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ENGLI 420 SEMANTICS $ PRAGMATICS REVISION NOTES

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 KABARAK UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

P.O Private Bag – 20157, KABARAK, KENYA

ENGL 420: SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS (45 hrs)
LECTURER: Dr Moses James Olenyo Malande
A COURSE OUTLINE

Purpose of the course

It enables students to understand approaches to meaningfulness and related theories.
Course objectives
At the end of the course the learner should be able to:
1. Discuss the place of Semantics and Pragmatics in linguistic theory
2. Distinguish meaningfulness from anomaly
3. Demonstrate understanding of sense relations and componential analysis
4. Argue the place of context and its role in interpreting texts
5. Explain the current approaches to Semantic and Pragmatic phenomena
Learning approaches
Lectures, discussions in class and groups, short presentations, individual exercises and
structured activities.
Weeks Detailed course content
Week 1 Introduction, Definitions, The place of semantics and pragmatics in linguistic
theory: problem in the delimitation of these disciplines. Meaningfulness and
anomalousness
Week 2 Semantic explication of meaning: sense relations, componential analysis and
Lexical relations
Week 3 Distinction between utterance, sentence, and proposition
Week 4 Semantic Roles; patient, agent, theme, instrument, goal, location, source,

1
 experience
Week 5 Grice’s Co-operative Principle Conversational implicatures

Week 6 CAT1
Week 7 Deixis

Week 8 Austin’s Speech Acts

Week 9 Role of context in linguistic interaction: definition, approaches and

characterization
Week 10 CAT2
Week 11 Presupposition: semantic and pragmatic accounts

Week 12 Politeness Theory

Week 13 Different theories within semantics-their principal claims e.g. truth -

conditional semantics, game-theoretical semantics, Relevance theory,
conceptual role semantics etc.

Week 14 Exams
Week 15 Exams

Teaching Methodologies
A combination of lecturers, seminars, discussions, case study, library.

Instructional material & equipment

Textbooks, whiteboard marker pens, handouts and library

Method of evaluation
CATS & ASSIGNMENTS 50%
Final Exams 50%

2
 Total 100%
References
1. Horn, L. R.& G. Ward (2006). The Hand book of Pragmatics. Oxford, Blackwell.
2. Hurford B. &Heasley M. B. S (2007). Semantics: A Coursebook.Cambridge,CUP.
3. Levinson (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge, CUP.
4. Lyons, J (1977).Semantics (Vol I &II). Cambridge, CUP.
5. Ricananti, F. (2004). Literal Meaning.Cambridge,Cambridge University Press.
\

3
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.

Definitions:

Semantics: The term semantics may be defined as the study of meaning.

Semantics focuses on the literal meaning of words, phrases and sentences, this is also called
dictionary meaning or conceptual meaning and it differs with connotative meaning.

Semantics is concerned with how grammatical processes builds up a complexity meaning out
of words for example, the following utterances may have a multiplicity of meanings which can
only be interpreted at a semantic level.

Flying planes – can be interpreted as a noun phrase or as a verbal element.

The chicken was too hot- Can be interpreted as a feeling by the bird or as a hot meal of
chicken.

She saw her duck.

Semantics can be traced back to traditional grammar and is founded on the assumption that the
word was the basic unit of syntax and semantics.

Pragmatics: Is the study of how utterances are used in real life communicative acts and the role
played by context and non-linguistic knowledge in the transmission of meaning.

Kamwana, Baba, Arap Mashamba

The utterances above can have a point of interpretation different from their basic meaning if
looked at from a Kenyan pragmatic perspective.

The utterance; ‘fire’ on a semantic level is interpreted to mean a scorching flame, pragmatics
goes deeper than that in the sense that the contextual clues will be employed in interpreting its
meaning and thus a variety of meanings can be deduced from a single utterance depending on the
context.

Therefore, pragmatics is the study of intended speaker’s meaning in relation to the context and
the surrounding contextual clues, in the utterance below its correct interpretation will only be
dependent on the contextual clues.

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“It is hot.”

THE PLACE OF SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS IN LINGUISTIC THEORY/

PROBLEM IN DELIMITATION OF THESE DISCIPLINES.

 Pragmatics is the study of language use in specific situations, on one hand we have
linguistic units i.e. words in sentences and on the other hand the way they are used.

‘E.g. “fire“–Literary is taken for an inferno or a flame.

