Pragmatics

Prepared by: ARBAYA A. HARON-BOQUIA

1. Speech Acts theory-actions that are carried
out through language.
 To communicate we must express
propositions with a particular illocutionary
force, and so doing we perform particular
kinds of action such as stating, promising,
warning, threatening, apologizing and so on.
 Locutionary force –is an act of saying
something; it is the description of what a
speaker says. e.g. “I promise to buy you a
ring.”
 Illocutionary Act/Force- is the act of doing
something; it is what the speaker intends to do by
uttering a sentence.
 E.g. “I promise to buy you a ring.” the illocutionary
force is promising.
 Perlocutionary act- is an act of affecting
someone(i.e., the listener); it is the effect on the
hearer of what a speaker says. The act in the cited
example may make the hearer/listener happy or
relieved.
 2. Implicatures- refer to the statements that
imply a proposition that is not part of the
utterance and does not follow as a necessary
consequence of the utterance.
Example
A. Am I in time for supper?
B. I’ve cleared the table?
Here it is obviously B’s intention to the
proposition that A is too late for supper.
The cooperative Principle

 The principles that govern the interpretation

of utterances are diverse and complex and
they differ somewhat from culture to culture.
 There is an unspoken pact that people will
cooperate in communicating with each other
and speakers rely on this cooperative to make
the conversation efficient.
The Cooperative principle, as enunciated
by philosopher H. Paul Grice
 Conversational Maxims- are rules that are observed
when communication takes in a situation when
people are co-operative.
1. Maxim of Quantity- a participant contribution
should be as informative as possible. Give the right
amount of information, neither less nor more than
what is required. “Be appropriately informative”.
If you ask an acquaintance whether she has pets and
she answers, I have two cats, it is the maxim of
quantity that permits you to assume that she no other
pets.
2. Maxim of Relevance- the participant
contribution be related to the subject of the
conversation. “Be relevant at the time of
utterance”
e.g. Zane: How’s the weather outside?
Zora: There’s a great movie on HBO
Thursday night.
Zora’s utterance seems unrelated to what Zane
has just said.
3. Maxim of Manner- a participants
contribution should be direct, not obscure,
ambiguous wordy—”Avoid obscurity and
ambiguity; be brief and clear. Be orderly and
clear.
4. Maxim of Quality- a participant should not
say that which is false or that which the
participant lacks evidence. “Be truthful.”
Thank you for Listening