Have you ever noticed that how a sentence is written could easily be perceived differently? Like the word 'drink', when a person says it, it could either be said as a question - Drink? - or a demand - Drink!! - see? When people listen to/read something, there can be misconceptions. This is post will basically explain on the study of 'speaker meaning', or in linguistic terms, PRAGMATICS.
In other terms, pragmatics is the study invisible meaning. A written example would be an ad that writes Warehouse Sale. We immediately understand that they are selling things at (or from) the said warehouse. No one in their right mind would think that people are selling warehouses.
Basically that is what we're going to study today. Are you catching on? :)
Actually, we mostly understand these things due to context. There's the linguistic context and also the physical context.
1. Linguistic context (AKA co-text) is the set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence. For example:
'bat' - "I accidentally left my bat after baseball practice today"
Here, the speaker would most probably be talking about his/her baseball bat, rather than the nocturnal animal.
'trip' - "Have a nice trip"
It would have been really mean of the speaker to hope for another person falling down. Thus, the speaker was probably speaking of a journey.
2. Physical context is basically from your surroundings - what you see and hear.
From these, come words that cannot be interpreted without context. These are called diectic expressions. Out of context, statements with deixes would be vague and could cause confusions. There are three types of deixes;
Oh but Pragmatics is a big topic. Maybe I'll elaborate more on it in a different post :)
Hope you understand the fundamentals of Pragmatics so far.
In other terms, pragmatics is the study invisible meaning. A written example would be an ad that writes Warehouse Sale. We immediately understand that they are selling things at (or from) the said warehouse. No one in their right mind would think that people are selling warehouses.
Basically that is what we're going to study today. Are you catching on? :)
Actually, we mostly understand these things due to context. There's the linguistic context and also the physical context.
1. Linguistic context (AKA co-text) is the set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence. For example:
'bat' - "I accidentally left my bat after baseball practice today"
Here, the speaker would most probably be talking about his/her baseball bat, rather than the nocturnal animal.
'trip' - "Have a nice trip"
It would have been really mean of the speaker to hope for another person falling down. Thus, the speaker was probably speaking of a journey.
2. Physical context is basically from your surroundings - what you see and hear.
From these, come words that cannot be interpreted without context. These are called diectic expressions. Out of context, statements with deixes would be vague and could cause confusions. There are three types of deixes;
1. person deixis - points to people and things
(he, these girls, it, that paper)
eg. These girls are so beautiful.
*the listener does not know who 'these girls' are unless there is a picture of them or the speaker is pointing to the girls*
2. spatial deixis - points to a location
(here, further there)
eg. Why don't you just come over here?
*the listener would not know where 'here' is unless he saw the speaker or the speaker told him/her*
3. temporal deixis - points to a time
(two days ago, now)
eg. I saw Marina two days ago.
*listeners would not know when that was if they did not know what day it was the speaker had said it*
(he, these girls, it, that paper)
eg. These girls are so beautiful.
*the listener does not know who 'these girls' are unless there is a picture of them or the speaker is pointing to the girls*
2. spatial deixis - points to a location
(here, further there)
eg. Why don't you just come over here?
*the listener would not know where 'here' is unless he saw the speaker or the speaker told him/her*
3. temporal deixis - points to a time
(two days ago, now)
eg. I saw Marina two days ago.
*listeners would not know when that was if they did not know what day it was the speaker had said it*
Oh but Pragmatics is a big topic. Maybe I'll elaborate more on it in a different post :)
Hope you understand the fundamentals of Pragmatics so far.
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