- A soldier takes aim and shoots.
- From a human resource perspective it means to sack an employee.
- In a stylistics, fire can be taken for trouble as in one under fire

 Some scholars insist that the pragmatics should be handled within semantics while others
content that it is semantics that is subsumed under pragmatics.
 Other scholars insist that they should be taken as distinct disciplines but complementary
to each other.
 Austin and Grice have all advocated for a pragmatic approach to the study of meaning;
this is because pragmatics takes into account the speakers and the hearers, the intention of
the speaker and the interpretation of the hearer as well as the context of the
communication for example in these utterances, “Leopards maul Gor”, “the Brewers
bottle the Green Army,” and The hustler roles over the project can only be interpreted
from a pragmatic perspective.
 In communication, it is assumed that both speakers and listeners have some purpose to
fulfill and therefore they have to be cooperative if this purpose is to be achieved. Grice
called this cooperative principle.
 In a nutshell pragmatics and semantics are different disciplines.
 Semantics deals with the question of meaning while pragmatics deals with questions of
use and context.
 A typical semantic question is:

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 Is (1) true? e.g. The dog passed away. This statement can either be true or
false on a semantic perspective.
 A typical pragmatic question is
Is it appropriate to utter (1) in a given situation?
e.g.
The dog passed away
The statement above would be adjudged inappropriate on a pragmatic viewpoint for pass
away is a respectful expression only applicable to mankind.
 Thus semantics deals with the notion of truth while pragmatics the notion of
appropriateness.

The notions of truth (semantics) and appropriateness (pragmatics) are completely

independent in the sense that in real life there are plenty of examples of true and appropriate
utterances this is seen in utterances such as:

The sun rises from the east.

God created mankind in his own image.

Kabarak is a university of repute.

 There are also false and inappropriate things to say for example illogical and
blasphemous statements e.g. our bull calved last night.

 There are also appropriate but false things to say, for example in scaring a child over
inappropriate behaviour one may utter such statements e.g. – “I will auction you at the
market if you keep on crying. Also in courts of law such statements are applicable to
lawyers who use all means possible to save their clients from stiff legal penalties.

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CHAPTER 2.

MEANINGFULNESS AND ANOMALOUSNESS.

Meaningfulness –This is a quality of a semantic term for an utterance to confirm to logic and
truthfulness, for example the following statements can be said to be meaningful.

Kabarak is a reputable university.

The sun rises from the East.

Anomaly: Means” meaningless,” for example, if in a conversation someone says to you:

‘My brother is an only child,’

‘Our bull calved last night.’

The above statements are anomalous in that they do not conform to logic and
truthfulness.

 An anomalous sentence conforms to all grammatical rules of a language but it is strange

because it presents a contradiction.
E.g. “The bachelor is pregnant."
Such sentences violate semantic and not syntactic rules.
 The semantic properties of words determine what other words they can be combined with
i.e., collocations
Colourless ideas rustle furiously.
Subject predicate

The sentence above obeys all the syntactic rules however it is anomalous in that the word idea
does not collocate with fury.

Dark green leaves rustle furiously.

The above sentence is also anomalous in that leaves do not collocate with the word fury.

Honesty plays golf

Anomalous because honesty is not human.

7
8
CHAPTER 3.

SEMANTIC EXPLANATION OF MEANING.

MEANING.

A word can have different interpretations e.g. Run

1. Rabbits run very fast.

2. He has a constant running nose
3. Are you running for KABUO presidency in 2027?
4. I ran into my teacher in Nakuru city last night.
5. Please run some extra copies for me.

The word run above can be interpreted differently and thus has a multiplicity of meaning.
The following general senses can be attached to the word.

1. Athletics
2. Cold
3. Contesting
4. Met
5. Print/produce/make

DEFINITIONS OF MEANING.

a) Meaning can be looked at as an intrinsic property of a word; there is a way you can look
at the meaning of a word by looking at its properties for example HIV-AIDS can be
broken down into the following semantic components / intrinsic properties.
- weakening of body immune system

- Depletion of white cells

- Opportunistic infection

9
 b) You can also look at the meaning of a word in relation to words annexed to it in a
dictionary. e.g. look might be annexed to the following words: peep, gaze, and stare.
c) The connotation of a word might also depict her meaning, for example red roses connotes
love, as in an expression e.g. you are the rose of my life. The word rose above can be
correctly interpreted to mean love.
d) Meaning can also be defined as the place of anything in a system or our perception of
significance of something in life, for example the name “God” also implies, holiness,
supplication, reverence etc.
e) Meaning might also be taken to mean that to which the user of a symbol (verbal) or non-
verbal actually refers to, for example in Kenyan politics the word “ baba”- father in
English ,may be used by a certain speaker to refer to a leading politician.
f) Meaning might also be used in reference to that which the user of a symbol ought to be
referring e.g. if a speaker says: “I have an old friend.” in this utterance the speaker might
be making reference to the age of the friend or the duration their friendship might have
lasted.
g) That to which the user of a symbol believes to be referring e.g. the late student was
punished. The word late might be in reference to a student who has come late in
reference to time or a deceased student.
h) Meaning can also be looked at the receiver’s perception or his / her interpretation of an
utterance.

