the corner
 Conversational Vs Conventional
Implicatures
❑ Conventional implicatures, which convey the
same extra meaning regardless of context and
which are always lexicalized (but, even,
therefore, yet)

❑ Conversational implicatures, which convey

different meanings according to different
contexts, i.e. are calculated afresh each time the
Speaker and the Hearer interact.

Example:
He is poor but honest.
an utterance stating that honesty appears contrary
to expectations in relation to financial
underprivileges.
The Politeness Principle
⦿ Brown and Levinson (1978)
advanced the Face Theory. Leech
(1983:132) developed the face
theory further and formulated the
politeness principle.
The Face Theory
⦿ Everybody has face wants, i.e. the
expectation concerning their public
self-image.
⦿ In order to maintain harmonious
interpersonal relationships and
ensure successful social
interaction, we should be aware of
the two aspects of another
person's face, i.e. the positive face
and the negative face .
POLITENESS STRATEGY
• Don’t do the FTA (face-treatening act)
• Do the FTA
• off record (indirectly)
• on record (directly
• without politeness (baldly)
• with politeness
• positive politeness
• negative politeness
(Brown and Levinson)
Each has a certain strategy : indirectness,
mitigating etc)
 • Positive Politeness
• ‘Involvement’
• approach based

Politeness • showing S wants what H

Strategies wants, treating H as member
of group friend, someone you
know and like
• Negative Politeness
• ‘Independence’
• avoidance based
• formality, restraint, distancing
⦿ A: Bob is really mischievous, isn't
he?
⦿ B: Children are children.

⦿ a. I order you to answer the

phone.
⦿ b. I want you to answer the phone.
⦿ c. Would you answer the phone?
POLITENESS PRINCIPLE
(LEECH)
⦿ ● Tact maxim

⦿ (i) Minimize cost to other

⦿ (ii) Maximize benefit to other.

⦿ Won’t you sit down?

⦿ ● Generosity Maxim

⦿ (i) Minimize benenefit to self

⦿ (ii) Maximize codt to self

⦿ You must come and dinner with us

⦿ ● Approbation Maxim

⦿ (i) Minimize dispraise of other

⦿ (ii) Maximize praise of other

⦿ The performance was great
⦿ Yes, wasn’t it

⦿ ● Modesty Maxim

⦿ (i) Minimize praise of self

⦿ (ii) Maximize dispraise of self

⦿ Please accept this small gift as prize of your
achievement
⦿ ● Agreement Maxim

⦿ (i) Minimize disagreement between self and

other
⦿ (ii) Maximize agreement between self and
other
⦿ Engklish is a difficult language to learn
⦿ True. But the grammar is quite easy

⦿ ● Sympathy Maxim

⦿ (i) Minimize antipathy between self and other

⦿ (ii) Maximize sympathy between self and
other
⦿ “I’m terribly sorry to hear about your father”
 Cross-cultural Pragmatics

❖The ways in which people perform speech acts, and

what they mean what they say when they perform
them, often varies across cultures.

❖Different languages and cultures often have

different ways of observing maxim.

❖Different pragmatic norms reflect different cultural

values which are, in turn, reflected in what people
say and what they intended by what they say in
different cultural setting.
⦿ THANKS