Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of how people use language in context.

Kinds of Context

• Linguistic Context: The words that were uttered before an utterance.
• Situational Context: The situation in which something is said.
• Social Context: The social relationships between people who are speaking.

Axioms of Conversation

Axioms of Conversation

In normal conversation, people assume that the person they are speaking with is following the Cooperative Principle.

Cooperative Principle

Cooperative Principle

The cooperative principle is the assumption that your conversational partner is trying to contribute cooperatively to the purpose of the conversation.

Grice’s Maxims

Grice's Maxims

Maxim of quality

speakers do not say things they believe to be false, and for which they lack adequate evidence.

Alice: It's going to rain tomorrow. Bob concludes: Alice looked at a weather report.

Maxim of relevance

Maxim of relevance: speakers are talking about the same subject.

Alice: Are you hungry? Bob: That cake looks delicious.

Maxim of quantity

Maxim of quantity: speakers contribute as much information as is required, and do not contribute more information that is required.

Alice: I have three cats. Bob concludes: Alice has three cats and no more.

Maxim of manner

Maxim of manner: Speakers don’t use words that are unnecessarily hard to understand, avoid ambiguity, are brief, and are orderly.

Alice: I got the car started. (Instead of "I started the car.") Bob concludes: Alice had trouble getting the car started.

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Flouting Maxims

Flouting Maxims

Sometimes we intentionally violate the maxims in an extreme and obvious way because we know the listener will consciously notice the violation and draw an Implicature.

Alice: I can run ten miles. Bob: Yeahm, and I'm the Queen of England.

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Implicature

Implicature

When someone appears to violate the Cooperative Principle, we conclude that they are expressing a hidden intent which does follow the principle.

Alice: Is jamie dating anyone these days? Bob: Well, she goes to Cleveland every weekend. Implicates: I think she is dating some in Cleveland.

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Speech Acts

Speech Acts

A speech act is the kind of action performed by an utterance.

Kinds of Speech Acts

• Assertion: Conveys information.
• Question: Requests information.
• Request: Elicits action.
• Order: Demands action.
• Promise: Commits the speaker to an action.
• Threat: Commits the speaker to an action that the listener does not want.

Sentence Types

Sentence Type	Default Speech Act	Example
Declarative	Assertion	Bob is cooking the chicken.
Interrogative	Question	Is Bob cooking chicken?
Imperative	Request or Order	Cook the chicken!

Performative Speech Act

A performative speech act is a speech act in which the action named by the verb is accomplished by the speech act itself.

I ask again: Who ate the cookies?, I order you to sit down and be quiet., I bet you five bucks that the Rams beat the Saints

Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

Direct speech Act

Uses its default sentence type, or it is using a performative verb.

Did John marry Helen?, I'm asking you whether John married Helen.

Indirect Speech Act

Uses a non-default sentence type, and it doesn’t have a performative verb.

I don't know whether John married Helen., Do you know whether John married Helen?, I would like to know whether John married Helen.

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