“You will burn.”

The utterance above may be interpreted in various perspectives depending on a receiver’s

perception. The word burn may be interpreted on a business, a religious or on a computer
technology perspective.

10
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONNOTATIVE AND
DENOTATIVEMEANING?

Denotative meaning - Gives the exact relations between the word and its referent.
E.g. A house –this is a place where one dwells.

A car, a hut, a dress etc. all the above words have their objects of denotation
which they refer to.

Some words do not have denotations e.g. articles and prepositions. Words without denotations
are also called functional words.

Connotative Meaning – Is the emotive association that a word evokes in the minds of
interlocutors. The words below have the given associated / connotative meanings.

E.g. Mother- Warmth and comfort

Step-mother- cruelty

Statehouse - power

Meaning - can also be looked at from a sentence point of view.

Reference: is what a word signifies in a particular sentence.

E.g.

This cat is the most charming pet I ever met.

- Reference here is a particular cat.

- There is also a co-reference to a pet (cat)

TYPES OF MEANING.

1. OSTENSIVE DEFINITION OF MEANING:

This is the use of denotations. Some words denote objects, ideas, activities e.g. table, boy,
bath, walking etc.

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 2. PARAPHRASE:
Commonly used in dictionaries, it normally matches what is being defined as being the
same thing or having the same content.

EXERCISE
i. Explain the meaning of meaning.
ii. Distinguish denotative meaning from connotative meaning.
iii. What is the difference between ostensive meaning and a paraphrase?

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CHAPTER 4.COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS (C.A)

Componential Analysis theory holds that all lexical items can be analyzed using a finite set of
components (semantic features).

Semantic components are the common features that a group of words have.

Componential Analysis was developed by an American linguist who studied kinship terms of the
American-Indians.

Componential Analysis assumes that individual lexical items can be broken down into semantic
primes.

+Male +Female +Young

Man woman child

Bull cow calf

Rooster hen chick

Drake duck fowl

Stallion ewe lamb

+Male

+Female

+Young are the semantic properties which can be used to describe words above.

The word assassin can be analysed into the following semantic primes.

+ Murderer,

+ Human

+ Intentional

+ Killing of an important person

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In Componential analysis, contrasts are usually presented in terms of: + or – a certain quality.

E.g.
Spinster
++ never married
+ adult

Wife

– Male

+ Adult

+ Married

In English there is a threefold division of semantic primes with many words referring to living
creatures.

CRITICAL POINTS TO NOTE REGARDING COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS

(1.) The same semantic property may be part of the meaning of many
different words e.g.
Female is a semantic property that can help determine the meaning of the following
words:
– bitch
- ewe
- male
- vixen
+ female
- actress
- girl
- woman
- widow

14
 (2.) The presence of a certain property automatically excludes others
E.g. in courage, the semantic property + abstract, disqualifies, +human, + young or
+female.
3. Some properties are mutually exclusive e.g. +human and +abstract,
this means the presence of one semantic property excludes the other automatically.
4. The same semantic property may occur in different parts of speech
e.g. + female is part of the meaning of the noun-mother, verb – breastfeed and
adjective-pregnant.

SIGNIFICANCE OF COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS IN LINGUISTICS.

a.) It is easy to note lexical gaps in a language e.g. there’s no lexeme in

English language for the notion of human legs moving backwards
E.g.Walk +natural Run – natural
-Hurried + fast
+ Forward+ hurried
+ Foot on ground+ forward
+ Foot on ground

b.) It helps to distinguish which lexemes got certain qualities and if they
can be applied in a binary way or not.
Swim – is it + or – hurry?
Soup – is it + or – eat?
Porridge is it + or – liquid?

c.) A sentence containing an ambiguity may be disambiguated if C.A is

carried. Thus componential analysis helps out in the clarification of an ambiguous lexical
item.
E.g. The house was almost empty.
In the above utterance, house can either be ;+ residential or +legislative

