These slides are about introduction to pragmatics.

1. INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
(SESSION 13: PRAGMATICS)
Edi Brata
Mathl’aul Anwar University

2. Meaning
Dimensions
Review to
the Previous
Topic
Lexical Semantic
Relations Roles

3. SEMIOTICS
(Syntactic, Semantics and
Pragmatics)
a) Diki eats Donut.
b) Donut eats Diki.
• Syntactically, sentence a) and b) are accepted.
• Semantically, only sentence a) that is accepted since
sentence b) is illogical.
• Sometime, it is possible to use sentence b) when we want
to express donut as a monster. Here, pragmatics plays its
role.

5. PRAGMATICS
BABY & TODDLER SALE

Invisible meaning

6. PRAGMATICS
A : I have a fourteen year old son.
B : Well that's all right.
A : I also have a dog.
B : Oh, I'm sorry.

7. CONTEXT
Linguistics Context
a) He is standing at the steep bank.
b) She has to get to the bank to cash a check.
Physical Context
If you see the word BANK on the wall of a
building in a city, the 'physical' location
will influence your interpretation.

8. DEIXIS
Deixis is reference by means of an expression whose
interpretation is relative to the extra-linguistic context of
the utterance.
• Person Deixis (it, this, me, you, him, them)
• Time/ Temporal Deixis (now, then, tonight, last week)
• Place/Spatial Deixis (here, there, yonder)
Deictic expressions have to be interpreted in terms of
what person, place or time the speaker has in mind.
o Here she comes!
o There she goes
o Pay now, free tomorrow!

9. REFERENCE
Words don't refer to anything but people refer.
We have to define reference as an act by which a
speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a
listener (or reader) to identify something
Who do you mean with the man?
One man who always went by fast and loud on
his motorcycle.

10. REFERENCE
• Kawasaki
• Honda
(A brand name for a motorcycle can obviously
be used for a person).
• Inference
o Where's the fresh salad sitting?.
o We saw Shakespeare in London.
o I enjoy listening to Mozart.

11. ANAPHORA
Anaphora can be defined as subsequent reference
to an already introduced entity.
A : Can I borrow your book?
B : Yeah, it's on the table.
I was waiting for the bus, but he just drove by without stopping.

12. PRESUPPOSITION
• The speaker is working with an assumption that
the hearer knows which referent is intended.
• The assumption may be mistaken, but they
underlie much of what we say in the everyday
use of language
• What a speaker assumes is true or is known by
the hearer can be described as a presupposition

13. PRESUPPOSITION
• My car is a wreck.
• My car is not a wreck.
Notice that, although these two sentences have opposite
meanings, the underlying presupposition, I have a
car, remains true in both.
• I used to regret marrying him, but I don't regret
marrying him now.
• Why did you arrive late?
There is a presupposition that you did arrive late.

14. SPEECH ACTS
Visitor : Excuse me, do you know where the Marbella Hotel is
You : Oh sure, I know where it is.
(and walks away…)
The use of the term speech act covers 'actions' such as
'requesting', 'commanding', 'questioning' and 'informing

15. POLITENESS
Politeness is showing awareness of another
person's face
• Give me that paper!
(a face-threatening act)
• Could you pass me that paper, please?
(a face-saving act)

16. SO, WHAT IS PRAGMATICS?
• Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning.
• Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning.
• Pragmatics is the study of how more gets
communicated than is said.
• Pragmatics is the study of the expression of
relative distance.
(Yule, 1996:3)

17. PRAGMATICS
Understanding how people communicate is
actually a process of interpreting not just
what speakers say, but what they 'intend to
mean'.

18. Thank You!