PRAGMATICS:

Aspects of Meaning

Prepared by:
Cleo S. Madia
Master of Arts in English
 PRAGMATICS:
Aspects of Meaning
• Context and World Knowledge that
Shape Judgment
• Pragmatic Meaning of Utterances
 PRAGMATICS
• Pragmatics is the study of language which focuses attention
on the users and the context of language use rather than on
reference, truth or grammar. (The Oxford Companion to
Philosophy 1995)
• “Pragmatics is the study of linguistic acts and the contexts
in which they are performed. (Stalnaker 1970)
• “Pragmatics provides an account of how sentences are used
in utterances to convey information in context.” (Kempson
1988)
Context and World Knowledge
that Shape Judgment
 CONTEXT
• Pragmatics is the study of how language is used and
how language is integrated in context.

Why must we consider context?

CONTEXT
“Kim’s got a knife.”

• to make an assertion: • to give a warning:

You’re sitting on a beach, thinking
about how to open a coconut, when
someone
observes “Kim’s got a knife”.
Kim’s trying to bully you and Sandy to give her your lunch
money, and Sandy
just turns around and starts to walk away. She doesn’t see
Kim bring out the butcher
knife, and hears you yell behind her, “Kim’s got a knife!”
 CONTEXT
- This comprises those contextual factors needed to get at
(calculate, infer) what is communicated or
done in and by saying what one says. This importantly
concerns the speaker’s intentions regarding indirect
speech acts, implicatures, and non-literal contents. It may
also include institutional facts and indeed, all sorts of
other things relevant to the effects of the utterance.
LINGUISTIC CONTEXT
• Coercion: creating different meanings on the fly
a. The sandwich lasted 2 hours. b. I met her a grief ago.
• Anaphora and bridging: hooking up with prior expressions
a. A man was reading a book. b. He shook it. c. The pages fell
out.
EXTRALINGUISTIC CONTEXT
• Acting with language (felicity conditions)
Speaking is action!
J.L. Austin, “How to do things with words”: speech acts (distinct from
physical or mental acts)
Felicity conditions: preparatory, manner of execution, sincerity
(12) a. I dub thee Sir Galahad. b. I apologize. c. I welcome you. d. He
INDEXICALITY
• To determine the reference of an indexical expression (that is,
to determine what a speaker is referring to by the utterance of
an indexical expression), the interpreter must resort to
context. This is the most prominent property of indexical
expressions: without varying their meaning, they can change
their content from context to context.

a. Is it on?
b. I am here now.
c. That is the man we need!
d. This band was “The Beatles”.
 CONTEXT
Types of Context:
• Physical Context
• Linguistic Context
• Social Context
• Epistemic Context
 PHYSICAL CONTEXT
- this encompasses what is physically present
around the speakers/hearers at the time of
communication. (what objects are visible, where
the communication is taking place, what is going
on around, etc.)
 PHYSICAL CONTEXT
Example:

“I want that book.” “Be here at 9:00 tonight.”

 LINGUISTIC CONTEXT
- This refers to what has been said before in the
conversation. The “history” of things said so far.
Example:
“I can’t believe you said that!”
“If my mom heard you talk like that, she’d wash your
mouth out with soap!”
 SOCIAL CONTEXT
- It tells the social relationship of the people
involved in communication.
 SOCIAL CONTEXT
Examples:

