English Language 2

ENGLISH

LANGUAGE II

Prof.ssa Valeria

Franceschi

Università degli

Studi di Verona

Dipartimento di

Lingue e Letterature

Straniere

A.A. 2016/ 2017

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Pragmatics and discourse analysis

Introduction

“We are not amused” → - Pronounced by Queen Victoria

- She was depressed

We can make many - Her courtiers tried to lift her spirits with a joke

plausible hypothesis - She reminds them they have to respect her as the

but they are not sure to Queen

be the reality; we need - To understand language, we need to take its

a context to know it. CONTEXT into account

Pragmatics includes extra linguistic factors. It deals with the social

context.

So we can say that context, social context and factors that are outside from the

text are called the paralinguistic and extra-linguistic elements of the language.

They show a different attitude, a paralinguistic feature, for example as in the

case in which the pitch of the voice changes to show the opinion in answering

towards an invite.

Extra-linguistic signals express meaning through elements which are not

linguistic such as body posture or gesture.

To understand language, we need to take its CONTEXT into account.

 Semantics → studies the linguistic meaning (word meaning and

sentence meaning) and is not context-dependent.

 Pragmatics → studies the meaning of the utterance or the

meaning intended by the speaker, and is context dependent. It

also includes extralinguistic factors and it deals with the social

context.

Mike, Annie and Mike’s cat, Felix, Semantic meaning (linguistic info) →

are in Mike’s kitchen. What did domestic felines consume the liquid fat of

Annie mean? milk.

Mike: What happened to that bowl Pragmatic meaning → Felix probably

of cream? drank the cream.

Annie: Cats drink cream.

Pragmatics

First approaches to pragmatics was in the 60s and 70s. Pragmatics is interested

in the process of producing language and in its producers, not just in the end-

product, language. Chomsky – 60s – distinction between:

 Competence: «the user’s knowledge of language and its rules».

 Performance: «the way the individual goes about language».

The language user is at the center of pragmatics.

The studies on pragmatics shifted the attention from the final end-product to

the process of production of the language itself. Chomsky in 60s created the

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bases for pragmatics by creating the distinction between competence and

performance.

David Crystal about this issue says that pragmatic is one of the most

important phenomenon of the language because it answers to the

question why and try to find the reason for linguistic choices, for

example the use of the passive form that serves to put emphasis on

one of the two elements.

We have many ways to call a man (name, surname, nickname, etc.) and the

choice depends on the relationship that he has with the speaker, but not only

the social relationship but also the context in which they are having a

conversation. - choices you make when you use

Pragmatics answers language;

the question: WHY? - the reasons for your choices;

- the effects these choices convey.

Pragmatics and discourse analysis

Pragmatics and discourse analysis are approaches which are very similar to a

certain extend but they have also differences. Pragmatics and discourse

analysis have some common aspects. Cutting says that they both studies the

meaning of words in a context, which means that they study language when it

is used in real life.

“Approaches to studying language’s relation to contextual background

features”. They study context, text, and function “meaning of the words in

context”.

 Pragmatics → “concentrates on aspects of meaning that cannot be

predicted by linguistic knowledge alone and takes into account

knowledge about the physical and social world.” Or “Pragmatics is

concerned with how the interpretation of language depends on

knowledge of the real world […]. Pragmatics is interested in what people

mean by what they say, rather than what words in their most literal

sense might mean by themselves”.

 Discourse → Indicates the unit of language above the sentence. «Typical

ways of using language in particular situations» they have characteristic

linguistic features. “‘Discourse is for me more than just language in use:

It is language use, whether speech or writing, seen as a type of social

practice.” Or “Discourse constitutes the social…Discourse is shaped by

relations of power, and invested with ideologies.”

Pragmatics and

discourse analysis - looks at the «relationship between language and the

have some common social and cultural contexts in which it is used»;

aspects. - studies how language presents different views of the

world;

“Language - studies how relationships between participants

simultaneously reflects influences language;

reality (“the way things - studies effects of language use on social identities

are”) and constructs and relations;

(construes) it to be a - studies spoken and written texts;

certain way → View of - studies how perspectives and identities are built

language as social through discourse.

construction of reality 3

- What preceded it and what might follow it;

Discourse is shaped by - The medium in which it occurs;

→ - Its purpose.

Common aspects - Knowledge of physical and social

Pragmatics and discourse analysis world

study the meaning of words in - Social and psychological factors

context. They analyze elements of - Knowledge of time and place in which

meaning that are explained by → the words were uttered or written

- Discourse: use of language;

- Text: spoken or written

They look at language;

→ - Function: the speaker’s

purpose.

