The study of meaning in language Levels of meaning in language: Lexical m. conceptual meaning - componential analysis: spinster = [+female, - married] bachelor = [+male, - married] sense relations = polysemy: bank, present synonymy: buy - purchase antonymy: hot - cold semantic fields = set of interrelated lexemes in a given area: body parts studied within Semantics - studies sentence meaning Grammatical m. grammatical categories: is working = [+present tense, +prog. aspect] Sentence m. s.= a sequence of words generated by the rules of language, independent of any context of use Compositionality: Peter kicked Mike vs. Mike kicked Peter. Ambiguity: I know a man with a dog who has fleas. We serve our customers all the year round. SVOi vs. SVO(Oi) Entailment: Utterance m. He killed the fish entails The fish is dead. u. = „unique physical event“ (Lyons 1977) implicature Cf. I have eaten the meal. Entailment → I ate the meal./The meal is eaten. Implicature → I am not hungry. But: Implicature can be cancelled: I have eaten the meal but I am hungry. Entailment can not: *I have eaten the meal but I didn´t eat it. utterance meanning is studied by Pragmatics What is odd with this ad? „Kúpte si mobil a získate darček zdarma“ - Buy a mobile phone and get a free present“. M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 1 Problem = redundancy, tautology: a present is always foe free zdarma is automatically inferrable from darček it is entailed in it, hence the case of entailment Question: A slip pf the tongue or a coercive technique of a clever copywriter? Entailment Other terms: semantic presupposition, semantic/logical implication, conventional implicature, Assumption: when communicating, we take a lot of information for granted as already known by addressees what is known, or assumed to be known, is not stated generally: more is communicated than how much is said much information remains implicit full expliciteness is not possible inference = (Lat inferre = „to carry in“) collective term for several types of implicit information which can be derived from discourse: o a conclusion we can reasonably draw from a sentence/utterance types of inference: Entailment and Presupposition o key notions to describe the „invisible“, implicit meaning o two central issues of pragmatics ENTAILMENT M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 2 much implicit information is inferrable form the meaning relationships between words: This present is free. is tautological, contains redundancy An illiterate person cannot read or write. = always necessarily true because illiterate entails not being able to read/write = analytically true *An illiterate person wrote a letter. = contradiction of meanings Illiterate? Write today for help. (advertisement) = a contradiction or a play? Peter is illiterate. = may be true or false depending on the actual situation = synthetically true or false o entailment = a term from logic → less studied in pragmatics than presupposition logical relationship bet.2 sentences information which „automatically“, or logically follows from what is asserted those propositions which can be inferred from a sentence in ANY context most „literal“ component of sentence meaning expresses core proposition which remains stable in any context can be drawn purely from the knowledge of semantics is a sentence-dependent notion → sentences have (several) entailments is valid regardless of whether the speaker´s beliefs are right = relationship between two sentences where the truth of the second (B) necessarily follows from the truth of the first (A) A entails B: if A is true, B must also be true but if B is false, then A must also be false A He is illiterate. Peter killed Mike. entails if synthetically true B He can´t read or write. Mike died/is dead. is automatically synthetically true Hence He is illiterate and so he can´t read or write. Peter killed Mike and so Mike is dead. is acceptable BUT if B false, then A must be false too: If he can read or write (=B is false), he is not illiterate (=A is false too) If Mike isn´t dead, Peter did not kill him. M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 3 Hence: *He can read or write, but he is illiterate. or *He is illiterate, but he can read and write. = contradiction, anomaly = contradiction, anomaly *Mike is not dead but Peter killed him. Or *Peter killed Mike but he is not dead. Similarly: The president was assassinated. entails if synthetically true Hence: The president is dead. must also be synthetically true If he is not dead, he was not assassinated. *The president was assassinated, but he is not dead. is contradictory. NOTE: These entailments are ONE-WAY only, sentences are not perfect paraphrases: He is illiterate. (can´t read or write (illiterate)) The president was assassinated. (assassinated (dead)) if synthetically true entails He can´t read or write. entails The president is dead. must also be synthetically true this is the case of HYPONYMY = hierarchical relationship in which the sense of 1 item (hyponym) is included within another (hyperonym) HYPERONYM HYPONYM can´t read or write ↓ illiterate BUT not vice versa: B He can´t read or write dead ↓ assassinate/kill A does not entail He is illiterate. He