Monographic lecture: Theoretical and practical aspects of verbal communication 3301-2ST-WM-JF001
The lecture is an overview of selected issues in pragmatics, whose understanding broadens one’s knowledge about the process of verbal communication and makes social communication more effective. It raises awareness of the potential problems in communication resulting from the distinction between the literal meaning of language and the speaker-intended meaning (implicatures, metaphor, irony, etc.). It introduces the tools indispensable to analyse this meaning (Grice’s theory of conversation, Relevance Theory), thus improving one’s interpretive and rhetorical skills, and facilitating interpersonal communication. The lecture presents strategies of verbal manipulation and examines the notion of lying, which results in the ability to resist fake news and propaganda in the media. It also teaches the principles of linguistic politeness understood as a pragmatic strategy employed by a speaker to promote/maintain harmonious relations or avoid a conflict situation, with a special focus on intercultural differences. The cognitive strategy of utterance interpretation is applied to analyse everyday speech, political speech, the language of media and advertising.
The lecture is an overview of selected issues in pragmatics, whose understanding broadens one’s knowledge about the process of verbal communication and makes social communication more effective. Two models of communication will be introduced: the theory of conversation (Grice) and Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson), which is a development and modification of Grice’s theory from the cognitive point of view. Apart from the classical theory of implicature by Grice, other theories of implicature, both rooted in Grice, will be presented (Horn, Levinson). The goal of introducing the tools indispensable to analyse the speaker-intended meaning is to improve one’s interpretive and rhetorical skills, and to facilitate interpersonal communication. The lecture presents strategies of verbal manipulation and examines the notion of lying, which results in the ability to resist fake news and propaganda in the media. It teaches the principles of linguistic politeness understood as a pragmatic strategy employed by a speaker to promote/maintain harmonious relations or avoid a conflict situation, with a special focus on intercultural differences (theories of politeness by G. Leech and by P. Brown and S. Levinson). It also deals with the phenomenon of banter viewed as an instance of phatic communication and with the pragmatic accounts of metaphor and irony. The cognitive strategy of utterance interpretation is applied to analyse everyday speech, political speech, the language of media and advertising. The lectures will be interactive and accompanied by a group discussion and class assignments (a workshop format).
Topics to be discussed:
1. Introduction - pragmatics (definitions, history), linguistic underdeterminacy, basic notions in semantics and pragmatics (sentence, utterance, proposition, context, truth value, truth condition, entailment).
2. Implicature – classical Gricean theory of conversational implicature (the Co-operative Principle, conversational maxims, observing/flouting/violating/opting out of the maxims, types of implicature).
3. Implicature – two neo-Gricean pragmatic theories of conversational implicature (the Hornian system, the Levinsonian system).
4. Pragmatics and cognition: Relevance Theory (relevance: the Cognitive/Communicative Principle of Relevance, explicature/ implicature, conceptual/procedural meaning).
5. Truth, lying and misleading. Verbal manipulation . The language of propaganda.
6. Models of politeness (Leech – The Politeness Principle and its attendant maxims, Brown and Levinson – positive/negative face, face-threatening acts). Intercultural differences.
7. Banter and phatic communication.
8. Lexical pragmatics and metaphor.
9. The pragmatics of irony.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
A student:
1. knows basic terms in the domain of pragmatics and can apply this knowledge to describe and analyse data;
2. understands verbal communication as a communicative situation going beyond the semantic meaning of language and dependent on context and speaker’s intentions;
3. knows and can compare main theories of verbal communication;
4. knows basic mechanisms of conversational analysis and can illustrate them with examples;
5. knows the difference between the literal and non-literal meaning of linguistic expressions;
6. is prepared to extend his/her knowledge of semantics, pragmatics and verbal communication.
Knowledge:
K_W01 The student will be able to identify and characterize on an advanced level the place and status of linguistics, with the special focus on pragmatics, within the humanities
K_W02 The student will be able to describe on an advanced level the current trends in pragmatic research on verbal communication within English studies, the student has extensive knowledge of the levels and processes of communication in Engllish.
K_W04 The student will be able to characterize on an advanced level the principles of research design in pragmatics (including verbal communication), with special focus on the application of methods and tools in formulating research problems and testing hypotheses
Abilities:
K_U01 The student will be able to apply advanced terminology and notions pertinent to the pragmatics and verbal communication.
K_U03 The student will be able to apply knowledge of pragmatics and verbal communication obtained during the course of studies to account for and solve a problem, thereby completing a research task related to the discipline linguistics
K_U04 The student will be able to analyze linguistic phenomena and draw generalizations on their basis in the context of societal factors on an advanced level. The student can critically assess the truth of the media contents and recognize the techniques of manipulation. The student can analyse the language of politics, mass media and advertising.
Social competences:
K_K04 The student will be ready to assess critically one’s own knowledge and skills related to the studies . The student is aware of the social significance of one's knowledge, work and skills (their usefulness in building community bonds).
Linguistic skills: B2+
Assessment criteria
Students are assessed on the basis of regular attendance in class, class assignments and a final written examination. Highly appreciated are:
- exchange of opinions in group discussions,
- pairwork/groupwork with handouts/worksheets.
3 absences are allowed.
Bibliography
Bralczyk, J. 2007. O Języku Polskiej Propagandy i Polityki. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Trio.
Brown, P. & S. C. Levinson. "Politeness: some universals in language usage", in: A. Jaworski & N. Coupland (eds). 1999. The Discourse Reader. London and New York: Routledge. 321-335.
Clark, B. 2013. Relevance Theory. Cambridge University Press. (wybrane rozdziały).
Grice, P. "Logic and conversation", in P. Grice. 1989. Studies in the Way of Words. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.
Huang, Y. 2007. Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.
Kisielewska-Krysiuk, Marta. 2017. “Lying and misleading within the philosophy of language: a relevance-theoretic perspective”. Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies 26.2: 79-100.
Leech, G. 1983: Principles of Pragmatics. Penguin. (wybrane rozdziały).
Leech, G. 2007. ‘‘Is there an East-West divide?’’. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 3(2): 167–206, ISSN (Online) 1613-4877, ISSN (Print) 1612-5681.
Sperber, D. & D. Wilson. 1998. "Relevance and irony", in: R. Carston & S. Uchida. 1998. Relevance Theory: Applications and Implications. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 283-93.
Wilson, D. & Sperber, D. 2004. “Relevance Theory”. In L. Horn & G. Ward (eds.) The Handbook of Pragmatics. Oxford, Blackwell. 607-632.
Wilson, D. 2004. "Relevance and lexical pragmatics". UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 16.
Žegarac, V. 1998. “What is phatic communication?”, in: Current Issues in Relevance Theory, edited by V. Rouchota and A. H. Jucker. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 327-361.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: