b/t the speaker & the hearer, the time & place of the production of discourse than with the potential relation of one sentence to another, regardless of their use.... Referen[r]
(1)DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
(2)2 The role of context
in interpretation
2.1 Pragmatics & discourse context 2.2 The context of situation
2.3 The expanding context
(3)Pragmatics & discourse context
Some basic concepts: Reference
(4) The pragmatic approach: necessary in
doing discourse analysis
DA is more concerned with the relation
(5)Reference
Traditional view: relationship which
holds b/t words & things: words refer to things (Lyons 1968)
Modern view: it is the speaker who
refers (by using some appropriate
(6) Referring is not sth an expression does;
it is sth that someone can use an expression to
Reference is an act in which a
(7)What are the referents?
Shakespeare takes up the whole bottom
shelf
Picasso’s on the far wall
Where’s the cheese sandwich sitting? He’s over there by the window
Vietnam wins the Suzuki Cup
(8) Is it legal for a man to marry his
widow’s sister?
Have you stopped beating your wife? Would you like anther biscuit?
(9)Presupposition
what is taken by the speaker to be the
common ground of the participants in the conversation (Stalnaker 1978)
Defined in terms of assumptions that the
speaker makes about what the hearer is likely to accept without challenge (Givon 1979)
Constant under negation: the presupposition
(10)Implicatures
Used by Grice (1975) to account for what a
speaker can imply, suggest, or mean, as
distinct from what the speaker literally says (more being communicated than is said)
Conventional implicatures:
determined by the conventional meaning of
the words used (e.g but, even, yet, and)
Do not depend on special contexts for their
(11) He is an Englishman, he is therefore, brave Mary suggested black, but I chose white
Even John came to the party He even helped
tidy up afterwards
Yesterday, Mary was happy and ready to
work
(12) Conversational implicatures:
Derived from a general principle of
conversation plus a number of maxims which speakers will normally obey
The general principle: the Cooperative
Principle (Grice 1975) (p 31)
This principle is supported by the
(13)What’s the trouble?
There is a woman sitting on a park bench and a large dog lying on the ground in front of the bench
Man: Does your dog bite? Woman: No
(The man reaches down to pet the dog The dog bites the man’s hand.)
Man: Ouch! Hey! You said your dog doesn’t bite
(14) She: You remind me of the ocean He: Wild, romantic and restless? She: No, you just make me sick
Lady (at a party): Where is that pretty maid
who was passing out cocktails a while ago?
(15)Inference
The process by which the hearer/reader
arrives at the intended meaning of the speaker/writer
Inferences: the meanings arrived at by
the hearer/reader
E.g (p 33)
(16)]
Bases for inferencing (Leech 1984)
The conventional conceptual meaning
of the utterance
The assumption that the speaker is
observing the cooperative principle, and assuming the hearer to assume that
too
(17)The context of situation
The non-linguistic factors that contribute
and constrain our interpretation of discourse
Features of context: Firth (1984):
A: The relevant features of participants (their verbal & non-verbal actions)
B: The relevant objects
(18)2 Halliday’s terms of context:
Field of discourse: subject matter Tenor of discourse: interpersonal
relations b/t the participants
Mode of discourse: channels/ways by
(19) Hymes’ terms of context: Addressor & addresse
2 Audience Topic
4 Setting Channel Code
7 Message-form Event
9 Key
(20)Co-text
The stretch of language that occurs before
or after the utterance which needs to be interpreted
Language material, linguistic factors
1 The storm landed at dawn
2 A fly landed on his nose
3 We shall be landing shortly
4 She has gone and my arms are empty I
survey
(21)The expanding context
Lyons’ statement (p 51)
Discourse exists in dynamic,
ever-changing contexts
Context is re-created in the process of
communication
New factors are added: deitic roles,
(22)The principle of ‘local interpretation’ & of ‘analogy’
The principle of local interpretation
instructs the hearer not to construct a context any larger than he needs to arrive at an interpretation
The principle of analogy enables the
hearer/listener to interpret discourse in light of his past experience &