may be sick/injured ... Nor: (illiterate (can´t read or write)) The president is dead. Not: (dead (assassinated)) If synthetically true does not entail The president was assassinated. He may have died naturally need not be synthetically true too ! TWO-WAY, mutual entailments, or perfect paraphrases M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 4 Lexical entailments: You are foolish. You are crazy. entails You are crazy. You are foolish. Peter is Helen´s brother-in-law. John is Peter´s son. Helen is Peter´s sister-in-law. Peter is John´s father. Syntactic entailment: Peter kissed Jane. Jane was kissed by Peter. Jane was kissed by Peter. Peter kissed Jane. Hence: paraphrase is a two-way entailment Entailment and coherence understanding entailment is necessary to make meaningful connections within texts = to establish COHERENCE Example: Peter bought oranges. Unfortunately, he completely forgot that he had bought them. After several weeks his cupboard started to smell of spoiled fruit. Q: How is a link made between fuit and oranges? A: By making an inference which is „automatically“ true: Peter bought oranges entails Peter bought fruit. Peter bought fruit. is entailed in Peter bought oranges But not vice versa: Peter bought fruit does not entail Peter bough oranges. Hence a one-way entailment Cf. hyponymy vs. hyperonymy: orange fruit is a hyponym is a hyperonym of fruit of orange Entailment and sentence focus/foregrounding: Speaker may indicate the ordering of the entailments and signal (=foreground) the main assumption = the key one to the interpretation of the message. Foregrounding entailments by stress: MICHAEL´s wedding ring was found in the dustbin. Michael´s wedding RING was found in the dustbin. Michael´s wedding ring was FOUND in the dustbin. Michael´s wedding ring was found in the DUSTBIN. M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 5 Foregrounding te entailments by it-clefting: It was MICHAEL whose wedding ring was found in the dustbin. It was Michael´s wedding RING that was found in the dustbin. It was the DUSTBIN where Michael´s wedding ring was found. E = „free-of-charge inference“ Pragmatic „anomalies“ = statements containing contradictions but which are based on the (intentional?) exploitation of entailments: Illiterate? Write today for help. (advertisement) Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people? A: All my autopsies have been made on dead people. Performing autopsies entails performing them on dead people Q: Were you acquainted with the decedent? A:Yes, sir. Q:Before or after he died? Being acquainted with sb. entails that the person is alive Q: I understand you´re Bernie Davis´s mother. A: yes. Q:How long have you known him? Being one´s mother entails knowing that person since his/her birth (conception?) M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 6 Presupposition PRESUPPOSITION (conventional implicatures) o a term from pragmatics o = information which speaker assumes to be valid in order to make correct interpretation of an utterance , to be commnicatively successful o to presuppose (Slk. presuponovať) = „to assume beforehand“ o = necessary preconditions for statements to be true o P = that which is considered valid/true if we want a proposition to make sense o speaker-dependent notion → speakers have presuppositions cf. entailments: language structures have entailments o When uttering a sentence, speaker assumes: the adequacy of the context for its interpretation by the addressee that truthfullness of P is a matter-of-fact (faktické/samozejmé) for both parties = they share common background knowledge related to the context of the sentence o P enables speakers to leave much unsaid, inexplicit, or ťake a shortcut´ (hence, in service of feasible communication) o another logical relationship involving statements dependent on one another, or one proposition is pragmatically inferred from another o difference from entailment is in he nature of the dependence o the two are often confused, bec. they resemble each other: e.g. sentence presuppositions which are like entailments: I regret having called you a liar presupposes You are a liar. regret = presupposition trigger but some presuppositions require a fair amount of the knowledge of the world She tripped before getting in the car. >> She got in the car. She died before getting in the car. does not presuppose. She got in the car. requires pragmatic knowledge o the degree of knowledge required is calculated on the background of context, the degee of shared knowledge Example: Steve Jobs dies. The utterance has these background entailments (= semantic presuppositions): - somebody dies = one-way entailment - somebody is dead = two-way entailment = paraphrase M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 7 the relationship is as follows: if A is true, then B is true: A true Steve Jobs dies. → B true somebody dies The relationship of entailment is analysable in terrms of truth relations of sentences (practiced by semanticists): Truth table for one-way entailments: A B → ← → ← 1 2 3 4 T T/F F F 1 A true Steve Jobs dies. → B true Somebody dies. A true/false ← B true 2 Steve Jobs dies. Steve Jobs doesn´t die (but somebody else does). 