English in use - Pragmatics

non-deictic, refers back to something that has already been said (Mary … her, Jo … he)

speech act -> illocution -> assertives describe the world

cultural background knowledge and interpersonal background knowledge: general
knowledge people have, specific, possibly private knowledge about the history of the speakers or knowledge acquired through previous interactions, activities or experi-
ences

speech act -> illocution -> commissives are promises or threats to inform others
about future actions

the context of the text itself – the co-text, references to other parts of the text (us, we, her )

speech act -> illocution -> declarations are performed by pronouncing the appropri-
ate formula, they chance the world, I herby declare

one or more specific individual entities are referred to, persons/ things/ places/ times, e.g. I, Pete, the book, here, yesterday

= proximity, who is speaking now, I here now

“Deixis is a technical term (from Greek) [… which] means ‘pointing’ via language.”
expression
Pronouns, adverbial constructions of time and place e.g. here, same time, yesterday,
her, about this size

locution = illocution (you say what you mean)

speech act -> illocution -> directives are attempts to get people to do things, please
send me…

referring to specific parts of the discourse, refers back to what happened, e.g. in con-
clusion, all in all, anyway

one of two semantic inferences, based on conventional meaning, proposition X en-
tails proposition Y, false when negated
proposition X is true Y is also true, proposition X is false Y is true or false, proposition
Y is true X is true or false, proposition Y is false X is also false

speech act -> illocution -> expressives are used to express our feelings or opinions

Reference to a whole class of referents rather than an individual

the intention of the speech act; types: assertive, directive, commissive, expressive,
declaration

the identity of the referent is not known or not relevant to the message conveyed,
no particular person, indefinite article, quantifiers, indefinite pronoun, German man,
e.g. a man, something, in general, I like crackers

locution ≠ illocution (hinting at something)

Semantic or Pragmatic

e.g. someone wants to try your wine and you tell them not to try because they
would hate it (wine is dry they hate dry wine)

e.g. I would take it (means exactly what is written)

the linguistic form of the speech act

describes objects by using gestures, e.g. this small, like this

the effect on the listener the certain speech act has

different persons involved speaker (I, we), addressee (you), persons not involved (he, she, they)

location, place adverbials, prepositions of place or direction, verbs of motion, pairs like here - there/ near - far

situational, interpersonal, world and linguistic knowledge

context sensitive, concrete meaning given in a text, why did he say that

predictions that are taken for granted when a sentence is uttered, usually only hold true in one direction, still holds when negated

can be definite (specific), indefinite (general) or generic (whole class)

context invariant, conventional meaning of what is said

what speakers know about what they can see around them, the immediate physical co-presence, the situation at the moment of speaking

Social status of the persons directly or indirectly involved, e.g. Sir, Your Honor, Profes-
sor, Du -Sie

utterance made by a certain speaker to a certain hearer in a certain context, depending on the context who is talking to who e.g. you look younger than ever; subtypes: locution, illocution, perlocution

Meaning can differ depending on the context, e.g. telling someone the Tagesschau
started can mean it is 8 p.m. or that you are no longer available because you want to
watch it,…

reference of time, time adverbials, tense, e.g. former, this month, soon

e.g. the train leaves from platform 2, we all know what that means

have a stable association with particular linguistic expressions, e.g. but implies con-
trast and yet implies surprise

CA looks at social interaction as a linear, ongoing event, which unfolds
little by little and implies the negotiation of cooperation between speakers along the
way

must be inferred [… and] contextual information is crucial , pragmatic

make your conversational contribution such as is required, speakers and listeners co-
operate in their conversation, they do not confuse, trick

the study of different expectations among different communities regarding how
meaning is constructed

face is the public self-image every member of a society claims for themselves

linguistic expressions employed to express imprecision or qualification

usually indicated by // in a transcript

if you must cause offence, at least do so in a way which doesn’t overtly conflict with
the PP, but allows the hearer to arrive at the offensive point of your remark indi-
rectly, by way of implicature

avoid obscurity of expression, avoid ambiguity, be brief, be orderly

do not say what you believe to be false and do not say that for which you lack ade-
quate evidence

make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the
exchange) and do not make your contribution more informative than is required

be relevant

tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement, sympathy

usually indicated by =

indicated either by symbols, e.g. indicating (.) for a short pause or values (1.2) in sec-
onds

politeness can be defined as any behaviour including verbal behaviour of an interloc-
utor to maintain his or her face and that of the individuals he or she is interacting
with

minimise (other things being equal) the expression of impolite beliefs and maximise
(other things being equal) the expression of polite beliefs

How do speakers know when they take their turn? - They look out for a TRP (which is
usually at the end of a sentence)

cooperation in interaction is managed by speakers through turn-taking