“I do hereby humbly request

that you might think to
telephone me with news of
“Mr. President, stop
your arrival at your domicile
bugging me and go home.”
when such arrival occurs.”
 EPISTEMIC CONTEXT
- It is the context within which information would be
considered to be true or factual. A “fact” is a belief
with a degree of certainty attached to it, supported by
whatever concrete evidence has been chosen for
support. The idea that there is no meaning without
context lays at the heart of the concept. We take
information and attempt to see
metaphorically/analogically where it fits, we try on
contexts, looking for close approximations. The search
across possible worlds to discover which “fits” the
information is our way of making sense of salient
features.
WORLD KNOWLEDGE THAT
SHAPE JUDGMENT
Linguistic Relativity
vs.
Linguistic Determinism
Linguistic Relativity
- In order to speak any language, you have to
pay attention to the meanings that are
grammatically marked in that language.
Example:
In English, it is necessary to mark the verb to indicate the time of occurrence of an event you
are speaking about: It's raining; It rained; and so forth. In Turkish, however, it is impossible
to simply say, 'It rained last night'. This language, like many American Indian languages,
has more than one past tense, depending on one's source of knowledge of the event. In
Turkish, there are two past tenses—one to report direct experience and the other to report
events that you know about only by inference or hearsay. Thus, if you were out in the rain
last night, you will say, 'It rained last night' using the past-tense form that indicates that you
were a witness to the rain; but if you wake up in the morning and see the wet street and
garden, you are obliged to use the other past-tense form—the one that indicates that you
were not a witness to the rain itself.
Linguistic Determinism
- states that differences between languages
influence the ways people think—perhaps the
ways in which whole cultures are organized.
“We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe
significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an
agreement to organize it in this way—an agreement that
holds throughout our speech community and is codified in
the patterns of our language” (Whorf, 1940; in Carroll,
1956, pp. 213-4)
“Human beings...are very much at the mercy of the
particular language which has become the medium of
expression for their society. ...The fact of the matter is that
the "real world" is to a large extent unconsciously built up
on the language habits of the group” (Sapir, 1929; in
Manlbaum, 1958, p. 162)
Pragmatic Meaning of
Utterances
 Utterance
• In linguistics, an utterance is a unit of speech.
• In phonetic terms, an utterance is a stretch of
spoken language that is preceded by silence and followed
by silence or a change of speaker. (Phonemes, morphemes,
and words are all considered "segments" of the stream of
speech sounds that constitute an utterance.)
• In orthographic terms, an utterance is a syntactic unit that
begins with a capital letter and ends in a period, question
mark, or exclamation point.
 Utterance
• "[T]he word utterance . . . can refer to the product of a verbal
act, rather than to the verbal act itself. For instance, the
words Would you please be quiet?, spoken with a polite rising
intonation, might be described as a sentence, or as a
question, or as a request. However, it is convenient to
reserve terms like sentence and question for grammatical
entities derived from the language system, and to
reserve the term utterance for instances of such entities,
identified by their use in a particular situation."
(Geoffrey N. Leech, Principles of Pragmatics, 1983.
Routledge, 2014)
 Utterance
• "We use the term 'utterance' to refer to complete
communicative units, which may consist of single words,
phrases, clauses and clause combinations spoken in
context, in contrast to the term 'sentence,' which we reserve
for units consisting of at least one main clause and any
accompanying subordinate clauses, and marked by
punctuation (capital letters and full stops) in writing."
(Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, Cambridge
Grammar of English. Cambridge University Press, 2006)
Speech Act Theory
• It is a concept that was proposed by Austin in 1962 which
tells that language is not only used to inform or to describe
things, it is often used “to do things,” to perform acts. In
other words, actions performed through utterances are
generally called speech acts.
Speech Act Theory
Types of force:
• Locutionary force—referential value (meaning of code)
• Illocutionary force—performative function (implication of
speaker)
• Perlocutionary force—perceived effect (inference by
addressee)
Speech Act Theory
Constatives--“Statements, assertions, and
utterances” characterized by true or false.
Performatives--Statements, assertions, and
utterances that do things.
 Constatives
- These are certain utterances which do not denote an
action. The do not contain a performative verb that
would direct the other party to perform an action.
As Austin says, these constatives are used only in
descriptions and assertions.
 Constatives
Example:

“Prices slumped.”

