Transcript Unit 9

Unit 8
The use of English （I）
The use of English （I）
Review
• What do we mean by “prototype”? Use an
example to illustrate.
• How do you understand the following
book title?
Women, Fire and Dangerous Things
(George Lakoff 1987)
Appreciate
• 老音乐好听，
• 旧钞票会升值，
• 老朋友最能信任，
• 谁说旧的没有新的好？
-- 胖仔物语
How is this ballad semantically interesting?
Major contents
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
Pragmatic approach to language
Deictic expressions
Speech act theory
Presupposition
9.1 Pragmatic approach to
language
•Pragmatics is the study of
meaning in use
meaning in context
speaker meaning
contextual meaning
Pragmatics studies communication (utterance
production and comprehension) from a functional
(i.e. social, cultural, cognitive) perspective.
Semantics vs pragmatics
Semanticism: semantics includes pragmatics
Pragmaticism: pragmatics includes
semantics
Complementarism: semantics studies
meaning in the abstract; pragmatics
studies meaning in the context/use.
Mean and Say
•
‘It wasn’t what he said, but what he meant.’
‘Then you should say what you mean’, the March Hare
went on.
‘I do, Alice hastily replied; ‘at least – at least I mean
what I say – that’s the same thing, you know.’
‘Not the same thing a bit’, said the Hatter. “You might
just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as
‘I eat what I see’!”
“You might just as well say,” added the March Hare, “that
‘I like what I get’ is the same thing as ‘I get what I like’!”
“You might just as well say,” added the Dormouse …
“that ‘I breathe when I sleep’ is the same thing as ‘I sleep
when I breathe’!”
(Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
Literal meaning, utterance meaning,
speaker meaning
I met him yesterday.
You’re really friendly.
A: Do you like Harry and John?
B: I like Harry.
9.2 Deictic expressions （指示语）
• Deixis: (from Greek) anchoring, pointing
(toward the context) phenomenon.
– The linguistic means used in this
function are known as deictics,
indexicals( or indexical / deictic
expressions).
– Examples: pronouns, demonstratives,
time and place adverbs, and some
grammatical categories such as tense.
Characteristics in use
•
The egocentricity of deixis
Deictic expressions are anchored
to specific points in the communicative
event. The unmarked points, called the
deictic center, are typically assumed to
be as follows(S. Levinson: Pragmatics):
I love this game!
-the central person is the speaker
-the central time is the time at which the
speaker produces the utterance
-the central place is the speaker’s location at
utterance time
-the discourse center is the point which the
speaker is currently at in the production of
his utterance
-the social center is the speaker’s social
status and rank, to which the status or
rank of addressees or referents is relative
Discuss
• PP> 147-148 No. 2, 3
Deictic vs. Non-deictic
Deictic: gestural/symbolic
• You, you, but not you, are dismissed. (gestural)
• What did you say? (Symbolic)
Non-deictic: anaphoric /non-anaphoric
•
•
•
•
Jack is a student. He comes from Britain.
You can never tell what sex they are nowadays.
There you go again./There we go.
I did this and that.
Classification of deixis
•
•
•
•
•
Person deixis
Place deixis
Time deixis
social deixis
discourse deixis
9.3 Speech act theory
Saying is acting. (John Austin, How to
Things with Words, 1962)
Teacher: Class begins.
Boss: You are fired!
“Speech acts” refer to actions performed via
utterances.
Speech acts are “the basic or minimal units of
linguistic communication”.
“The unit of linguistic communication is not, as has
generally been supposed, the symbol, word or
sentence,… but rather the production of the
symbol or word or sentence in the performance
of the speech act”
— Searle
Constatives (表述句） and performatives （施为句）
a. There is a book on the desk.
b. I promise I’ll be there ten sharp tomorrow.
hereby-test: first person singular subject, simple
present tense, indicative mood, active voice,
performative verbs (with exceptions, though)
Collapse of Performative Hypothesis
a. Not all performative utterances require a
performative verb;
b. An utterance with a performative verb
may not be the type of act suggested by
the verb;
e.g. A kidnapper: I advise you to give me all
in your pocket.
Do the following count as promises?
If not, why?
a. I promise I’ll fail you in the exam.
b. I promise that next Friday will be his
birthday.
c. I promise that I saw him yesterday.
d. I promise that you’ll help me out of trouble.
e. He promises that he’ll help me.
f. I promised that I would help him.
felicity conditions （适切条件）
a. Essential condition （基本条件）
b. Preparatory condition (预备条件）
c. Propositional content condition （命题内容条件）
d. Sincerity condition （真诚条件）
Felicity conditions for a promise:
1) The speaker can do what is promised; (基本）
2）The promised act has not taken place yet; (预
备）
3）The utterance is about a future act; The
promised act is to the benefit of the hearer;
The promised act will be fulfilled by the speaker;
（命题内容）
4) The speaker means what he says. （真诚）
etc.
Practice
PP. 149-150 No. 5
Austin’s classification
- locutionary act: what is said
- illocutionary act: what is intended to do
- perlocutionary act: what is to be effected
• Leech:
locutionary act performing an act of saying sth
Illocutionary act performing an act in saying sth
Perlocutionary act performing an act by saying sth
Practice:
Analyze A’s remark in the following in terms of
the three acts.
A: The phone is ringing.
B: (Stands up and picks up the receiver) Hello.
Searle’s classification of illocutionary acts
•Representatives/assertives（阐述类）:
describe, inform, deny, state, claim, assert, remind,
etc.
•Directives （指令类）:
request, ask, urge, tell, demand, order, advise,
command, beseech, etc.
•Commissives （承诺类）:
commit, promise, threaten, pledge, consent,
refuse, offer, guarantee, etc.
• Expressives （表达类）:
apologize, boast, thank, deplore, welcome,
congratulate, greet, etc.
• Declarations （宣告类）:
declare, resign, appoint, nominate, bless,
christen, name, etc.
Indirect speech acts
A direct performative act:
I order you to leave the room.
P. 150 No. 6
How to perform speech acts?
• Different cultures, different realizations
e.g.
Compliment-Compliment response
e.g. A: Oh, what a beautiful handwriting!
B: No,no, not at all, you are joking.
Presentation session
• Complimenting and responding to
compliments in English
9.4 Presupposition
• Presupposition and entailment
• Presupposition triggers: linguistics device
that make inference possible.
• PP> 151-152 No. 8, 9
Assignments
• P. 155 No. 3
• P. 156 No. 6, 7