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3rd YEAR PRAGMATICS PRAGMATICS AS THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE IN USE

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The following excerpt describes the thoughts and opinions of Desmond Bates, a retired linguist, the protagonist of David Lodges Deaf Sentence. Read it carefully and specify: a) how does language-in-use contrast with other approaches to the investigation of language? b) how does context contribute to the understanding of the use of language in real life verbal interactions? c) what social functions can language fulfil apart from imparting information?

He [i.e. Bates] found linguistics a fascinating subject how cold one ever lose interest in it? As he used to tell the first-year students in his introductory lecture of welcome, Language is what makes us human, what distinguishes us from animals on the one hand and machines on the other, what makes us selfconscious beings, capable of art, science, the whole of civilization. It is the key to understanding everything. His own field was, broadly speaking, discourse: language above the level of the sentence, language in use, langue approached via parole rather than the other way round. It was probably the most fertile and productive area of the discipline I recent times: historical philology was out of fashion and structural and transformational linguistics had lost their allure since people had come to realize the futility of trying to reduce the living and always changing phenomenon of language to a set of rules illustrated by contextless model sentences often invented for the purpose. Every utterance or written sentence always has a context, is always in some sense referring to something already said and inviting a response, is always designed to do something to somebody, a reader or a listener. Studying this phenomenon is sometimes called pragmatics, sometimes stylistics. Computers enable us to do it with unprecedented rigour, analyzing digitized databases of actual speech and writing generating a whole new sub-discipline, corpus linguistics. A comprehensive term for all this work is discourse analysis. We live in discourse as fish live in water. Systems of law consist of discourse. Diplomacy consists of discourse. The beliefs of the great world religions consist of discourse. And in a world of increasing literacy and multiplying media of verbal communication radio, television, the Internet, advertising, packaging, as well as books, magazines and newspapers discourse has come more and more to dominate even the non-verbal aspects of our lives. We eat discourse (mouthwatering menu language, for instance, like flame-roasted peppers drizzled with truffle oil) we drink discourse (hints of tobacco, vanilla, chocolate and ripe berries in this feisty Australian Shiraz); we look at discourse (those minimalist paintings and cryptic installations in galleries that depend entirely on curators and critics descriptions of them for their existence as art); we even have sex by enacting the discourses of erotic fiction and sex manuals. To understand culture and society you have to be able to analyse their discourses.

2. Specify if you could perform each of the following actions by either speech or gesture: Congratulate someone Call someones attention to the television set Forbid someone to enter a room 3.What intentions could a Hearer recognise the Speaker may have entertained by uttering the following? Imagine different contexts so as to decipher different intentions on the part of the Speaker. 1. The gun is loaded. 2. Dont push yourself too hard! 3. Youre like a brother to me. 4. Theres a piece of fish on the table. 5. Yeah, and Im the Queen of Sheba. 6. Bygones! 7. Im sooo dead! 8. Are you looking for trouble? 9. Pam has been waiting for you. 10. Youre married. 11. Sure, and pigs fly! 14. Weve done our best (uttered by a surgeon who comes out of the OR and addresses the family of the patient having undergone surgery) 15. Homicide. (uttered by officer at police station) 16. Your witness (uttered by lawyer in court) PERFORMATIVE VS. CONSTATIVE SPEECH ACTS 1. Are the following utterances performative or constative? What act do they perform or what do they describe? 1.I name this ship Hibernia// 2. I inform you that I am your new boss.// 3. I dub thee Sir Galahad. // 4. I hereby declare the meeting adjourned.// 5. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help to God!. // 6. I curse you to live in loneliness and poverty for the rest of your life.// 7. I advised her not to take the pills. // 8. All passengers are requested to fasten their seatbelts.// 9.We thank you for your invaluable contribution.// 10.I bid 1000 $ for any Picasso.// 11. I bid three clubs.//12. Listeners are reminded that BBC wireless licences expire on April 4th.//13.It gives me great pleasure to inaugurate this center.//14. I forbade him to trespass my property.// 15. You are hereby appointed chairman.// 16. I congratulate you on your promotion.//17) I envy you. //18) I command you to put out that cigarette.//19) I warned you not to go. //20) We convince everyone with our arguments. 2. Complete as you think appropriate: a) The utterance Get lost could be an act of . b) The utterance Why dont you try looking in Woolworths? could be an act of

