Defining pragmatics
True or False.
There is no difference between a sentence and an utterance.
False
True or False. An implicature arises when the speaker violates a maxim.
False (flouts)
True or False. Actions described via utterances are called speech acts.
False (performed)
True or False. Politeness is the means employed to show awareness of another person's role.
False (face)
Communicative failure and pragmatic failure are not used synonymously.
True (Communicative failure – the communicative situation characterised by the absence of successful and efficacious communicative interaction; Pragmatic failure – the inability to recognize a speaker’s intention, what is meant by what is said)
True or False. Pragmatics expresses relative distance between the speaker and the listener.
True
The additional meaning conveyed by a speaker who is cooperative is called ...
an implicature
Name the three related acts that the action performed by producing an utterance consists of.
locutionary act, illocutionary act, perlocutionary act
Give examples of mitigating devices.
please, kind of, possibly, would you?
Name the main two types of pragmatic failure.
pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure
Pragmatics is the study of how more gets ... than is said.
communicated
Name the maxims of the cooperative principle.
quantity, quality, relation (relevance), manner (clarity)
Name the 6 types of general functions performed by speech acts.
declarations, representatives, expressives, rogatives, directives, commissives
What is a face-threatening act?
when a speaker says something that denotes a threat to another individual's expectation regarding self-image
What is negative pragmatic transfer?
the use of the sociolinguistic rules of speaking in one's native speech community when interacting within the target speech community
Pragmatics is the study of...
the relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those forms
What implicature would you have drawn from Steve's response? What type of implicature is it?
Jane: Who used all the printer paper?
Steve: I used some of it.
Steve did not use all of the printer paper, only some of it. Scalar implicature
What types of speech acts are represented in the following examples?
I'll call you tonight.
We find the defendant guilty. I resign.
commissive, declaration
Give an example of saying something on record with a face-saving act using negative politeness.
Could you lend me your stapler?
What kind of pragmatic failure is illustrated in the following dialogue?
Teacher: Break a leg on your exam tomorrow!
Student: I am supposed to break one of my legs just to pass the exam?!
pragmalinguistic (literal misinterpretation of idiomatic expression)
The field that investigates L2 learners' ability to comprehend and perform pragmatic functions in a target language and how that ability develops over time is called ...
interlanguage pragmatics
What maxim has not been observed in the following dialogue? Is it a case of flouting or violation.
- I really liked that dinner.
- I'm a vegetarian.
relation (relevance) maxim, flouting
What type of speech act is represented in the following example?
Jane: Coco's sick.
Steve: I'll take her to the vet.
a representative that acts as an indirect directive
Steve: I thought that movie was boring.
a) Jane: So did I.
b) Jane: That's rubbish! I loved it.
c) Jane: Parts of it were a bit slow.
b, c, a, agreement maxim
What kind of pragmatic failure is illustrated in the following dialogue?
A student was talking with a friend.
Her friend: Anyway, nice to meet you
Student: What are your plans for the evening?
Her friend: Oh sorry, I have to go.
sociopragmatic failure (the initial statement is an expressive act indicating the end of conversation, the students response ignores the social cue for ending the conversation)