Introduction to Pragmatics 3301-JF184

The course provides an introduction to the basics of pragmatics: an overview of goals and methods of pragmatic description. We start with tracing the origins of the term "pragmatics", comparing different definitions of pragmatics and determining the semantics/pragmatics distinction. Then we go on to study the following aspects of language:
- Entailment and presupposition, which refer to the logical meaning of a sentence. Entailment is an inference which is automatically true solely by virtue of sense relations in the language. Presupposition differs from entailment in that it is an inference that remains true even though the sentence giving rise to it is false.
- Reference and deixis. Reference is a relationship between a particular object in the world and an expression used in an utterance to pick that object. Deictic expressions are words whose meanings vary systematically according to the immediate situation of the utterance in which they are used and which can be understood only in terms of speaker's intended meaning (person deixis, place deixis, time deixis).
- Implicature, a concept of utterance meaning as opposed to sentence meaning. It is a form of reasonable inference from utterances on particular occasions and not from isolated sentences. The notion of implicature was introduced by the philosopher Paul Grice, whose theory, based on the Co-operative Principle and its attendant maxims, is introduced together with Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory, which is a development and modification of Grice's theory and which provides a cognitive explanation to communication.
- Speech acts. The theory of speech acts was developed by J.L. Austin and then by J. R. Searle. It is based on the assumption that words and sentences when uttered are used to do things in addition to describing aspects of the world. Speech acts can be categorized into direct and indirect illocutions. Speech act theory explores the methods by which speakers and hearers identify the indirect illocutions of utterances.
- Politeness as a linguistic and pragmatic phenomenon. Two influential theories of politeness are introduced: G. Leech's theory of politeness, based on the Politeness Principle and its attendant maxims, and P. Brown and S. Levinson's model of politeness, which explains the phenomenon by addressing the notion of "face" - one's public self-image.
Specific topics to be discussed:
1. What is pragmatics? (origins of the term, definitions, semantics/pragmatics distinction).
2. Entailment and presupposition (analytic/synthetic sentences, contradictions, one-way/two-way entailments, origins of presupposition, entailment/presupposition distinction, presupposition triggers, types of presupposition).
3. Deixis (reference, indexicality, types of deixis).
4. The theory of conversational implicature: Paul Grice (the Co-operative Principle, conversational maxims, observing / flouting / violating / opting out of the maxims, types of implicature).
5. Relevance theory: Dan Sperber-Deirdre Wilson (the Cognitive / Communicative Principle of Relevance, the presumption of optimal relevance, degrees of relevance, context: cognitive environment, relevance-theoretic comprehension procedure, types of inference).
6. The speech act theory of J. L. Austin (constatives / performatives, the performative hypothesis, explicit / implicit performatives, locution /illocution / perlocution, felicity conditions).
7. The speech act theory of J. R. Searle (direct / indirect speech acts, felicity conditions, classification of speech acts).
8. Models of politeness (Leech - maxims of politeness, Brown & Levinson - positive / negative face, face-saving acts: positive / negative politeness, face-threatening acts).