Pragmatics
Introduction
Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics that studies how context influences the interpretation of meaning. Unlike semantics, which focuses on the literal meanings of words and sentences, pragmatics considers factors such as the speaker's intention, the status of those involved in the conversation, the implications of the utterance, and the context in which the conversation takes place.
History
The term "pragmatics" was first used in a linguistic context by Charles Morris in 1938. He divided the field of semiotics, the study of signs and symbols, into three branches: syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. While syntax deals with the formal relations between signs, and semantics with the relation of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable, pragmatics is concerned with the biotic aspects of semiosis, that is, with all the psychological, biological, and sociological phenomena which occur in the functioning of signs.
Key Concepts
Speech Acts
A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. We perform speech acts when we offer an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment, or refusal. A speech act might contain just one word, as in "Sorry!" to perform an apology, or several words or sentences: "I’m really sorry. I just wasn’t thinking."
Deixis
Deictic words and phrases (also called "indexicals") are those that cannot be fully understood without additional contextual information. They are words and phrases like "here", "there", "this", "that", "he", "she", "it", "we", and "they".
Implicature
Implicatures are what the speaker suggests or implies with their utterance, even though it is not explicitly stated. Implicatures can be part of the speaker's strategy to involve the listener in the conversation or they can allow the speaker to say something indirectly in a polite, diplomatic or secretive manner.
Presupposition
Presuppositions are the assumptions that a speaker makes about what the listener already knows. If a speaker says, "Do you want to do it again?" it is presupposed that the listener has done it before.
Pragmatic Theories
Speech Act Theory
The Speech Act Theory was introduced by J.L. Austin in his book "How to Do Things with Words". According to Austin, when people use language, they are not just saying things, they are also doing things. He identified three types of speech acts: locutionary acts (the act of saying something), illocutionary acts (the act performed in saying something), and perlocutionary acts (the act performed by saying something).
Grice's Cooperative Principle
H.P. Grice proposed the Cooperative Principle, which states that participants in a conversation naturally try to cooperate with each other. Grice suggested four maxims that contribute to effective cooperative communication: the maxim of quantity (make your contribution as informative as necessary), the maxim of quality (do not say what you believe to be false), the maxim of relevance (be relevant), and the maxim of manner (be clear, brief, and orderly).
Politeness Theory
Politeness Theory, developed by sociolinguists Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson, is based on the idea that people try to maintain face in social interactions. Face is the positive social value that a person effectively claims for himself in a given situation. The theory proposes two kinds of face: positive face (the desire to be liked and admired by others) and negative face (the desire not to be imposed upon or interrupted by others).
Applications of Pragmatics
Pragmatics has applications in many areas of human life. It is used in understanding and formulating diplomatic language and political language, where it is crucial to both say the right things (the locutionary act) and to say them in the right way (the illocutionary act). Pragmatics also plays a key role in the law, where the exact wording and the implications of spoken or written statements can be crucial.
In the field of artificial intelligence, understanding the pragmatic aspects of human language is a key challenge. For a machine to understand and generate natural language effectively, it needs to be able to understand the context, the speaker's intentions, and the implications of different utterances.