2013-2014学年第二学期
英语语言学课程考查内容总结
姓名：王亚兰
班级：英语
学号： Language in Use 114班 [1**********]
This chapter introduces the Pragmatic–the use of language, which is the main branch of linguistics. It differs from the Semantics, it depends more on the context. In this chapter, we will cover the knowledge about pragmatics, and we mainly study three theories when we use language in real life: Speech Act Theory, Conversational Implicature and Relevance Theory of Post-Gricean Theories. Through the study of the word meaning we say in different contexts, we can acquire more about communicative rules and the accurate use of language.
The Pragmatic is the study of the intended meaning of a speaker (the meaning in context use), but the Semantics is the study of the literal meaning of a sentence (the meaning in abstractness). In the certain context, the Semantics is concerned with the sentence meaning, will usually answers "what does X mean?" In that it studies meaning not in isolation but in context. However, the Pragmatics is concerned the utterance meaning, which answers "what do you mean by X?" Pragmatics manifests the utterance meaning, which is actually based on sentence meaning and it's the realization of sentence meaning in a context of situation. Therefore, we can know that the Pragmatics is the language in use, the meaning in context about the speaker's meaning, utterance meaning, and contextual meaning.
Many linguists have studied the use of language, so there are many theories in the study of language in use. The first major theory originated with the book "How to Do Things with Words" written by John Langshaw Austin in the 1950's. According to Speech Act Theory, we are performing actions when we are speaking. So he classified the sentences with two types: Performatives and Constatives. The performative is a sentence like "I name the ship the Queen Elizabeth", which does not describe things and cannot be true or false. Its sentences used to perform such functions. We can say the uttering of a performative sentence is a part of the doing of an action. In contrast, the constatives a sentence like "I pour some liquid into the cube" is a description of what the speaker is doing at the time of speaking. It is a constative sentence. We can distinguish them in two rules: felicity conditions and grammatical and lexical criteria. Afterwards, a simplified version of the felicity conditions is suggested by Austin, but soon he realized that these conditions only applied to some cases.
A speaker might be performing three acts simultaneously when speaking: locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. A locutionary act is that when we speak we move our vocal organs and produce a number of sounds, organized in a certain way and with a certain meaning. It is the uttering of a sentence with determinate sense and reference. An illocutionary is that when we speak we move our vocal organs and produces a number of sounds, organized in a certain way and with a certain meaning; it is the making of a statement, order, promise etc. in uttering a sentence by virtue of the conventional force associated with it. A perlocutionary act is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by utterance; it is the act performed by saying something. It is bringing about of effects on the audience by means of uttering the sentence, such as efforts being special to the circumstance. In fact, Austin focused on the illocutionary act, so speech act theory is a theory of illocutionary.
The second major theory is the theory of conversational implicature, proposed by Herbert Paul Grice. He argues that we seem to follow some principle which is known as the Cooperative Principle. It refers to the "co-operation" between speakers in using the maxims during the conversation. To specify CP further, Grice introduced four categories of maxims: Quantity–speak as informative as is required instead of speak more informative, Quality–the speaker should speak the truth and avoid the false and lack adequate evidence; Relation–be relevant; Manner–the speaker should speak brief and orderly words, avoid the obscure and ambiguous expression.
However, in real context, the CP and maxims will not be followed all the time. People do violate them and tell lies. Conversative Implicature can only be worked out on the basis of the CP. Lies do not have implicature proper. They will violate the maxims of quantity, for example, when an asked B where did he buy his coat, B answered: “In a department store, it is quite far from here “; B's part is more than required and violate the maxims of quantity. They will also disobey the maxim of quality, such as the sentence "he is made of steel", because it is a false statement. When transferring an embarrass situation, we will usually break the maxim of relation. Moreover, when the kids want to get something to eat, the mother answered: “I veto
I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M" to remark an obscurity, it violates the maxims of manner.
Grice also mentioned brief some characteristics of conversational implicature: Calculabitity: It shows the conversational implicature must need the necessary data, such as according to the conventional meaning of words used or the linguistic and situational contexts. Cancellablity: The implicature can be cancelled by the change of any of these factors. Non-detachability: An implicature will not be detached, separated from the utterance as a whole, even though the specific words may be changed. Non-conversationality: Implicature is indeterminate and it varies with the context.
After Grice, the theory of coversational implicature developed furtherly. The famous theory was the relevance theory proposed by Dan Sperber and Deidre Wilson. They all think all Gricean maxims, including the CP itself, should be reduced to a single principle of relevance. It is defined as:
Every act of ostentive communication communicates the presumption of its own optimal relevance.
The use of language is a complicated process, which is concerned with the psychology, cultural background and the using habit of the language etc. between two speakers. Through the study of this chapter, we can understand the relevant conception and acquire relevant definition. It refers to three major theory: in the speech act theory, it emphases two conceptions: the definition and discrimination between performative and constative, and the speech act theory ,which defined the concrete meaning in actual context of the locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act proposed by Austin. It also focuses on the second theory: Conversational implicature, including the CP theory and the characteristics of conversational implicature. Besides, it contains the Post-Gricean developments: the Relevance Theory. We will have an acquisition of how speakers to use a sentences to effect successfully communication.