Linguistic Pragmatics 3201-PRL-OG

The goal of the course is considerable broadening of knowledge about fundamental mechanisms of linguistic communication, serving for its attainment an analysis of the most influential pragmatic theories.
Among others, discussed are Gricean pragmatics, post-Gricean pragmatics, and anti-Gricean one, as well as the pragmatics of discourse.
Workload of student:
30 hours of classes
15 hours for preparation of homeworks (1 hour per week)
10 hours for preparation for the credit
Sum total 55 hours

MAIN TOPICS:
- the fundamental mechanisms of human communication; vagueness of meaning of linguistic units, the role of context, meaning amplification and specification;
- P.Grice's maxims as a system providing for the rise of implicatures;
- types of implicatures WRT their source; scalar implicatures;
- the maxim of manner and iconicity; the role of iconicity in grammatical structure of word, in morphosyntax, and in overall structure of text;
- the problem of implicitures; connotations;
- thematic-rhematic structure of sentence: word order and intonation as a source of implicatures;
- the issue of the so-called strong implicatures;
- post-Gricean pragmatics (L. Horn, S. Levinson);
- anti-Gricean pragmatics (Relevance Theory. D. Sperber, D. Wilson, R. Carston);
- discourse pragmatics: genre, authorial intention, the main message;
- discourse pragmatics: anaphoric links; use of various anaphoric devices for building additional pragmatic effects;
- discourse pragmatics: discourse raltions – narration, elaboration, cause, explanation, contrast, etc.;
- grounding in discourse and its exponents; the Transitivity Theory as a theory of grounding in narrative discourse; grounding devices in other types of discourse, e.g. in lyric poetry.

THE FORM OF WORK: LECTURES

Type of course

general courses

Mode

Classroom

Prerequisites (description)

Student must have C2 knowledge of Polish, and at least B2 knowledge of English. Student must have basic knowledge of general linguistics and discourse analysis

Learning outcomes

After having attended the course, student obtains
KNOWLEDGE:
- about the most influential theories explaining generation of implicatures;
- about the main types of implicatures, the differences between implicature and other types of linguistic information;
- about the pragmatic component of discourse structure, including anaphoric links and their exponents, discourse relations and their relative markedness, grounding in discourse and typical devices serving for its indication.
SKILLS:
- of proper qualification of information in terms of pragmatic theory;
- of proper indication of the source of various implicatures;
- of analysis of discourse in terms of anaphoric links and their concrete exponents;
- of analysis of discourse in terms of discourse relations;
- of analysis of discourse in terms of its grounding structure.
SOCIAL COMPETENCES:
- of discovering implicit information conveyed by text.

Assessment criteria

The assessment is based on:
- presence, student’s being prepared for discussions, activity;
- the credit for a grade at the end of the semester (to get the credit, student must present a paper containing overview of one of basic issues in pragmatics).

Criteria of assessment:
Assessed is knowledge within the scope of the above mentioned topics (see MAIN TOPICS).
99%-100% - 5!
98%-91% - 5
90%-86% - 4,5
85%-76% - 4
75%-71% - 3,5
70%-60% - 3
less – 2

Absence from 2 classes is permissible

Bibliography

Students may study at their own choice 5 works from the below list. Each work is an article or a book chapter.