15
 d.) The main value of componential analysis lies in economy of statement
of the relationship which it allows. Thus, componential analysis allows us to provide
definitions of words in terms of few components. E.g.
wife + human,+ married, +adult, +female

SHORTCOMINGS TO C.A

1. It is better suited to describe some semantic fields than others e.g.

animals: the case is different for items such as citrus fruits.
2. It is doubtful whether the semantic features employed in componential
analysis can sufficiently give the meaning of lexemes especially in cases of ambiguity
e.g. stem and bank.
3. The binary distinction does not specify what the referent is
specifically.
e.g. + male
+ adult
+ cat
The above semantic primes are not enough to distinguish between tigers, lions, leopards.

4. It is difficult to carry out C.A of words that cannot be identified with

features that have no physical relations e.g. come and go, and for, to etc.

EXERCISE

i. Define componential analysis

ii. Explain the significance of componential analysis in linguistic theory.
iii. What are the shortcomings of Componential analysis?
iv. Undertake a componential analysis of any 5 nouns, verbs and
adjectives.

16
CHAPTER 6 SEMANTIC ROLES.

Semantic roles refer to the various semantic functions undertaken by a noun phrase in a
utterance.

Patient.This is associated with the receiver or the undergoer of the action initiated by the subject
of a sentence. The patient is affected in one way or another by the action in that it may be
modified or exchanged.

E.g. The car hit the donkey

Patient

The nurse gave the baby / a terrible injection

Patient

In traditional grammar the patient is associated with the direct object of a transitive verb.

AGENT:This is the doer of the action who deliberately performs the action. An agent is usually
the grammatical subject of a verb in an active clause.

Wanyama scored a brilliant goal.

The I.C.C retracted the Kenyan case.

Chebukati/ gave Chiloba a hefty slap

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In the above examples the bolded grammatical subjects are the agents of the actions expressed by
the respective verbs.

THEME:

Refers to the Sentence topic or what is being spoken about.

E.g.The dirty water pot was full of murky water.

Paradise awaits all those who walk the narrow path

The butterfly floated around us in an exuberant manner

The theme may undergo the action but is not affected in anyway.

E.g. God blessed us abundantly.

INSTRUMENT.

Refers to the Object or the implement used to achieve a given goal.

E.g. Jamie cut the ribbon with a pair of scissor

He rode around town in a new V8

LOCATION:

This is used in reference to where the action takes place.

E.g. Johnny and Linda played carelessly in the park.

I’ll be at Juliet’s housetonight.

GOAL/DIRECTION

Where the action is directed towards

E.g. The caravan continued on towards the distant oasis.

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He walked to school.

The heavy machinery turned across the field

The above bolded are the direction or the goal of the action depicted.

SOURCE:

The origin where the action began or was initiated.

E.g. She walked away from home

North Korea provocatively fired another ballistic missile across the pacific.

EXPERIENCER:

This is the entity that undergoes sensory or emotional impact.

The gift enchanted the little boy again and again.

The childrencried in anguish.

With a feeling of regret, Joy gave all was in her purse to the old lady.

LEXICAL RELATIONS
i.) Synonymy – These are words that have the same or closely related meaning e.g. buy and
purchase, broad and wide, start and begin.
ii.) Antonymy – Words that are opposite in meaning. There are three categories
a.) Gradeable – antonyms comparative constructions and gradeable adjectives e.g.
Big and small.
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 b.) Non-gradeable – antonyms complementary pairs e.g. true-false, single- married,
dead-alive
c.) Reversives – doing the reverse of e.g. pack – unpack, load – unload, tie – untie.

EXERCISE.
Identify the type of lexical relations that exist between these words
a.) Flourish thrive
b.) Intelligent stupid
c.) Casual informal
d.) Flog whip
e.) Drunk sober

iii.) Homonymy – it is a word which has two or more entirely distinct meaning
e.g. a club – a social organization
- A blunt object
iv.) Homophony – are different words, pronounced the same but are spelt differently.
e.g. too – two, waste – waist, queue – cue, stare – stair, ceiling – sealing, scent – cent
v.) Homography – are different words spelt the same but pronounced differently and
different meaning.
e.g. minute minute
wind wind
read read
live live
tear tear
invalid invalid
bore bore
HOMONYMS;
Can sometimes lead to misinterpretation of the message.