3 T T T/F F =T =F A false B false → Steve Jobs dies. 4 Somebody dies. A false Somebody dies. (not Steve Jobs) Somebody dies. (nobody does.) =T =F B false ← Steve Jobs dies. Somebody dies. Truth table for two-way entailment = paraphrase: A T T F F → ← → ← Steve Jobs dies. M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 B T T F F Steve Jobs is dead. Strana 8 Presupposition: Speaker is expected to have these pragmatic presuppositions: A Steve Jobs dies. >> A>>B B Steve Jobs existed. A presupposes B Michael found his wedding ring in the dustbin. >> a person Michael exists he has wedding ring he is/was married the dustbin exists Presupposition holds even if the statement is negated: Steve Jobs doesn´t die. >> Steve Jobs exists. Michael didn´t find his wedding ring. >> Michael has a wedding ring. Michael exists. M is/was married. The dustbin exists. Cf. negated entailment and presupposition: NEGATED ENTAILMENT: A (NOT A) Steve Jobs doesn´t die. B true/false Somebody doesn´t die. = T Somebody dies (but not Steve Jobs). = F Michael didn´t find his wedding ring. → Somebody didn´t find his w.ring. = T Somebody found his w.r. (but not Michael). =F NEGATED PRESUPPOSITION: A (NOT A) Steve Jobs doesn´t die. B true !!! Steve Jobs EXISTS. Michael didn´t find his wedding ring. >> =T Michael HAS a wedding ring. = T NOT A>>B M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 9 NOTICE that presuppositions = assumptions can be wrong: - there may Steve Jobs - the wedding ring may have been stolen - the wedding ring may have been thrown away - the wedding ring may have been given to Michael by his mother Presuppositions are negotiable! CONSTANCY UNDER NEGATION = an important difference bet. entailment and presupposition - presupposition remains TRUE! Presupposition is the only type of information that is unaffected by the denial of the original sentence: if we negate A, the relation of presupposition doesn´t change. Example: disagreement with someone else´s statement: A: Everybody knows that you are a liar. B: Everybody doesn´t know that I am a liar. I am a liar. =A = NOT A = B remains A>>B & NOT A>>B While speaker disagrees on the validity of A, the presupposition B is still valid – speaker admits that s/he is a liar ! Types of presupposition: Potential – when indicated by particular constructions (see the list below) Actual - those which are actually intended by speakers to be recognized as such by hearers in particular contexts hence speakers (not structures) have presuppositions and these are expected to be recognized by the addressee TYPE Existential MEANING INDICATORS: existence of definite entities possessive construction your dog>> you have a dog Example: the dog scene M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 10 A:Does your dog bite? B:No, he doesn´t. A:You said your dog doesn´t bite. B:This isn´t my dog. definite NP the boy>>there exists a boy. The Boy and the Sea. Factive factuality of information, triggered by the factive verbs: = sentence presuppositions (unlike semantic entailments) know, realize, regret be aware/odd/strange/glad/sorry/sad Everybody knows that you are a liar. Non-factive >> you are a liar non-factuality of information dream, imagine, pretend, think I thought you were my friend. >> I weren´t my friend. Conditional sentences If I have/had money, I´ll/would buy it. >> I don´t have money Counter-factual counter-factuality of information If-clauses If I had a hammer... . >> I don´t have a hammer Structural a part of structure is assumed to be true wh-questions A:Where did you steal that watch? >> you stole the watch B:I didn´t steal it, I found it. temporal clauses Before Chomsky was even born, linguistics had already a considerable history. >> Chomsky was born Questions Who is the boss here? >> there is a boss here Is anybody here a boss? >> Either there is a boss here or not Lexical the meaning of a form presupposes another meaning change of state verbs: start/stop/again/ begin/continue/finish/cease/leave/enter/ come/go/arrive M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 11 When did you stop drinking? >> you were drinking before implicative verbs: manage/forget I forgot to lock the door. >> I ought to lock it Come again iteratives: again/anymore/repeat/another time/come back >> you´ve been here before Potential vs. actual presuppositions A:What is he doing in my room? B:I don´t know, he is looking for his keys or something. B does not present the P, viz. he has keys, as a strong assumption, only tentatively Note. It is speakers who have presuppositions, not structures structures have potential propositions Presupposition and discourse for particulr stylistic reason: pun, mockery, coercion Advertisements – No more back pain. Presupposes „you have back pain“ Jokes René Descartes is in a bar near closing time. The bartender asks him: „Would you like another drink?