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    PRAGMATICS

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    PRAGMATICS

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    PRAGMATICS

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    Pragmatics .

    Language is used in daily life to interact with each other. It needs to be understood
    by people since it can reveal people`s thoughts and ideas. When someone says, ”I‟m
    hungry”, his/her words can be interpreted in many ways. The hearer can interpret it as a
    sign that the speaker is merely hungry. However, it also can be interpreted that the
    speaker wants someone to get him/her food. Hence, the hearer also needs context or
    situational background to interpret a speaker`s intention since an utterance can be
    interpreted in many ways. To understand people`s intention, he/she cannot only depend
    .on the structure of language but he/she should deal with the context

    Yule (1996:3) writes that pragmatics is a study of contextual meaning which


    involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the
    context influences what is said. Being more detail, Griffiths (2006:1) states that
    pragmatics is concerned with the “toolkit” for meaning: knowledge encoded in the
    vocabulary of the language and in its patterns for building more elaborate meanings in
    meaningful communication. In other words, pragmatics is about the interaction of
    semantic knowledge related to the world, as well as contexts of use. Meanwhile,
    according to Leech (1983:10), pragmatics can be defined as the study of how utterances
    have meanings in situation. Regarding the definitions and concept of pragmatics as
    mentioned above, pragmatics studies the meaning of utterances in relation to the context
    of language which involves how speakers can produce the best utterance to deliver their
    . intention of the speaker`s utterances

    History of Pragmatics

    Pragmatics is a relatively new branch of linguistics. Research on it can be dated


    back to Ancient Greece and Rome where the term “Pragmatics” was found in late 70s.
    The term “Pragmatics” in Latin and Greek both mean „Practical‟. Modern use and
    correct practice of pragmatics is credited to the influence of the American Philosophical
    Doctrine of Pragmatism. Moreover, Pragmatics as a branch of linguistics has its origin
    in Philosophy especially philosophy of language. The history of the term pragmatics in
    modern usage is attributed to Charles Morris (1938), who at initial stage of the
    discipline was concerned with signs of semiotics. Within semiotic. Morris distinguished
    three distinct branches of inquiry: syntactic; The study of formal relations of signs to
    one another, semantics; the study of signs in relation to the object to which they are
    application (designate), and pragmatics: the study of signs in relation to the interpreters
    Morris (1988). Moreover, in 1946, Morris made pragmatics the study of the origin of
    the use of signs. From 1930 through to 1946, up to the present time, pragmatics has
    continued to grow as an emerging branch of the huge tree of linguistics study.
    Moreover, according to Chomsky's (1965) standard theory the new modern meanings of
    .pragmatics have sprung and it is still subject to new definitions

    II. MEANING OF PRAGMATICS

    The word pragmatics derives from the Greek word „pragma‟, which means„matter‟
    .„thing‟, but also „action‟ (Linke, Nussbaumer & Portmann (1996)

    Though a sub-field of linguistics developed in the late 1970s, some reputable linguistics
    were able to offer their version as to what they term to be the meaning of pragmatics.
    However, we restrict ourselves to the following definitions. “Pragmatics is the study of
    speaker meaning”. “Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning” “Pragmatics is the
    study of how more gets communicated than is said” “Pragmatic is the study of the
    .expression of relative distance” (Yule, 2008)

    Pragmatics is the study of linguistics meaning in relation to a specific speech event


    (the context of utterance) Leech (1983). According to Crystal (1985) “Pragmatics is the
    study of the aspects of meaning and language use that are dependent on the speaker, the
    addressee and other features of the context of utterance”. Ever since, Leech (1983) has
    defined pragmatics as “the study of how utterances have meaning in situations”. While
    Black More (1982) states that “pragmatics is concerned with the mental structure
    underlying the ability to interpret utterances in context. Moreover, according to Kemson
    (1986) “Pragmatics is the study of the general cognitive principles involved in the
    .retrieval of information from an uttered sequences of words

    Speech Acts

    a. The Definition of Speech Act

    Pragmatically, an action that is done through language can be studied under the
    labels of speech act. Yule (1996:47) uses the term speech act to refer to the actions,
    which are performed via utterances. For example, when a boss says, “You are fired!”,
    his/her words constitute the act of firing an employee. In this example, the boss is
    performing an act via utterance. It means the words can change someone`s status (Mey,
    .1994:112)

    Language is also full of implicit meanings. Sometimes when a speaker utters


    something, he/she does not just utter the utterance, but the speaker means something
    behind it. One can perform three speech acts simultaneously such as locutionary act,
    illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. Locutionary act has to do with the utterance of
    a sentence which determine sense and reference. Illocutionary act deals with the naming
    of statement, offers, promises, etc. Then, perlocutionary act deals with the bringing
    .about of effects on the audience by uttering the sentence (Levinson, 1983:236)

    The idea proposed by Levinson is also in line with Griffith. Griffith (2006: 17) states
    that speech act does not refer simply to the act of speaking, but to the whole
    communicative situation, including context of the utterance (including the situation in
    which the discourse occurs, the participants and any preceding verbal or physical
    interaction) and paralinguistic features which may contribute to the meaning of the
    interaction. Therefore, in order for a speech act to be well formed, certain circumstances
    must be obtained. These circumstances are known as felicity or appropriacy conditions.
    Austin via Cutting (2002: 18) argues that felicity conditions are the context and roles of
    participants, which must be recognized by all parties. Moreover, the action must be
    carried out completely and the persons must have the right intentions, for example, “I
    sentence you to five months in prison.” In this sentence, the performance will be
    infelicitous or inappropriate if the speaker is not a specific person in a special context
    .(in this case, a judge in a courtroom)

    References

    Griffiths, P. 2006. An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics. British:


    Edinburg University Press

    .Leech, G. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman Inc

    .Yule, G. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press

    .Levinson, S.C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

    .Mey, J.L. 1994. Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell

    .Cutting, J. 2002. Pragmatics and Discourse. London: Routledge

    Morris, C. "Foundations of the Theory of Signs." In International Encyclopedia of .


    Unified Science, edited by O. Neurath, R. Carnap, and C. Morriss. Chicago: University
    .of Chicago Press, 1938

    Crystal, David. (1985). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 2nd ed. Oxford:
    .Blackwell

    Linke, Nussbaumer & Portmann (1996) Studienbuch Linguistik. Max Niemeyer


    ;Verlag
    Chomsky, Noam (1965), Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Cambridge, 

    ,Massachusetts: MIT Press

    .Black More (1982) Understanding pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge university press

    Kemson (1986) Ambiguity and the semantics-pragmatics distinction

    .Oxford: Oxford university press

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