Using and understanding language

We all know what light is; but it is not easy to tell what it is Samuel Johnson
The ability to understand another speaker's intended meaning is called pragmatic competence.
-Whats your name by the way?
-Stephen
-You havent asked my name back.
-Whats your name?
- Its Pat.
What is going on in a simple conversation?
by the way It can be a warning to the receiver that what was said now is not quite as relevant to what went before
as was knowledged of the roles for talk would normally lead to expect. It can mean more comment on the status and it
suggests that the corridor talk has gone far enough and a little intimacy may now be risked. In indirect way it would
be: tell me your name. The form of question is intended as a request any also more polite.
Stephen The reply is so minimal as to seem almost rude. The minimal answer may satisfy the request but does not
satisfy the requester.
You havent asked my name. It is indicates that the chat partner is not fulfilled the conversational obligations. It is a
genuinely indirect way to tell to the other to ask the name back.
Pragmatics about explaining how we produce and understand such everyday but apperantly rather peculiar uses of
language.
The distinction between what a speakers words literally mean and what the speaker might mean by his words the
pragmatics definition by Atkinson, Kilby and Roca.
Appropriacy
I think we could go in now you know. I choice of word, in moment of speaking, and in status of speaker this
utterance can appropriate to the situation.
Are we all here? It is perfectly attuned to the situation and always had the same effects, which of causing a younger
member of the department to get up and go on a college hunt.
Right, shall we begin? It is call for attention, it is the most appropriate utterance in the context.
May I speak English? It is causes a moment of consternation when the students think their lecturer really has gone at
last.
Is it tea or coffee? / Would you like tea or coffee?
Non-literal or indirect meaning
Indirect in the sense that their literal meaning were not all the speakers intended them convey. Both questions and both
are clearly intended to have other functions. The literal meaning is very far removed from the indirect meaning.
Hes from Barcelona. It is a way of saying that someone is stupid, undeserving of sympathy, etc.
More subtle indirectness: Radion removes dirt and odours. It is an indirect way of saying that other washing powder
are good at getting the dirt out but leave your clothes smelling foul.

Now weve all been screwed up by the Cabinet. It was an indirect reference to the relationship between a minister who
had resigned shortly before, after having an extramarital affair, as well as an indirect way of saying that the
Government had made a mess of things.
Indirectness is typical of real-world language use, and that literal or stated meaning is only one aspect of the meaning
conveyed in an utterance.
Inference
How we get from a sentence that appears to have literal meaning to an understanding of its indirect meaning. We have
to draw interferences or come to conclusions based on our best guesses as to what the speaker is intending to convey.
Communication is not merely a matter of a speaker encoding a thought in language and sending is as spoken message
through space, or as a written message on paper, to a receiver who decodes it. The receiver must not only decode what
is received but also draw interference as to what is convoyed beyond what is stated. This interference is quite dramatic
and much more interesting than the literal meaning. Sometimes it just repairs message that is ill-formed or in some
way inadequate.
Im a man. The meaning what she intended in convey was much more important than the literal meaning of her
utterance.
Every utterance may be subject to interference so that the addressee can determine whether an utterance such as I
really like your new hair cut is sincere or ironical.
Indeterminacy
Matters of interference has one important consequence. We need to draw interferences which determine which of a
number of different possible understanding is the right one. Diane Blakemore - how to undetermined the possessive is
in English.
I have borrowed Janes car. I would hate to have Simons job.
The problem is to do with determining which word is a two-word phrase is the head word. a child actor / a child
psychiatrist or additive-free / 50% extra free.
As an external examiner in another institution; there must therefore be a very good case for not allowing anyone to
proceed to Year 3. The phrase of anyone was meant to mean a particular person rather than every person.
In English another is indeterminate between another the same and another different but in German these two notions
are represented by different expressions.
Ive just finished the book. Who the speaker is will help us to determine what is meant.
Should I read your book? The book you own and the book of which you are the author.
We often think that what we say has one clear, determine meaning, the examples show us just how indeterminate our
utterances are.
Pragmatics is partly about trying to account in systematic ways for our ability to determine what speakers intend even
when their utterances are so dramatically undetermined.