Differences - Discourse analysis highlights the

structure of text: DA studies the

Some views of language didn’t take organization of texts beyond the

into account the social and cultural sentence.

context of language use → Hymes - Pragmatics underlines the social

(1964) speaks of ethnography of principles of discourse. It analyses how

communication. social behavior is influenced by the

relationship between speakers.

Ethnography of communication Who speaks to

Important questions → whom?

These impact how we say and do About what?

things according to the cultural For what purpose?

setting: Culturally-different ways of Where? When?

doing things.

Changing the answers to one of the questions the final result will be different.

They change according to the cultural setting.

Es. In Italia chiedere di trattare per avere un prezzo diverso di un prodotto non

viene accettato come un comportamento educato mentre in alcuni paesi

orientali la compra-vendita è un qualcosa di comune. Questo, sempre in Italia

ma in un altro tipo di negozio (ad esempio un bazar) potrebbe essere accettato.

- Involves what to say and to whom, and

appropriate use of language in specific

Communicati situations;

ve - Knowledge of rules of speaking;

Competence - Knowledge of how to react to certain

speech acts

Hymes (1972): (e.g. requesting, apologizing) in different

contexts.

Four Grammatical competence → knowing the language;

underlyin Sociolinguistic competence → using language appropriately;

g Discourse competence → connecting utterances so the text is

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cohesive and coherent;

compone Strategic competence → strategies to solve issues in

nts communication and increase effectiveness.

Textual competence → producing and interpreting texts that are

Discursiv contextually appropriate – knowledge of the characteristics and

e interpretation of a particular text. (e.g. knowledge of features of

compete digital language – abbreviations);

nce Generic competence → response to communicative situations

using conventions pertaining to specific types of text (genres)

Bathia (e.g. writing a dissertation, a paper, or an e-mail);

(2004) Social competence → use of language in appropriate ways to

includes: express our social identity in specific contexts. It includes factors

outside the text.

Our use of language can That we use in communication

Languages

be explained in terms of according to → Social context,

Language

Social networks. topic, function and goal of

varieties interaction, social distance,

Styles

Communicative formality and status of speaker.

Registers

repertoire → Context

Context is one of the most important key words; there are different types

of context defined by Cutting. The context includes socio-psychological

factors and also the time and the palace in what they are pronounced.

Speaker and hearer are involved. The speaker creates a message which

includes a pragmatics meaning and the hearer has to infer the meaning

intended by the speaker. For this change to be successful they have to share

some assumptions of knowledge.

 Knowledge of world and social conventions;

 Socio-psychological factors;

 Time and place words were pronounced (or written).

Meaning of words in interaction

Speaker linguistic message implies meaning

interprets

Hearer infers meaning

message

Assumptions of knowledge → shared by speaker and

hearer

Example a conversation as introduction to different context

DM > English Man > AF: (2) So you went to Arran. A bit of a come-down isn’t

wanted to go to it! (laughing)

Spain but went hill DM: it was nice actually. Have you been to Arran?

walking in Arran AF: No, I’ve not. (1) Like to go.

(scottish island) DM: Did a lot of climbing

AF: // (heh)

AF > Scottish DM: // I went with Francesca (0.5) and David.

Woman AF: Uhuh?

DM: Francesca’s room-mate. (2) And Alice’s, a friend of

DM and AF > Alice’s from London (1). There

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were six of us. Yeah we did a lot of hill walking. (0.5) We

students at the got back (1) er (2) Michelle and

University of I got home she looked at her knees. (0.5) They were

Edinburgh like this. Swollen up like this. Cos

we did this enormous eight-hour stretch

AF: Uhm.

There are two people speaking without any place or time or

relationship information.

There are some elements that cannot be understood without a knowledge: who

is Francesca/Michelle/alice? We know that David is Francesca’s roommate

because it is said. Arran is located in Scotland but we cannot know it unless

someone tell us or we already know.

The first sentence cannot be understood and also "like this" cannot be

understood because we are not present in that moment. There are some

paralinguistic feature that are written in the test, as the laugh or the number

that represent the pauses.

To be interpreted in the correct way, the text has to be transcribed with

paralinguistic aspects. DM is a man who wanted to go to Spain but in the end

he went to Scotland and thanks this knowledge the first sentence has a sense.

AF is a Scottish girl and they are both students in Edinburgh and because of

this they have an informal relationship.

They have a shared knowledge for example about Arran and about other

people of their school.

So we can say that context Physical context;

is crucial to understand the Social context;

text. Mental worlds and roles of

participants.

Context includes →

A student’s law school assignment vs the same text typed the letterhead on a

law firm and addressed to a client. The immediate context changes the status

and function of the text.

This shows how a certain text can assume a different meaning according to

the situation in which it is written or pronounced.

