Steven Andrew Santoso

123221021

ENGLISH PRAGMATICS

The Study of Meaning & Cooperative Principles

An Assignment

1. Utterances need not consist of complete sentences. Each utterance is a unique physical
event created at a particular point in time for a particular communicative purpose.

Below are several conversational extracts where the participants are discussing meaning.
For each extract decide if the meaning type under discussion would be primarily the
concern of semantics or pragmatics.

A. Mike: That's an interesting hat.

Annie : What do you mean by that?

Pragmatics.

B. Steve: Listen to this. 'NO animal bird or reptile shall be kept in the Flat or any other part
of the building without the prior written consent of the Lessor which (if given) shall be
deemed to be by way of license revocable at will.'
Jane: That just means tenants can't have pets without the landlord's written permission and
that even if he does give permission, he can take it back any time he wants to.

Semantics.

C. Parent : Where are your shoes, young man?

Child : Under my bed.
Parent : When I asked where your shoes were, I wanted you to put them on!
 Pragmatics.

D. Ed : Lugubrious?
Faye : You know, sort of mournful, not very cheerful.

Semantics.

E. Dave : What did Macbeth mean when he said that life was a tale told by an idiot?
Sarah : I guess he thought that life didn't make any sense.

Pragmatics.
2. Provide at least one possible semantic paraphrase (SP) for sentences (a)-(d) below.

Example: The party is going to begin after he leaves.

SP: The party will commence after he departs.

Analyse your paraphrases in terms of whether you changed individual words, the sentence
structure, or both.

(a) Her mother is unhappy.

SP: Her mother is feeling unpleased.

(b) My friend loathes string beans.

SP: A friend of mine hate the food string beans.

(c) I'll look for that book right now.

SP: I’m going to search for that book now.

 (d) Steve hugged Jane.

SP: Steve gave a hug to Jane.

3. What might the second speaker mean in each of the following dialogues? Write a
pragmatic paraphrase in each case, and think about how you inferred this meaning.

a. Virginia: Do you like my new hat?

Mary: It's pink!

Mary does not like Virginia’s hat because of its color.

b. Maggie: Coffee?
James : It would keep me awake all night.

James refused for coffee that was offered by Maggie because he would not be able to
sleep.

c. Linda: Have you finished the student evaluation forms and the reading lists?
Jean : I've done the reading lists.

Jean is implying to Linda that she has done the reading lists but not the student
evaluation forms.

d. Phil: Are you going to Steve's barbecue?

Terry : Well, Steve's got those dogs now.

Terry is refusing to go to Steve’s house because he is afraid of the new dogs that he
had.

e. Annie: Was the dessert any good?

Mike : Annie, cherry pie is cherry pie.

Mike is implying that the dessert, which was cherry pie is just an average.

4. Now we return to the original dialogues, (a), (b), and (e) in number 3. How do you
think the first speaker would interpret the second speaker's response if you had the
following extra information?
a. Pink is Mary's favorite color and Virginia knows this.
b. James has to stay up all night to study for an exam and Maggie knows this.
c. Mike loves cherry pie. As far as he's concerned, no one can ruin a cherry pie, and
Annie knows this.

a. Mary is loving the hat because of its color.

b. Jame is accepting the offer from Maggie because he needs it.
c. Mike is telling Annie that he loves those cherry pie, as usual.

5. Suppose you were considering X for a job that needed good writing skills. You have
written to his English teacher asking her to assess his performance in this area. You
receive the following reply:

'X has regularly and punctually attended all my classes. All his assignments were
handed in on time and very neatly presented. I greatly enjoyed having X in my
class.'

(a) What maxim does the teacher seem to flout?

Maxim of quality, because the teacher is supposedly refusing to asses
his performance in writing skills so the teacher is making an excuse by
lying.
(b) What implicature would you draw about X's writing skills?
Not very good because X’s teacher is refusing to assess him further in
his writing skills.
(c) Why do you think the teacher phrased her response this way?
 Because he is trying to politely refuse the request to assess X in his
writing skills, that is why the teacher is saying that X’s writing skills
are already good enough.

6. In each of the following decide whether the inference in brackets is a presupposition or

an implicature derived from the underlined utterance.

(a) A: My boyfriend lives in Luton

B: My boyfriend lives in Paris. (I have a boyfriend)

Presupposition

(b) A: What?

B: Why are you laughing at me? (You are laughing at me)

Presupposition

(c) A: Why is she eating those?

B: Her father didn't give her any supper. (She didn't have any supper)

Implicature

(d) A: Is Mike engaged?

B: He's bought a ring. (Mike is engaged)

Implicature

(e) A: You look pleased.

B: I managed to pass the exam. (I tried to pass the exam)

Presupposition

(f) A: Did you finish that report?

B: I started it. (I didn't finish the report)

Implicature