Chapter 6 Pragmatics
6.1 Introduction
6.1.1 Background 6.1.2 Definition
6.2 Micropragmatics
6.2.1 Reference（指称） 6.2.2 Dexis（指示） 6.2.3 Anaphora （照应） 6.2.4 Presupposition（预设）
In English, words like here, there, this, that, now, and then, as well as most pronouns, such as I, we, you, he, her, them.
(2) You’ll have to bring that back tomorrow, because they aren’t here now.
(3) A: Can I borrow your dictionary? B: Yeah, it’s on the table.
antecedent, anaphor or anaphoric expression.
indirect anaphor or bridging reference : (4) I walked into the room. The windows
（5）Susan’s sister bought two houses.
This sentence presupposes that Susan exists and that she has a sister.
In any language, there are some expressions or constructions which can act as the sources of presuppositions. This kind of expressions or constructions is called presupposition-triggers.
Syntax addresses the formal relations of signs to one another,
semantics the relation of signs to what they denote,
and pragmatics the relation of signs to their users and interpreters.
To study the meaning of such pieces of language in smaller contexts is called micropragmatics.
Phenomena such as reference, deixis, anaphora, and presupposition, are the topics in this field.
6.2.1 Reference
In the referential theory (naming theory), it is assumed that the words we use to identify things are in some direct relationship to those things:
Five types of deixis
1. Person deixis: me, you, him, them. 2. Time deixis: now, then, tonight, last week. 3. Space/spatial/place deixis: here, there, and
looked out to the bay.
6.2.4 Presupposition
Presupposition (预设): The information that a speaker assumes to be already known. (The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language, 1987)
The note reads: `Send me your slippers with this boy`.
When the student asked why he had written `your` slippers, the melamed answered: `Yold! [Fool!] If I wrote “my” slippers, she would read “my slippers and would send her slippers. What could I do with her slippers? So I wrote “your” slippers, she'll read “your slippers and send me mine.”
yonder. 4. Discourse deixis: temporal/spatial in the
previous/next paragraph, or Have you heard this joke? in this chapter. 5. Social deixis: honorifics (敬语, Professor Li); kinship relationship (Li Jie [李姐] in Chinese )
In pragmatics, the act by which a speaker or writer uses language to enable a hearer or reader to identify something is called reference.
6.2.2 Deixis
Voltaire (Quoted, in Spanish, in Escandell 1993.) speaker’s meaning/language in use
A melamed [/mə‘lɑ:məd/，小学教师, Hebrew teacher] discovering that he had left his comfortable slippers back in the house, sent a student after them with a note for his wife.
Pragmatics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those forms.
In this three-part distinction, only pragmatics allows humans into the analysis.
6.2.3 Anaphora
Anaphora (照应) is coreference of one expression with its antecedent. The antecedent provides the information necessary for the expression’s interpretation. This is often understood as an expression “referring” back to the antecedent.
Deixis (指示), which means “pointing” via language, the interpretation of many words and expressions by reference to the situational context of the utterance. Any linguistic form used to do this “pointing” is called a deictic expression,, Hebrew teacher] discovering that he had left his comfortable slippers back in the house, sent a student after them with a note for his wife.
(1) a: Can I look at your Shakespeare? b: Sure, it’s on the shelf over there.
(use names of people to refer to things)
The key process here is called inference. An inference is any additional information used by the hearer to connect what is said to what must be meant.
Definitions
1 “Pragmatics is the study of speaker’s meaning.”
2 “ Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning”
3 “ Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said”
The note reads: `Send me your slippers with this boy`.
When the student asked why he had written `your` slippers, the melamed answered: `Yold! [Fool!] If I wrote “my” slippers, she would read “my slippers and would send her slippers. What could I do with her slippers? So I wrote “your” slippers, she'll read “your slippers and send me mine.”