«Meaning is not something that is inherent in the words alone, nor is it

produced by the speaker alone or the hearer alone. Making meaning is a

dynamic process, involving the negotiaton of meaning between speaker and

hearer, the context of utterance (physical, social and linguistic), and the

meaning potential of an utterance».

Meaning is produced in interaction → It is a joint enterprise of speaker –

listener/writer – reader: «a form of collaborative social action».

Meaning takes back the difference between semantic and pragmatics because

it is not about the form (the same word can have a different meaning).

Producing meaning and making a conversation effective is a joint

enterprise/effort.

Types Situational context → knowledge about their surroundings;

of Background context → knowledge of each other and the world;

contex Co-Textual context → knowledge of their communicative exchange

t (because of it, if we arrive in the middle of a conversation we cannot

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know that it was said before our arrival).

- Immediate physical co-presence;

Situation - Situation during communicative event

al “They were like this. Swollen up like this”

context (gestures)

Situational context causes the fact that hearing a message we cannot see what

people point to and so we cannot see the reality around people who are

speaking. It often involves extra-linguistic features. In advertisement situational

context is often necessary to understand the meaning.

The sentence “get them of your dog” makes us understand the reference to

fleas because of our background context but only seeing the advertisement up

above we can understand it clearly. We are in a store, there is a picture of a dog

and people moves on it representing fleas. The headline “get them off your

dog” now has a sense, different from before. The perspective is very important

to understand the message, the implied meaning in the way of who created it

wanted people to infer it. Background Context

Background knowledge can be

divided in:

- interpersonal

- cultural

Cultural Background Context

Knowledge about areas of life; so if

speakers are part of the same group they

share a mutual knowledge of information commonly known by group members.

For example, AF and DM → share cultural background knowledge about the hills

of Arran. Groups may vary in size communities of practice (CoP).

- Cultural is to understand as culture in all areas of the life, for example the fact

that we are born in Italy makes us to share the same experiences, for example

by naming a celebrity all would understand who he is.

- Culture is not related only to our country; for example, not only people of

British know about Arran but even people from other countries that are

interested in climbing because their interest created a community.

- Cultural knowledge is shared by people of the same group, in general. Groups

can vary in size. We are all students but a smaller group study the same

language, another group study English and Spanish. A group of people love

African music but within it there is the group of people who listen music from

Maghreb and then someone who are interested in single singers. There groups

are defined as communist of practice, CoP.

Communities of Practice → “Communities of practice are social groups

composed of individuals who come together for shared purposes that are

organized around, for example, social, familial, or professional goals”. Focus on

practice

They are characterized - mutual engagement (same purpose)

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- joint negotiated enterprise (they

collaborate)

- shared repertoire of negotiable resources:

by →  special strategies of communication

 special vocabulary (Wenger 1998)

The fact that they have a shared linguistic repertoire facilitates the negotiation

of meaning.

Communities of Practice was a name originally create for a professional

purpose to show people together but now it has been expanded and it has

become the name of groups of people organized for a purpose (familiar,

professional, passions, etc.). They can also be called “communities of interest”

because they are organized around them.

- Set of common goals;

They are also called - Mechanisms for communication;

Discourse - Way of providing exchange of information;

- Particular genres;

Communities → - Specialized terminology and vocabulary;

discourse - Expertise in the area.

communities.

Focus on texts and - No formal membership;

language more than - People with similar interests / working on similar

CoP problems;

- There may be discourse communities within discourse

Swales (1990) → communities (e.g. different departments within a

university).

The difference between the two classifications is small. The characteristics are

almost identical. Discourse community is more focused on textual and linguistic

element because often the knowledge produced is shared in texts.

If people come together for a purpose and their focus is not the production of a

text but the fulfill a practical achievement is more a Community of Practice.

If they gather to produce a text, theya re more a Discourse Community.

Discourse communities don’t need a formal membership. They exist even if

members leave and new members come. This is in relationship to the cultural

context. - Knowledge acquired through previous interactions or

Interperso activities

nal - Personal knowledge about the interlocutor

Backgroun (for example, AF knows that Michelle is DM’s wife)

d Context - A lot of information can be implicit

Interpersonal context is a knowledge acquired through the interaction with

other people. We didn't know named people in the text because we lacked this

aspect. Her: How are you? We don't know what the video is about.

Him: OK. This US advertisement plays on the

Her: Did you have friends in and interpersonal background until it is shown

get a video last night? a flashback we don't know it.

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Him: Oh, I had friends in, but we

just watched a little TV. Flashback: she has won a gold medal in an

Her: Ah, right. Olympics event.

Him: That was great. How do you Reference to interpersonal knowledge can

feel? be VAGUE, IMPLICIT, MINIMAL

Her: OK.<