The sentence is true if the fact in the actual world the

prices are slumped. If in fact they are not slumped,
you can simply say that the sentence is false.
Constatives
 Performatives
-For performatives to actually "perform," both
speaker and audience must accept certain
assumptions about the speech act. These
assumptions are called felicity conditions.
Performatives
(1) The subject of performative sentence must be in
the form of first person pronoun;
(2) The verb must be in the same category with
performative verbs such as tell, say, demand, advice,
ask etc.;
(3) The object of performative sentence is always a
second person pronoun;
(4) It must be in the form of affirmative not negative;
(5) It must be in the form of present tense.
Performatives
Example:
“Stand up!”
Note:
- The deep structure of the above sentence before
encountering modification (become imperative) is
"I command you to stand up."
- Felicity condition of the above sentence:
¢Your addressee is sitting, or laying, or ducking, etc.
¢Your addressee has ability to stand (not cripple)
Felicity conditions
Three categories:
Essential condition--This means that you say what you say, that both
speaker and hearer take the utterance to be performative.
Sincerity condition--This means that you mean what you say, that
both speaker and hearer take the utterance to be intentional, to
accurately represent the wish of the speaker and the hearer's
understanding that the utterance expresses that wish. The common
expression "in good faith" illustrates the basic premise of the sincerity
condition.
Preparatory conditions--This means that you can do what you say,
that both speaker and hearer agree that it is situationally appropriate
to for you to perform the speech act. Don't confuse "can do" with
"able to do." Ability is part of sincerity. In this case, "can do" means
"allowed to do," to be socially sanctioned to perform the act.
Kinds of Performative
Utterance
 DIRECTIVES
A directive speech act is an attempt by speaker to get hearer to do
something. Example of directives are ordering, commanding,
requesting, pleading, begging, entreating, daring, suggesting,
inviting, questioning, insisting and permitting. Note that the action
must be future and voluntary, because it is impossible to ask
someone to perform an action in the past or to do something which is
not a matter of human will. e.g. ;

• Give me your hand, please!

• Could you lend me a book, please!
COMMISIVES
In a commisives speech act, speaker commits himself or
herself to the performance of an action. Examples of
commisives are promising, pledging, threatening,
guaranteeing, agreeing, consenting and refusing. Again, the
promised action must be future and voluntary. The
examples are;

• I’ll accompany you going to the market tomorrow

• If you disobey the rule, I will give you a punishment.
REPRESENTATIVES (ASSERTIVES)
In this type of speech act, speaker represents a state of
affairs. Examples of representatives are affirming, declaring,
describing, claiming, stating, explaining, classifying,
insisting, emphasizing, and predicting. representative
commits speaker to the truth of the preposition. The
examples are:

• Dad : he is my son
• I tell you that Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia
EXPRESSIVES
In an expressive speech act, speaker expresses a
psychological state about the situation or state of affairs
denoted by the preposition. Examples of expressives are
thanking, apologizing, consoling, congratulating, greeting,
deploring, and welcoming.
e.g.
• I’m really sorry!
• Congratulation for your success
• Thank you for being helped, Nick!
DECLARATIVES
Declaratives are the prototypical speech acts. Here the
speaker brings about a change a world by uttering a
locutionary act. The example of declaratives are declaring
war, seconding a motion, adjourning a meeting, firing,
nominating, betting, baptizing, finding guilty or innocent,
divorcing arresting, and resigning. E.g.

• Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife

• Bush : attack!, Iraq
Conclusion: How language shapes the way we think
“For a long time, the idea that language might shape
thought was considered at best untestable and more often
simply wrong. Research in my labs at Stanford University
and at MIT has helped reopen this question. We have
collected data around the world: from China, Greece, Chile,
Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have
learned is that people who speak different languages do
indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can
profoundly affect how we see the world. Language is a
uniquely human gift, central to our experience of being
human. Appreciating its role in constructing our mental
lives brings us one step closer to understanding the very
 Thank you!
"Utterers create meanings by using words
in context. Hearers create interpretations."
References:
http://staffnew.uny.ac.id/upload/132305846/pendidikan/INTRODUCTION+TO+PRAGMATICS.pdf
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/299f/7df39b03c466fd19527a3445ed37ef342396.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP8JTAcXAQk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F5L-tNi334
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3a3fgUkw6c
http://www.textproject.org/assets/events/ira-in19/Hirsch-Reading-comprehension-requires-
knowledge.pdf
https://pediaa.com/difference-between-sentence-and-utterance/#Utterance