20
 e.g. police: why have you parked your car here?
Motorist: because the sign says fine for parking.

The underlined in these sentences have more than one meaning: Elizabeth either went to the river
bank or to the financial institution.

- Elizabeth went to a bank – River Bank

Withdrew money
How was your date?
 Person
 Day of month
 Type of fruit
 Meeting a friend – outing event
 Courtship

Date: A fruit homonyms

A point in time
Date on calendar – time
Arranged meeting
Social meeting polysemy
Person you are going to meet

Polysemy – refers to a relationship by extension

e.g. Head – physical head
- head of organization, company, bed, family, school etc.
- To indicate top

Hyponymy – the type of relationship whose meaning are specific instancesof a more general
word.

21
e.g.
Living things

Creatures Plants

Animals Insects Vegetables Flowers

Lion Leopard Ant Fly Spinach Carrot Rose Lily

Vegetables and flowers are cohyponyms of plant

Creatures and plants are cohyponyms of living things

Metonymy: these are words that can be substitutes for another with which it is closely related.
e.g. Crown King
there are three classes;

EXERCISE:
Identify and explain the lexical relationship between each pair of words listed here.
Collocation – words that frequently occur together.
(i.) Vegetable - carrot
(ii.) Broad - wide
(iii.) Pail - pale
(iv.) House - roof
(v.) Raise - lower
(vi.) Meat - meet
(vii.) Narrow - thin
(viii.) Appear - disappear
(ix.) Insect - ant
(x.) Can - can opener

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CHAPTER 5.DEIXIS

Types of Deixis
Buhler (1934); any expression which locates a referent in space of time is a deictic expression.
e.g. The cat sat on the mat.
“on the mat” is the deictic locative situation because it tells us where the cat was.
The referent is located using the current speech events or one more of its participants as
reference points.
The “mat” is the reference point, the speech event plays no role.
“that cat sat on the mat”
There are two reference points i.e. “the mat” and “the speaker”

Types of Deixis.
1. Person Deixis.
It involves the speaker known as the 1st person. The addressee known as the 2nd person and any
other known as the 3rd person.
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd persons in English come in singular and plural.
Person Singular Plural
1st person I We
Me Us
2nd person You You
You You
3rd person He/She/It They
Him/ Her Them

There is a kind of dominance i.e. 1st person dominates the 2nd person dominates and the 3rd
person.
3rd person is only used when there is no 1st and 2nd person speaker.
Representative use versus true.

23
“They” is always used to refer to the plural/several people.
2. Spatial Deixis
It manifests itself in the form of locative adverbs such as “here and there” and
demonstratives and determiners such as “this and that”.
The spatial deictic system is not as pronounced in English as in other languages. Two
terms are used proximal and distal spatial deictic system.

Proximal – means the same as distal.

Distal – e.g. here, there and yonder.
“there” in English indicates that whatever you talk about is near unlike “there” which
indicates that it is of some relative distance.

3. Temporal Deixis
It’s about the time uses the time of utterance.

Three divisions are response:

a.) Before the moment of the utterance (past tense)
b.) At the time of utterance (present tense)
c.) After the time of utterance (future tense)

The most basic temporal time deixis are “now and then”.
Temporal deixis depends heavily on the calendar; yesterday, today, tomorrow, next week, last
year, last Wednesday, this Thursday, next Monday.

4. Social Deixis
Not in English but in French language. Deals with the social status within the society.

5. Discourse Deixis
Refers to such matters as the use of “this” to point to future discourse elements.

24
 e.g. listen to this. It will kill you!
“hereby” used to indicate that something is going to happen.
Discourse markers; furthermore, and therefore tend to refer the reader back to something
that has already been said.

6. Gestural Deixis and symbolic Deixis

The speaker uses gesture and the listener need to look at the gesture.
Symbolic is when you don’t have to observe the gestures e.g. “the weather today is
lovely”.

EXERCISE
1. Point all the instances of deixis in the following indicating that type of deixis
is involved.
a.) I understood that there could be an opportunity to meet her there later that
week and that I would be responsible for bringing the documents atleast that is
what John said.
Deixis is meaning based on the context i.e. meaning outside the text.

THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

Grice’s Conversational Maxims
It’s the cooperative principle. It is the most influential accounts for implicatures.
According to Grice people do not just involve in conversation just for the sake of conversation.
According to Grice make your conversational contribution such as is required at the stage at
which it occurs by the accepted purpose of direction of the talk exchange in which you are
engaged. This principle elaborates conversation by a set of maxims.

i.) Maxim of quality – is concerned with truth telling and it has two points
a.) Do not say what you know to be false
b.) Do not say that for which you lack evidence

ii.) Maxim of quantity.

