Understanding Pragmatics
The dark matters of pragmatism
Levinson (2024) describes pragmatics as the study of how language is
used to communicate. Pragmatics are important since there are many
cases in which systematic use of language has not been used well.
Pragmatics look at how people make meaning out of communication,
aside from what they hear. Our brains work faster than we hear people
talk. Pragmatics are thus important because it can help people to create
meaning with words. For instance, a sentence can imply more than what
is said and it can improve effective communication.
6 reasons why it makes sense that there is a lot that we don’t know:
1. We, humanity, are only half a century old. There has not been
enough time to find out everything.
2. The pragmatic theories we use are getting outdated.
3. Our theory comes from the Western philosophy and thus does not
cover the rest of the world. We could learn a lot from other
cultures
4. We thus only have information in the most used languages. There
are many languages with information and there use which we don’t
know of.
5. There have not always been enough / good tools and methods to
discover new information about pragmatics.
6. There are still many fields of pragmatics that have not been
studies in depth.
We can uncover these unknowns, sometimes mathematically.
Linguistically, this can be done by seeing with where what we do
understand, stops where we don’t. Then we know what is beyond our
known boundaries.
The human communication bottleneck and niche of pragmatics
A tight bottleneck is a drawback on human speech, namely that there
is a maximum speed with which we can talk. Our understanding goes
way faster than we can speak. The pragmatic niche help fill this gap by
conveying more meaning through context,, that goes beyond words with
which we speak. Thus, while our words are slow, pragmatics help to
communicate more effectively.
Now, it is quite easy to show that semantic information can be transferred
much faster than we can actually speak: if you take a tape or recording of
fast speech and speed it up three times you can easily understand it, and
you will likely understand it even at four times the maximal speaking rate.
Levinson introduces an imaginary engineer, retro-engineering human
communication and building an optimal communication system.
The engineer will help to create a new language with the most
communicative effectiveness, since this is the end goal (however, not
possible because of the bottleneck). He thus wants to maximize
semantic informativeness. He needs to come up with ways that avoid the
,speech production bottleneck with fast comprehension. Are there any
way to speed up the speaking, without actually speeding up the
speaking?
Tricks to solve the problem of the tight bottleneck:
1. Using multiple communication channels simultaneously: gestures,
facial expressions, tone of voice etc. more effective
communication
2. Dual content. Encoding multiple messages within a single utterance.
One message is hidden in the other (suggestion, not literal meaning)
decrease amount of information, do more with less.
3. Choice of message form. By using prearranged signals, implicatures,
and presuppositions (he will not do it again he did something
earlier), speakers can amplify the content of their messages without
needing to explicitly state everything. more effective
communication, as listeners can infer much more from what is said,
based on these established conventions and the specific linguistic
choices made by the speaker.
4. Non-literal uses of language. Use if figurative language (irony,
tropes, metaphors etc.) This evokes ideas that go beyond language.
5. Leveraging the content. Piggy-backing on the content (referring etc.)
saves time
A central mystery of human communication: The central mystery is
how we make meaning out of sentences and utterances despite limitations
of our cognitive and linguistic systems.
Ch.1 Pragmatics and philosophy
Logical positivism = unless formal logical analyses of this sentence can
answer the question under what conditions it is true or false.
We do not use language to describe the world, but we use language to
constitute the world and to act within the world.
The meaning of an utterance does not reside in lexical and grammatical
meaning of words and sentences, but is the result of an interpretation
process by the recipient of the utterance (e.g. implicature)
1.2 Speech Act Theory from John Austin:
- Declarative sentence = something is done in or by saying something
as ‘performative’ sentences I name him Jack. First person + verb
(perform act)
Performative verbs = verbs that can be used performatively,
cannot be true or false
, A: act must be achieved and not just intended
B: the race won’t be run today more than one arranged, which
one?
both MISFIRES
C: insincerities, infractions or breaches
act is achieved but insincerely is ABUSES
- Constatives = utterances that say things which can be true or false
(assertations or statements) My daughter’s name is Franky
He later abandons this distinction, claiming that all utterances are
illocutionary acts; performatives and constatives are just special sub-
cases
1.3 Speech Acts classification:
- Locutions = have meaning, saying something:
o Phonetic act = uttering certain noises
o Phatic = uttering certain words in a certain grammatical
construction (direct speech: He said: ‘The cat is on the mat’)
o Rhetic = using words with a certain meaning (indirect speech:
He said that the cat was on the mat)
locutionary acts are also illocutionary acts
- Illocutions = have certain force to cause certain effects, acts of
doing something is accusing, asking, blaming, informing etc. Also
have effect on hearer understanding
- Perlocution = achieve certain effects by saying something like
persuading, convincing, surprising produce effects upon feelings,
thoughts or actions of addressee and have psychological / behavioral
consequences
Uptake is a necessary condition for achievement of an illocutionary act;
beyond understanding.
1. Securing of uptake: understanding of meaning and force of
locutation
, 2. Production of a conventional effect: changes in natural course of
events
3. Invites a response or sequal
Perlocutionary acts can be achieved by non-verbal means (waving,
pointing), can lead to psychological / behavioral consequences intended
or unintended
1.3.1 Rules: how do we use and recognize Speech Acts
When speakers perform an illocutionary act they also perform an
‘utterance act’ (uttering words) and a ‘propositional act’ (expressing a
proposition in reffering to something)
Sentence has two parts:
- Proposition-indicating element reveals illocutionary force
utterance is to have
- Function-indication device what illocutionary act the speaker is
performing (word order, stress, intonation, punctuation, mood of the
verb, performative verbs)
1.3.4 Different types of Speecs Acts (Taxonomy)
Taxonomy of the basic Illocutionary Acts: three dimensions of
variations in which illocutionary acts differ from each other
- Illocutionary point = command, differences in point (or purpose)
of the act affect the attempt to get the hearer to do something. The
point is an undertaking of an obligation by the speaker to do
something.
- Direction of fit between words and the world.
- assertations = illocutionary point to get the words to match the
world (man buying groceries for his wife)