“ Descartes replies, „I think not“ and vanishes. So, Rene Descartes is in a pps Cf. A: Discover Slovakia! B: But I have already discovered it! A: Ok, I thought you maybe wanted to know more about it. B: Maybe you are right. What do you suggest? M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 → presupposes B has not discovered it yet → suggests that the P is wrong → admits that his presupposition was wrong, or not entirely accurate → starts negotiating the reasonableness of the presupposition Strana 12 A: Fine. Let´s start with Prešov. Prešov is ... B: Sounds interesting ... NOTE: presuppositions are expected to be recognized can be wrong/inaccurate are negotiable A: Have another cake B: I haven´t had one yet. A: I know. I´m just teasing. B: You bastard! TYPES OF INFERENCE AMOUNT OF CONTEXT - + inference semantic entailment presupposition pragmatic conventional implicature non-conventional (conversational) implicature generalized standard (CP observance) A: Have A: Have you you eaten tried the suit? the cake? B: I have tried B: I have the trousers. eaten (QT) some of it. (QT) scalar I have eaten my brother´s banana. → I have eaten a fruit. I have eaten my brother´s banana. → I have a brother. A: Have you spoken to Tom? B: Not yet. M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 particularized (non-standard) (CP flouting) A: Would you like some wine? B: Do you ever ask a horse whether he is thirsty? (R) Strana 13 Implicature Implicature, to implicate coined by Herbert Paul Grice: Logic and conversation (1975) cf. common usage: imply, implication general actions have implications but speech acts have implicatures Assumption: speakers´ co-operation is necessary to achieve mutual understanding: Example 1 A: What´s up? B: I need to get to the office quickly. A: Here. (hands him over a bunch of keys) B: Thanks. You are terrific. (B departs for the office) The assumption that A has a car is valid Example 2: A: What´s up? B: I need to get to the office quickly. A: Here. (hands him over a bunch of keys) B: Thanks. You are terrific. (after a while) Where is the car? A: What car? B: I thought you gave me your car keys. A: How could I do that? I don´t have a car. B: The assumption that A has a car is invalid: - A tries to mislead/trick/confuse B by not offering relevant information - A is deliberately un-cooperative (impolite, rude, mean … ?) Mutual assumption of co-operation is a prerequisite of sense-making: M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 14 Cf. utterances may sometimes suggest a meaning opposite of its entailment Entails: → → Boss: You are fired. Employee: Terrific. you lost your job it is very good The boss is unlikely to interpret the employee´s response literally likely to interpret it as to implicate the inverse of what it entails viz. not terrific but terrible Both mutually recognize that it cannot be intrepreted literally but ironically Entails: → → Boss: You are fired. Employee: Terrific. you lost your job it is very good implicates: → it is very bad IMPLICATURE = what is suggested in an utterance, i.e. not entailed (= strictly implied) or presupposed (= true beforehand) by the utterance = inference that is made on the basis of mutual understanding of speakers = additional layer of meaning Mary: John: Uncle Tom is coming over for dinner tonight. I guess I´d better lock up our vodka. John´s utterance raises the implicature that Uncle Tom has a drinking problem. Implicature is NOT a part of an utterance does NOT follow as a necessary consequence of an utterance (as is the case with entailment) Cf. My cat died. entails My cat is dead. If My cat died is (synthetically) true, then My cat is dead must necessarily be true = two-way entailment My cat was killed. entails = one-way entailment My cat is dead. My cat is dead. does not entail My cat was killed. M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 (e.g. s/he died of illness) Strana 15 Note: entailments cannot be cancelled wihout contradiction: *My cat died/was killed but it isn´t dead/didn´t die. Utterances may raise more implicatures: IMPLICATURE Mary: John: Uncle Tom is coming over for dinner tonight. I guess I´d better lock up our vodka. → Uncle Tom has a drinking problem Also: he is a teetotaller, prohibitionist, Muslim Implicature is heavily dependent upon context: to be interpreted, some basic cooperative principle, an overrirding social rule is assumed to be in operation: H.P.Grice´s Cooperative Principle „Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.“ More simply: “be as helpful to your hearer as you can” 4 subprinciples/maxims: quantity, quality, relation, manner Maxims: 1.Quantity: „ say enough“ and „do not say more than required at the moment“ 2.Quality: „do not lie“ and „do not say anything for which you lack sufficient evidence“ 3.Relevance „say what is at the current moment relevant (important, appropriate ...)