Summary chapter 2 semantic

SUMMARY CHAPTER 2

2.1 Pragmatics

Pragmatics is another branch of linguistics that is concerned with meaning. Pragmatics is the study of those relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a language. The focus of pragmatics is a person’s ability to use their knowledge deriving meanings from specific kinds of speech situations—to recognize what the speaker is referring to.

The similarity between pragmatics and semantics are. Both are concerned with people’s ability to use language meaningfully. The distinguish between semantics and pragmatics are semantics is concerned with the study of meaning and is related to both philosophy and logic. Pragmatics is the study of language from the point of view of usage.

2.2 Natural and Conventional Signs

People who use a language to communicate with one another constitute a society, a language community, etc. The elements of language are similar to natural signs and, more especially, to conventional signals. A sign is meaningful to us only if we perceive it, identify it and interpret it. There are differences in the way different people use the language in community. They speak different dialects of that language. Vocabulary differences like petrol and gasoline and alternative ways of framing certain questions: Have you a pencil?  Do you have a pencil?  Have you got a pencil? They have different dialect but same meaning. It is extremely difficult to say how many differences there are between dialects or to recognize where one dialect ends and another begins.

Conventional signs also as information tools. Different bell tones, different numbers of toots on a whistle or flashes of light can form a repertory of messages. Conventional signs have human senders as well as human receivers each one has an intention and an interpretation. We can even use devices like smoke detectors and burglar alarms to send messages to ourselves at a later time, in circumstances that we really do not want to occur. The process of getting information consists of three steps : 

1.      Perception

Every perception is unique experience. In this book, the observer share a context of place and time in which the sign attracts the observer’s attention. The first example is walked where the footprint was, looked in the right direction, when there was sufficient light for visibility and before the print had been obliterated by rain, wind, tide, or the movement of other creatures.

2.      Identification

Each experience and accident teach us to identify something is requires us to recognize what it is not, to discriminate between signs.

3.      Interpretation 

All the time we interpret differently in different contexts. Conventional signs can have different meanings in different contexts or different circumstances.

2.3 Linguistics Signs

Words are linguistic signs, similar in certain respects to natural and conventional signs. They do not ‘have meanings’ but rather are capable of conveying meanings to those who can perceive, identify and interpret. Words go together to form sentences which in turn are capable of conveying meanings—the meanings of the individual words and the meaning that comes from the relation of these words to one another.

In order to grasp what somebody says, we must first of all perceive the utterance—hear a spoken utterance, see a written one. A number of things can create difficulty in perceiving a spoken message: too much noise in the environment, too great a distance between speaker and hearer, insufficient volume in the speaker’s delivery, a poor connection if the message is conveyed by telephone, static in a radio message, or insufficient attention on the part of the hearer. A written message must be clear, sufficiently lighted and have the reader’s attention. But hearing alone is not enough, nor is seeing. We get no message from an utterance in a language we don’t know. Identification of the elements in an utterance requires speaker and hearer to share what Clark (1996:92–121) calls ‘common ground.’ By and large, speaker and hearer use the same vocabulary: they attach the same meanings to the same words and sentences; they have similar pronunciations; and they have, in general, the same ways of putting words together in sentences. Of course there can be different degrees of commonality in the common ground. Speaker and hearer may speak different dialects of the same language, so that their pronunciations differ to some degree and there is some divergence in the ways they express themselves. One—or both—may be a foreigner with only partial mastery of the language they are using. Markedly different pronunciations, use of vocabulary items that the other doesn’t know, meanings not shared, syntactic constructions not familiar to both— these disturb the process of identification. Suppose we hear an utterance, know the language, know the meanings of the words and the sentences formed with the words. We may still not fully comprehend what is said because we don’t know what the utterance is about. We don’t grasp the speaker’s intention, largely because we don’t know what is being referred to. On the other hand, when communication is successful, we, as hearers, interpret correctly because we derive some information from what has been said previously (the discourse context) and from knowledge of the speaker and from a grasp of conditions and circumstances in the environment (the physical-social context).

As listeners we ‘edit’ what we hear, separating the pauses, fillers and repetitions from the ‘gist’ of the message. Thus, although we can’t grasp a spoken message without hearing it (perception), our knowledge of the language enables us to distinguish between what communicates and what does not. Listeners—and readers—use their implicit knowledge of the language to grasp the message they are dealing with.

As listeners, begin with a phonetic message, once we have grasped the semantic content we retain only the sense of the message (Clark and Clark 1977:49).

Comprehension is not just taking in words or even sense-groups. As listeners we use our background information to interpret the message. As Fillmore (1979:78) puts it, we need to know not only what the speaker says but also what he is talking about, why he bothers to say it, and why he says it the way he does. We have to relate what is being said to what was said previously— relate new information that is coming at us to the information that preceded it.

From the other side, speakers who make themselves understood have to have some notion of what their addressees already know and what the addressees can infer and fill in. Writers have to decide for what potential audience they are writing and how much these potential readers can contribute to the process of comprehending. Because you did not have background information, didn’t grasp what the message was about? If not, maybe you can invent a possible situation.

