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USING LANGUAGE
1_How do the majority of people interpret seemingly unacceptable
sentences such as self ‘clearing cafeteria’?
They used their common sense and knowledge of the world to come to
the most plausible interpretation in the circumstances, which was not
necessarily the one which was most consistent with the linguistic
structures.
2_ What is pragmatics?
Is the branch of linguistics which studies those aspects of meaning which
cannot be captured by semantic theory .In brief, it deals with how speakers
use language in ways which cannot be predicted from linguistic knowledge
alone. In a narrow sense, it deals with how listeners arrive at the intended
meaning of speakers. In its broadest sense, it deals with the general
principles followed by human beings when they communicate with one
another. It is therefore sometimes light-heartedly referred to as 'the
waste-paper basket of semantics .
3_What does discourse analysis mean?
It deals with the various devices used by, speakers and writers when
they knit single sentences together into a coherent and cohesive whole .
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THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE
4_ Paul Grice is regarded ………as the father of pragmatism……………
5_ Grice emphases that people communicate
efficiently because …………. (They love each other / by nature they are
helpful to one another/ They need each other)
6 _He specified grammatical rules that underlie this cooperative behaviour
(true / false)
7_He proposed…four Maxims …….. Or ……rules………that are
summarised as a general principle ……Be cooperative……….
8_ The four maxims are …maxim of quality…. , …maxim of quantity…..,
…maxim of relevance……. ,…maxim of manners……
9 _ What is the maxim of quantity /
Give the right amount of information when you talk. If someone at a pany
asked "Who's that person with Bob?", a cooperative reply would be "That's
his new girlfriend, Alison'. An uncooperative reply would be an over-brief
one, such as 'A girl', or an over-long one, such as "That's Alison Margare
Jones, born in Kingston, Surrey on 4 July 1980, daughter of Peter and
Mary Jones .
What is the maxim of quality
Be truthful. For example, if someone asked you the name of an
unfamiliar animal, such as a platypus, reply truthfully, and don't say 'It's a
kookaburra', or 'It's a duck', if you know it's a platypus .
10_ What is the maxim of manner/
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Be clear and orderly For example, describe things in the order in which
they occurred: 'The plane taxied down the runway, and took off to the west'
rather than 'The plane took off to the west and taxied down the runway",
which might confuse people as to what actually happened.
What is the maxim of relevance
Be relevant. If someone says, 'What's for supper?', give a reply which fits
the question, such as 'Fish and chips', and not "Tables and chairs' or
'Buttercups are yellow'.
11_ A superficial breakdown of the maxims is treated as informative.
Explain
For example, if someone said: 'What's for supper?" and the reply was the
superficially irrelevant one 'Billy fell downstairs', the hearer is likely to
assume that the information about Billy was somehow important, and will fill
in the gaps with assumptions such as Since Billy was supposed to cook the
supper, and he's fallen downstairs, assume that there isn't any supper
ready . In brief. listeners interpret what people say as conforming to the
cooperative principle, even when this principle is overtly broken. They draw
implications from the utterance which are not strictly there in the linguistic
meaning .
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SPEECH ACTS
12_ The speech act theory is ………, a number of utterances behave
somewhat like actions………
13_ What are the various possible speech acts that a person might
perform?
When a person utters a sequence of words, the speaker is often trying to
achieve some effect with those words, an effect which might in some cases
have been accomplished by an alternative action. The words 'Get back!"
might convey the same notion as a push. A judge's statement: 'I sentence
you to five years' imprisonment' is not a mere string of words, but has the
same effect as if the judge had marched a man along to a prison, and
locked him up.
14_ At the heart of speech acts come .... statements…, …. requests.…,
…promises……
15_ There are two types of speech acts ………direct speech act…… and
……indirect speech act…………
16_ An example of the direct speech act is ……Go to bed!….
17_ An example of the indirect speech act is…Isn't it past your
bedtime?……
18_ Happiness conditions or felicity conditions are….....circumstances
under which it would be appropriate to interpret something as a particular
type of speech act............
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DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
19_ What I the difference between A and B
The two versions are more or less the same as far as semantic content
is concerned, and the syntax is fairly similar. Nevertheless, there is a lot of
difference between the two. The second is both stylistically better, and
more normal-sounding. The first appears to have been written sentence by
sentence, without any attention to the overall effect. In the second, various
devices have been used in order to link the sentences together into a
cohesive whole: after its first occurrence, the word curry has been replaced
by alternative words of this type of food, the dish, and by the pronoun it.
Similarly, George has been replaced by he, and in some places, the order
of words has been altered so as to maintain the smooth connections, as
when it was brought to the front of its clause. In addition, some of the
original sentences have been joined together .
20 What is important in written language ?
Devices , which maintain the smooth flow of communication are
particularly important in written language, where there is no one available
to clarify unclear points.
TAKING IT IN TURNS
21_ Utterance very often occurs in turns which are sometimes
called……exchanges.… or ……adjacency pairs………
22_ Exchanges or adjacency pairs mean …utterances very often occur in
pairs…….
23_ Utterances can be ………inevitable ……. Or ……triple
utterances……….
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REPAIRS
24_ Do people always explain things properly?
No , People cannot always explain things properly. Or they make a
mistake or the person they tokenize makes a mistake .
25_ Types of repair……self-repair…, …other-repair…… and ……initiated
self-repair……
26_ By self repair we mean ……when a speaker spontaneously notices a
problem and solves it………. as in
……………Marion arrived on Saturday - sorry, I mean Sunday.……………
27_ By other repair we mean ………when someone is not quite sure about
what has been said, or suspects that the other person has made a
mistake.……… as in
………Did Marion really arrive on Saturday? Wasn't it Sunday?………….
28_ Other initiated self-repair means……… a listener mildly queries the
speaker, who then repairs the original utterance:…………. As in
Speaker A: Alan's taken a course in deep-sea diving.
Speaker B:Alan? Has he really?
Speaker A: Sorry, I don't mean Alan, I mean Alec.
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POLITENESS
29 _ What is the difference between the following sentences?
Shut the door !
I wonder if you’d mind shutting the door?
There is quite draught in here
If you wanted someone to shut the door, you could in theory use any of
the sentences above. But in practice, the first, a direct command, would be
uttered perhaps only to a young child. To anyone else, it would seem
somewhat rude. This avoidance of directness is partly culturally based.
30_ The direct command is used for …young children.... It would be
…rude…. If it is used by others.
31 _The avoidance of directness is …partly culturally based..
32 _ Despite the cultural variation it is politer to say things indirectly may be
universal. Explain
Why did that man look offended when I said, "Pass the salt"?" asked one
puzzled visitor. She was even more bewildered when told that it would be
better to say: 'I wonder if you could possibly pass the salt. What such a
fuss, she queried, about a small quantity of salt? But in spite of cultural
variation, the idea that it is polite to say things indirectly may be universal .
33 _If someone has an urgent request, what are the strategies to soothe
the situation?
There are various strategies which are used to soothe the situation. For
example, anyone imposing is often 1_ pessimistic:
I don't suppose you could lend me a pound, could you?
2_Or they might try to minimize the imposition:
l won't keep you minute, but
3_ Or they might just apologize:
I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but