Ariel M. Referring and accessibility // Journal of Linguistics. 1988. Vol. 24. P. 65-87.
Ariel M. Accessibility marking: Discourse functions, discourse profiles, and processing cues // Discourse Processes. 2004. Vol. 37. N 2. P. 91-116.
Ariel M. Pragmatics and Grammar. Cambridge, 2008.
Arnold J.E. Reference Form and Discourse Patterns. Dissertation. Stanford, 1998.
Asher N., Denis P. Names and Pops and Discourse Structure // Sidner C., Harpur J., Benz A., Kühnlein P. (eds.). Constraints on Discourse. Maynooth, 2006. P. 11-18.
Asher N., Lascarides A. Logics of Conversation. Cambridge, 2003.
Bogusławski A. Problems of the Thematic-Rhematic Structure of Sentences. Warszawa, 1977.
Bolinger D. Pronouns in discourse // Givón T. (ed.). Discourse and Syntax. Syntax and Semantics. Vol. 12. N.Y., etc., 1979. P. 289-309.
Carston R. Thoughts and Utterances. The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication. Oxford, 2002.
Chafe W. Discourse, Consciousness, and Time: The Flow and Displacement of Consciousness in Speaking and Writing. Chicago, 1994.
Contreras H. A Theory of Word Order with Special Reference to Spanish. North-Holland, 1976.
Ducrot O. Dire et ne pas dire. Paris, 1972.
Ducrot O. Les échelles argumentatives. Paris, 1980.
Ducrot O. Le dire et le dit. Paris, 1984.
Erteschik-Shir N. Information Structure. Oxford, 2007.
Fleischman S. Tense and Narrativity: From Medieval Performance to Modern Fiction. Austin, 1990.
Givón T. Negation in language: pragmatics, function, onthology // Cole P. (ed.). Pragmatics. Syntax and Semantics. Vol. 9. N.Y., etc., 1978. P. 69-112.
Givón T. (ed.). Topic Continuity in Discourse: A Quantitative Cross-Language Study. Amsterdam, 1983.
Givón T. Context as Other Minds. Amsterdam, 2005.
Grice, H.P. Logic and Conversation // Syntax and Semantics, vol. 3, ed. by P. Cole and J. Morgan. N.Y., 1975. Reprinted as ch.2 of Grice 1989. P. 22–40. (Przekład polski: Paul Grice: Logika i konwersacja. tłum. J. Wajszczuk // Przegląd Humanistyczny, 1977, z. 6).
Grice, H.P. Further Notes on Logic and Conversation // Syntax and Semantics, vol. 9, ed. by P. Cole. N.Y., etc., 1978. Reprinted as ch.3 of Grice 1989. P. 41–57.
Grice H.P. Presupposition and Conversational Implicature // P. Cole (ed.), Radical Pragmatics. N.Y., 1981. P. 183–198. Reprinted as ch.17 of Grice 1989. P. 269–282.
Grice, H.P. Studies in the Way of Words. Harvard, 1989.
Haiman J. Iconic and economic motivation // Language. 1983. Vol. 59. P. 781-819.
Haspelmath M. Frequency vs. iconicity in explaining grammatical asymmetries // Cognitive Linguistics. 2008. Vol. 19. N 1. P. 1-33.
Hopper P. Aspect and foregrounding in discourse // Givón T. (ed.). Discourse and Syntax. Syntax and Semantics. Vol. 12. N.Y., etc., 1979. P. 213-241.
Hopper P., Thompson S. Transitivity in grammar and discourse // Language. 1980. Vol. 56. № 2. P. 251-299.
Hopper P., Thompson S. (eds.). Studies in Transitivity. Syntax and Semantics. Vol. 15. N.Y., etc., 1982.
Horn L. Toward a new taxonomy for pragmatic inference: Q-based and R-based implicature // Schiffrin D. (ed.). Meaning, Form, and Use in Context. Washington, 1984. P. 11-42.
Horn L. Given as new: When redundant affirmation isn't // Journal of Pragmatics. 1991. Vol. 15. P. 313-336.
Jaeger G. Topic-comment structure and the contrast between stage level and individual level predicates // Journal of Semantics. 2001. Vol. 18. P. 83-126.
Jasinskaja E. Pragmatics and Prosody of Implicit Discourse Relations, Dissertation, Tübingen, 2009.
Krifka M. Approximate interpretation of number words: A case for strategic communication // Bouma G., Kräer I., Zwarts J. (eds.). Cognitive Foundations of Interpretation. Amsterdam, 2005. P. 111-126.
Van Kuppevelt J. Directionality in discourse: Prominence differences in subordination relations // Journal of Semantics. 1996. Vol. 13. P. 363-395.
Levinson S. 2000 – Presumptive Meanings. Cambridge, 2000.
Mithun M. Is basic word order universal? // Payne D.L. (ed.). Pragmatics of Word Order Flexibility. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 1992. P. 15-61.
Payne D.L. (ed.). Pragmatics of Word Order Flexibility. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 1992.
Prince E. Toward a taxonomy of given-new information // Cole P. (ed.). Radical Pragmatics. N.Y., 1981. P. 223-256.
Rosa E., Arnold J. Predictability affects production: Thematic roles can affect reference form selection // Journal of Memory and Language. 2017. Vol. 94. P. 43-60.
Shen Y. On importance hierarchy and evaluation devices in narrative texts // Poetics Today. N 6/4. P. 681-698.
Shen Y. Foregrounding in poetic discourse: between deviation and cognitive constraints // Language and Literature. 2007. Vol. 16, N 2. P. 169-181.
Shen Y., Biberman E. A story told by a picture // Image & Narrative. 2010. Vol. 11. N 2. P. 177-197.
Sperber D., Wilson D. Relevance: Communication and Cognition. 2nd edition. Oxford, 1995.
Talmy L. Attention phenomena // Geeraerts D., Cuyckens H. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics. Oxford, 2010. P. 264-293.
Vallduví E. The Informational Component. New York, London, 1992.
Wolf F., Gibson E. Representing discourse coherence: A corpus-based analysis // Computational linguistics. 2005. Vol. 31. N. 2. P. 249-287.
Yokoyama O. Discourse and word order. Amsterdam, 1986.
Грайс П. Логика и речевое общение // Новое в зарубежной лингвистике. Вып. XVI. М., 1985. С. 217-237.
Зельдович Г.М. Прагматика грамматики. М., 2012.
Ирисханова О.К. Игры фокуса в языке. Семантика, синтаксис и прагматика дефокусирования. М., 2014.

Additional information

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Description of 3201-PRL-OG in USOSweb