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The utterance Do you think Im an idiot? could be an act of. The utterance Feel free to leave as soon as you please could be an act of

3. Specify the speech act associated with it in each utterance when made in the specified situations: 1) Customer at Starbucks: One moccacino and one machiatto to go, please. 2) Speaker at a meeting on a hot political issue: Is it right to condone bribery? 3) Mr. Sheffield to his butler Niles: Its quite chilly in here, Niles. 4) To companion on a mountain hike: My ankle is caught in this thorny bush. 5) Prosecutor to witness: You are aware that youre committing perjury. 6) Repentful husband to wife: If you could only accept my apologies! 7) Mother to child who has been eating untidily: Look at the mess youve made! 8) Woman to her date: Why dont you come for a nightcap? 9) Woman to her rescuer: Im at a loss of words when it comes to expressing my gratitude for everything youve done for me. 10)Defence: Objection! Judge: Overruled! Hearsay! LOCUTION, ILLOCUTION, PERLOCUTION 1. What illocutionary acts are meant to be performed by the following utterances? 1) Im awfully sorry I couldnt attend the ceremony. 2) Why should the law against battered women be so unfair? 3) After you. 4) Praise the Lord! 5) Break a leg! 6) Legalise marijuana! 7) Could you spare a penny? 8) Youre grounded! 9) Thank you for not smoking in this building 10) Tresspassers will be prosecuted 2.Describe at least two perlocutionary effects of each of the utterances in the situations below. 1) Neighbour to recently bereaved widow: I was so sorry to hear about your loss. 2) Child to playground supervisor: Miss, Bill called me a pizzaface and a sissy. 3) One hostage to another : The house is surrounded by the police 4) One highschooler to her best friend: Theres only a week to go till the prom. 5) Policeman to man in the street: Good evening, Sir. Do you live around here? 6) ....and the Golden Globe for the best female lead goes to Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia! 3. Are the following acts illocutionary or perlocutionary?

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distracting someone//2) claiming//3) denying something//4) hurting someone//5) predicting something// 6) mocking someone// 7) worrying someone //8) apologizing to someone// 9) inviting someone

4. Translate into Romanian:

Al: I hate those complaint boxes they put in at the mall. [U1] A woman comes in the shoe store today, so huge shes protected by Green Peace, and ask for a size-4 shoe. [U2] So I asked her if she wants to eat them there or take them home, and she has the nerve to complain about my performance. [U3] Peggy: Honey, I complain about your performance all the time... you dont care. [U4] Sometimes you dont even wake up. [U5] Al: Well unlike sex with you Peg, this is important to me. [U6] (Married With Children) Al: Oh, sure, our rights are not important? Anything a woman says is fine with us? Gee, when did men become such losers? It used to be so great to be a man. Women were there, to please us. Theyd look after the kids and wed go out and have a good time. Thats the natural order of things. What happened, Steve? Steve: Well, Al... Al: Ill tell you what happened, Steve. Somebody told women they should start enjoying sex, too. That was the beginning of the end. Now they like it but its work for us. Everythings work for us. Its this equality thing, its killing us. (Married With Children) Kelly: Bud, look at yourself. Face the ugly truth. They dont have woods deep enough to grow the kind of girls that would be willing to date you. I mean, maybe youre aiming too high. You know, a live girl. See, your problem is, youve got caviar taste, and a pizza face. Aim a little lower. Hey, logs cant run away! And then theres the dead. You know, a girl whos been dead long enough might even think that youre a good catch. Hey, I know, how about a nice department store mannequin? I mean, theyre used to being undressed by sexless boys. Bud: Thanks for the help, Bleached Blanket Bimbo. Kelly: They may call me bimbo, but at least they call me. (Married With Children)