2.4 Utterance and Sentence

An utterance is an act of speech or writing;  it is a specific event, at a particular time and place and involving at least one person. On the other hand, a sentence is not an event. A Sentence is a construction of words in a particular sequence which is meaningful. Speakers do not merely have certain abstrac knowledge; they use that knowledge in various social contexts. Pieces of language, like other signs, depend on context for what they signify. We recognize social context and linguistic context. We distinguish between sentence, a language formation and utterance, what is produced in a particular social context. There are two kinds of meaning when we distinguish between a sentence and utterance, they are linguistic meaning and utterance meaning. Linguistic meaning is what is communicated by particular pieces of language, while utterance meaning is what a certain individual meant by saying such-and-such in a particular place, at particular time, and to certain other individuals. The meaning that speaker extract from an utterance is often more than linguistic message itself; knowledge of reality, the situation, and the participants in the communication event enables the individual to fill in. A conversational implicature is the information that is not spoken but is understood in typing one utterance meaningfully to a previous utterance.

2.5 Prosody

Prosody is the rhythm and intonation (the way a speaker’s voices rises and falls) of language. Speech meanings are communicated not only by what is said but also by the way it is said.

1.    A: has the winston street bus come yet?

B: I didn’t understand. What did you say?

2.    C: I’m afraid Fred didn't like the remark I made.

D: Oh? What did you say?

3.    E: some of my partners said they wouldn’t accept these terms.

F: And you? What did you say

4.    G: You’re misquoting me. I didn’t say anything like that.

H: Oh? What did you say?

“What did you say?” in four dialogue above is pronounced differently.

1.                           T did you say?

         A

     H

W                   S

2.                What did you A

                Y             Y

3.                What did  O

  D              U say?

4.                What  I

       D you say?

Spoken utterances are produced with Intonation by changing the speed with which the vocal bands in the throat vibrate. We produce rising and falling pitch or combinations of rise and fall. Intonation is the sound changes produced by the rise and fall of the voice when speaking, especially when this has an effect on the meaning of what is said.

Accent is a special emphasis given to a particular syllable in a word. When speech is represented in print, italic sometimes used to indicate the accent, but this is done only seldom.

In the English language accent is mobile, enabling us to communicate different meanings by putting the emphasis in different places.

Intonation is achieved by different vibrations of the vocal cords. Falling tune suggests that the speaker is confident of what he or she is saying and the utterance is delivered with finality: it shows speaker dominance. A rising tune is more oriented toward the addressee.

Here are some common distinctions made with intonations in utterances that have the same verbal material.

1.      Statement vs question (fall vs rise)

“Yes” “this is place”

Falling tone “Yes” is an answer to some question and “This is place” is statement. Rising tones the speaker seeks confirmation or information from the addressee.

2.      Information Sought vs Repetition requested (fall vs rise)

“when” “where” 

It is rising when speaker is asking for repetition of something that was said. The speaker has understood enough. The falling intonation is a request for information that has not been given.  

3.      Parallel structure vs antithesis (fall vs fall and rise)

a.       This is my sister, (fall) Ellen.

b.      This is my (fall) sister, (rise) Ellen.

a.       Ellen is speaker’s sister

b.      Ellen is the addressee.

4.      Open question vs alternative question (rise vs rise, fall)

Do you have a (rise) pencil or a pen?

Do you have a (rise) pencil or a (fall) pen?

A yes-no question will have a rise. The alternative question has a rise on the first of the alternative and fall on the second.

5.      Full statement vs reservation (fall vs fall-rise)

That’s (fall) true

That’s (fall, rise) true

A fall expresses agreement with what has been said. A fall and short rise expressed only partial agreement, or agreement with reservations.

2.6 Non-Verbal Communication

            The way we say the words we say helps us convey our intended meanings. Indeed, the tone of voice we use, the facial expressions and bodily gestures we adopt while we are talking, often add entirely new layers of meaning of those words. It is about how the natural non-verbal properties of utterances interact with linguistic ones.

            In speech situations some meanings are conveyed by nonlinguistic matters. These include paralanguage (ways of using the voice are together called­­), appearance, gestures and silence. Combinations of paralanguage and gestures can communicate something about the mood of the speaker—anger, boredom, nervousness, elation, for instance—and actors work hard to achieve such effects in interpreting the characters they play.

In speech situations some meaning are conveyed by nonlinguistic matters. These include paralanguage, appearance, gestures and silence. Paralanguage is concerned with the way of using the voice are together. Speakers may want to create a particular effect with their ways because of vocal features; but if intentions and interpretations coincide, the coincidence is fortuitous. Appearance—clothing, hair style, jewelry, cosmetics, facal hair and what is done—have an effect on others, intentional or not. Gestures, the visible signs, have the capacity to communicate in much the way a word communicates.

            Non-verbal communication is the way ‘say’ something about a person’s cultural background but they do not communicate semantically. Gestures, interpersonal distances, the ways the voice is used can be quite different in different societies and thus any of these can have different effects on people of different backgrounds.