d. Visiting aunts can be boring. aunts who are visiting / paying a visit to aunts
e. Mr. Webster, the amiable priest, is going to marry Jane at the church. take Jane as his wife / preside over Jane’s wedding
Physical context: we can think of this in terms of where the conversation is taking place, what objects are present, what actions are occurring, and so forth.
b. There stood a big stone house at the foot of the hill. a stone house which is big / a house built of big stones
Context 英语语用学
c. I have lost Betty’s picture. a picture possessed by Betty / a photograph of Betty
3. Theories of context 4. The role of context
5. Conclusion
Context 英语语用学
Part 1: Warming up
Can you explain the meaning of the words in italics in each of the sentences below? Explain why and then make some alterations in the context so as to pin down the meaning. a. The police were ordered to stop drinking about midnight. stop people drinking / stop drinking by themselves
Context 英语语用学
When we think about meaning, it is also important to take into account the contribution of context. In simple terms, then, we can think about pragmatics as the study of the contribution of context to meaning.
Context 英语语用学
• Foreign Studies College • Hunan Normal University • 36 Lushan Road, • Changsha City, Hunan 410081 • The People’s Republic of China(CHINA) • Cellphone: • E-mail:
• Here are four sub-areas involved in fleshing out (完 善）what we mean by context.
ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱ
• physical context
Epistemic（关于认知的）
context
linguistic context social context
Linguistic context: the linguistic context refers to what has been said already in the utterance. For example, if I begin a discussion by referring to Jane Smith and in the next sentence refer to "her" as being a top notch athlete, the linguistic context lets me know that the antecedent of "her" (the person "her" refers to) is Jane Smith.
Social context: the social context refers to the social relationship among speakers and hearers.
Example:
Think about the discussion of the library scene in Language Files. Two people come into a library and they are talking really loud. They sit at your table and continue their babbling. So, you look up at them and say:
Epistemic context: the epistemic context refers to what speakers know about the world. For example, what background knowledge shared by the speakers is crucially part of our epistemic knowledge when we have a conversation with someone else.
• An Introduction to
Pragmatics
• A Course for B.A. Students
• Instructor:
Prof. Tang Yanling 唐燕玲
Context 英语语 用学
Context 英语语用学
1. Warming up
2. A general description of Context