Lecture 2

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Dr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryPragmatics

Micropragmatics and Macropragmatics)

-Micropragmatic:

- Reference

- Deixis

- Anaphora

- Presupposition

The Scope of Pragmatics:

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Micropragmatics and Macropragmatics

Micropragmatics is the study of language use in smaller

contexts. Traditionally the context is understood as

comprising the sentence and its immediate surroundings.

Phenomena such as reference, deixis, anaphora and

presupposition are the topics in this field. E.g:

- I was waiting for the bus, but he just drove by without stopping.

- I saw you with him yesterday.

The Scope of Pragmatics


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Macropragmatics concerns with the users interaction in

various ways, and in a number of settings:

-Cooperative principles

-Conversation implicature

-Speech acts

-Indirect language

-Politeness principles

-Cross-cultural communication

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In the referential theory (naming theory), it is assumed

that the words we use to identify things are in some direct

relationship to those things. Examples:

(1) A: Where is the fresh salad sitting?

B: He’s sitting by the door.

(2) A: Can I look at your Shakespeare?

B: Sure, it’s on the shelf over there.

Reference

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These examples make it clear that we can use names

associated with things (salad) to refer to people and names

of people (Shakespeare) to refer to things.

The key process here is called inference. An inference is

any additional information used by the hearer to connect

what is said to what must be meant.

In pragmatics, the act by which a speaker or writer uses

language to enable a hearer or reader to identify something

is called reference.


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In all languages there are many words and expressions

whose reference depends entirely on the situational

context of the utterance and can only be understood in

light of these circumstances. This aspect of pragmatics is

called deixis, which means “pointing” via language.

Any linguistic form used to do this “pointing” is called a

deictic expression, or indexical .

Deixis helps us to identify things in time and space

Deixis

In English, for example, there are some words that

cannot be interpreted at all unless the context,

especially the physical context of the speaker, is

known. These are words like here, there, this, that,

now, then, as well as most pronouns, such as I, we, you,

he, her, them. Some sentences of English are actually

impossible to understand if we do not know who is

speaking, about whom, where and when.


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Example

You’ll have to bring that back tomorrow, because they aren’t here now.

Out of context we cannot understand this sentence

because it contains a number of deictic expressions

such as you, that, tomorrow, they, here, now which

depend for their interpretation on the immediate

physical context in which they were uttered. For

example, who does you refer to? What time on earth

does tomorrow refer to?

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Deictic center refers to the deictic expressions that are

anchored to specific points in the communicative event.

- the person (speaker) just giving the utterance.

-the time of the utterance’s time;

- the place of the utterance’s place, the person just giving

the utterance.

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“Near speaker” — “Away from speaker”

︱︱ Proximal distal

︱︱ This, here, now that, there, then

- Here comes the guests.

-This is my uncle.

-She is leaving now.

- I met him there

- That is the criminal.

- I discovered the truth then.

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Classification of Deixis

Types of Deixis

Central Non-central

PersonDeixis

TimeDeixis

PlaceDeixis Social

Deixis DiscourseDeixis


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1) Person deixis: any expression used to point to a person is

an example of person deixis, for example, me, you, him,

them.

2) Time/Temporal deixis: words used to point to a time are

examples of time deixis, for example, now, then, tonight,

last week, this year.

3) Place/spatial deixis: words used to point to a location are

examples of space deixis, for example, here, there, and

yonder.

There are five types of deixis:


4) Discourse/textual deixis: any expression used to refer to

earlier or forthcoming segments of the discourse is an

example of discourse deixis, for example, in the previous/next

paragraph, or Have you heard this joke?

5) Social deixis: honorifics (forms to show respect such as

Professor Li, your Majesy, your Excellency) are often

encountered in the languages of the world. They are often

thought of as an aspect of person deixis, but although

organized around the deictic center like space and time deixis,

honorifics involve a separate dimension of social deixis.

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• Person deixis:

- “I hate you” ( I-speaker-, you –addressee)

-His highness needs coffee! (his … -addressee [ “irony’])

• Temporal deixis:

-Are you coming now? (now- Temporal)

-See you then. (then – distal)

- If the team won the match, I would.. .(past tense “won” distal)

-Spatial deixis:

- I am not here now. (here –proximal adverb)

-Go to my room. (go – distal verb of motion)

- Come to my country. (come – proximal verb of motion)

Examples:

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When we establish a referent and subsequently refer to the

same object, we have a particular kind of referential

relationship. For example:

A: Can I borrow your dictionary?

B: Yeah, it’s on the table.

- Here, the word it refers back to the word dictionary. The

previous word dictionary is called the antecedent, and the

second word it is called anaphor or anaphoric expression.

AnaphoraDr. Hameed Al-ZubeiryPragmatics

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- The process where a word or phrase refers back to

another word or phrase which was used earlier in a text or

conversation is called anaphora.

- Mostly the relation between the antecedent and the

anaphor is direct, but sometimes the connection between

them is indirect. For example:

- I walked into the room. The windows looked out to the bay.


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The antecedent here is room, and the anaphor is windows.

We would normally expect it to be used for a room.

Obviously there is an inference involved here: if someone is

talking about a room, he assumes that the room has windows.

Those assumed windows are the inferred referents. So, such

kind of anaphora is called indirect anaphora or bridging

reference.


Lecture 2

Education

Transcript of Lecture 2