HI-LING
LINGUISTICS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL
UNIT 2: VIOLATION OF MAXIMS
Introduction to Pragmatics
What is this field of linguistics all about? This lesson provides some context before you deep dive into the other subfields.
WHAT IS PRAGMATICS?
Just like semantics, pragmatics also deals with meaning. But while semantics considers context-independent, literal meaning, pragmatics copes with context-dependent meaning. Thus, the pragmatic meaning of an utterance only becomes clear from a certain given context. Let’s look at an example:
Oh, well done!
This utterance can be stated in various situations and might mean something different depending on the context.
Situation 1: Peter got a 6 on a recent math exam and is showing the exam to his mother. "Oh, well done!" The mother compliments Peter for his outstanding achievement.
Situation 2: Peter and his friend are sitting in a car, Peter is driving. However, he gets briefly distracted and the car runs off the road. A tree abruptly ends the drive. His friend says: "Oh, well done!". In this situation, the utterance is not to be understood as a compliment, but it is rather an expression of criticism.
The literal meaning of the utterance in situation 1 can be explained by means of semantics. The adjective "good" has a positive meaning and if we attribute it to the action of a person, it results in praise i.e. in a compliment. But to explain how the same statement can transform into the opposite in certain contexts (as in situation 2), we need pragmatics. The latter enables us to reveal the non-literal aspects of linguistic meaning that arise only when expressions are used in certain contexts.
WHY WE NEED PRAGMATICS
Pragmatic competences are essential for the maintenance and success of interpersonal communication. Through pragmatic skills, we are able to understand verbal and non-verbal means of communication. Pragmatics enables us to experience a situation from the listener’s perspective and thus lets the speaker adapt their expressions to the person opposite. For example, we use fewer technical terms and rather communicate in short sentences when talking to children. On the other hand, we apply more sophisticated vocabulary and more complex sentence structures when we intend to make a good impression at a job interview. In this way, we incorporate the assumed prior knowledge and skills of our counterpart into our own language use. If we do not choose our words and ways of communication according to the interlocutor*, misunderstandings will occur all the time due to the incoherence of level and formality of language.
*a person who takes part in a conversation
WHEN PRAGMATICS BECOMES AN ISSUE
Most people do not struggle to understand the pragmatic meaning of an utterance like the example above. Beginnings of pragmatic competence can be observed in infants as early as the first weeks of life. However, it takes several years before challenging concepts such as irony and indirect speech acts (see Lesson 3) can be mastered. Studies suggest that children cannot understand non-literal meanings until the age of 8. However, this assumption varies for people with cognitive illnesses that impair pragmatic understanding. For example, autism spectrum disorders or schizophrenic disorders lead to deficits in the area of pragmatic competence. Thus, children and adults with such disorders may have trouble understanding non-literal meaning of a conversation. They would possibly struggle to interpret non-verbal signals correctly (e.g. gestures, facial expressions, body posture) and have difficulties classifying paraverbal signals (e.g. speech tempo and intonation). Moreover, evaluating the counterpart’s prior knowledge, understanding indirect implied meaning, humor, metaphor and irony can cause difficulties for people suffering disorders of this kind.