“ 4.Manner: „be clear, unequivocal, perspicuous (orderly)“ „avoid obscurity and ambiguity“ Major assumption underlying cooperative behaviour is that, unless evidence exists to the contrary, speakers tell the truth say what is needed keep to the topic package their message understandably The maxims form a „baseline for talking“ are a source of a conversational implicature = implied meanings in addition to what is explicitely stated enable to form assumptions against which we judge possible departures Types of departures from CP: M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 16 A. Flouting CP maxims: - speaker evidently/apparently/visibly disregards a maxim expects H to infer the additional non-literal = implied meaning assumes that H knows that he should not be taken literally contains built-in implicatures - the CP enables speaker to comply with the maxim indirectly, at a further level Example Maxim flouted: A: How did you like the guest speaker? B: Well, I’m sure he was speaking English. Quantity results from attending to conflicting maxims: one maxim is satisfied at the expense of another (while the over-arching assumption of cooperation is upheld) A: Where is John? B: He’s either in the pub or in his office. Quantity conflicts with Quality: Flouting quantity speaker invokes Quality Implicature: B has not enough evidence to offer quality information A: Professor, will you write a letter of recommendation for me? B: Of course, I will say that you were always neatly dressed, punctual and are unfailingly polite. Quantity A: I´m not feeling well today. B: There´s a hospital across the street. Relevance A: How did you get that car into the dining room? B: It was easy. I made a left turn when I came out of the kitchen. Relevance A: How do you like my new dress? B: Well your shoes look nice. Quantity A: I may win the lottery for $ 1 million. B: There may be people on Mars, too. Relevance A: Do you like ice-cream? B: Is the Pope Catholic? Relevance A: Where are you going with your son? M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 17 B: To C H U R C H. Manner On a golf course: A: spoiled a hit B: Nice shot. Quality (sarcasm) A: Where is the whiskey I got for my birthday? B: Uncle Tom was here. Relevance B. Opting out of a maxim: - evident indication of unwillingness to cooperate - is interpreted as HAVING certain communicative value A:How are you today? B: No comment. A: What happened to Mary? B: My lips are sealed. C. Infringing on a maxim: - failure to observe CP arising from imperfect linguistic or communicative competence foreigner talk impaired performance – e.g. emotional state cognitive impairment - e.g. mental illness D. Violation of a maxim o is a deliberate non-cooperation, which is not immeditely obvious but which may eventually cause communication breakdown, hence a communication failure o does not conatin implicatures providing deceitful, doubtful, nontruthful, false, economical with the truth, etc. information = lying providing too much/little/detailed information being irrelevant being clumsy, vague, uninterpretable Implicature derived from CP maxims = NON-CONVENTIONAL (conversational) implicature for interpretation, depends largely on contextual information, e.g. people, their relationships etc. CONVENTIONAL implicature o a type of implicature which is made regardless the context, automatically, as a result of natural (not formal) logic o is independent of the cooperative principle M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Strana 18 o YET A: Have you spoken to Tom? B: Not yet. → I expect a different situation to the present o BUT I am poor but happy. Implicature: but implicates contrast – poverty and happines are not compatible, yet I am still happy o AND Mary got married and had a baby. implicates: first she got married then she had a baby o OR (in a restaurant) You may have salad or soup. Or = exclusive - you may have one only You may come today or tomorrow Or = inclusive – you may come either day o o EVEN Even I understand now what implicature is. = contrary to expectations YET I don´t get it yet. = present situation is expected to be different later NON-CONVENTIONAL (conversational) implicature o generalized and particularized o generalized: scalar and standard o SCALAR IMPLICATURES Assumption: S selects a point on a scale which is the most informative and truthful involve lexical items gradable along a scale: < few, some, many, most, all> < sometimes, often, always> the asserted form implicates the negative of all forms higher on the scale e.g. some = not many/most/all sometimes = not often/always if an exp. is used, an inference is drawn that none of the stronger expressions on the scale could have been used in the given context Many people are unhappy. I often walk to school. A:How did I do at the test? B:Some students passed it. M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 Inf. – not all people are unhappy I do no always walk to school implicates Not all students passed it. Strana 19 STANDARD implicature – arise from the observance of CP, hence no contextual knowledge needed A: Have you tried the suit? B: I have tried the trousers. (QT) PARTICULARIZED implicature – arise from CP flouting CANCELLATION of implicatures without contradiction: o Mary got married and had a baby, but not necessarily in that order. o A:How did I do at the test? B:Some students passed it, in fact, all students passed it. o A: How many students in the class are your friends? B: Some of the students are my friends, in fact, all of them are my friends. Note: Cf. cancellation of entailments leads to contradictions: *Mary got married but she wasn´t married. *The president was assassinated but he wasn´t dead. *Some students passed the test but they failed it. M. Ferenčík Pragmalinguistics 2012 get married assassinate pass the test entails be married be dead not failing it Strana 20
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