25
 a.) Make your contribution as informative as it is required for the current
purposes of the exchange in which you are engaged.
b.) Do not make your contributions more informative than is required.

iii.) Maxim of manner

a.) Be orderly
b.) Be brief
c.) Avoid ambiguity
d.) Avoid obscurity

This maxim relates to the form of speech you use. You should not use words you know your
listeners does not understand or say things they will not understand.

You should also not state something in a long drawn out way if you could say in a much simpler
manner.

iv.) Maxim of relation/relevance.

Be relevant

The nature of maxims - Maxims are not rules but more like guidelines.

Maxims can creatively be infringed.

e.g. Q. Have you seen Mary today?

R. I’m still alive

Nomi Grice is trying to make this case that these maxims are not cultural bound convention but
are nationally based and should therefore be observed in any human society.

EXERCISE.

In the following question identify the maxim of conversation that have been violated.

26
Describe the maxim of conversation and explain why you say it has been violated.

a.) Do not worry. I love exams I always obtain 100% in all the subjects without
studying.
b.) Lecturer: When are you going to submit your group assignment?
Student: It is December
c.) Student: Where can I get information about the registration dates for next
semester?
Administrator: Check
d.) Jason went to a supermarket to get his groceries this morning. He is drawing
up his shopping list.

EXERCISE.

a.) Maxim of quality has been violated because there is some lie by stating that he
gets 100% without studying.
b.) Maxim of relation has been violated because the students answer is irrelevant
c.) Maxim of manner – he’s not orderly draw up the shopping list then go to the
supermarket.

POLITENESS THEORY.

 Based on the concept that people have a social self-image that they consciously project
and try to protect.
 This sense of self-image is a.k.a “Face”.
 It holds that people use various politeness strategies to protect the face of others when
addressing them.

a.) A positive face reflects the desire to have one’s self-image approved of by others.
- A positive face is a person’s wish to be admired, the desire to be understood and
adored.

27
 - Thus Politeness is about being culture bound.
b.) Negative face is a part of a personality that desires not to be imposed upon.
- It is a wish to go on freely without any impedeance.
- Politeness is about being culture bound.

PRESUPPOSITION

Refers to assumptions implicitly made by speakers and listeners which are necessary for the
correct interpretation of utterance.

E.g. Kamau stopped stealing.

Presupposes Kamau stole at some point in his life.

I am sorry it is dark

Presupposition – it is dark

 Presuppositions deal with necessary preconditions for a condition to be true.

E.g. I spoiled my watch yesterday.
Presupposition imputed: I have a watch.
 Meaning this is the shred understanding of a message constructed in the minds of the
communicators.

A B

What speaker A has is what speaker B must process

Presupposition allows the speaker or the hearer not to make everything absolutely explicit in the
communication process. This is because If we had to spell out all the details every time we speak
then communication would be extremely lengthy, tedious, cumbersome etc.

E.g. Tell Atieno I am at lunch.

Presuppositions – The addressee will be in by the time Atieno arrives.

28
 - Atieno is likely to arrive soon.
Presuppositions therefore condense messages and make them clearer to listeners.

EXERCISE
Give any two presuppositions implied in the following statements.
i.Jeremy will marry soon.
ii.Edith has never failed an exam.
iii.This is Raila’s last bullet.
iv. Donald Trump’s reign is marked by controversy.
v.The baby is crying for the milk.
CONTEXT

Context is a very important element of meaning in semantics and pragmatics. The context
surrounding a utterance is the core element which will determine its interpretation.

There are different kinds of contexts in semantic:

a.) Linguistic context: a.k.a the context of a word means a set of

other words used in the same phrase or sentence. This surrounding context has a strong
effect on what we think a word means.
E.g. The word bank is a homonym requiring linguistic context to allow right
interpretation.
b.) Physical context: The physical location of an utterance is used
to make an interpretation of meaning.
E.g. Thisclub requires new paint.
c.) Epistemic context: Refers to what speakers know about the
world.
The background knowledge a speaker has is crucial for the correct interpretation of a text.

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 d.) Social context: Refers to the social relationships among
speakers and hearers expressed by words like; your lord, sir/ madam. Social context is
much commonly used in French than in English.

- Contextual meaning allows for the hearer to comprehend that the intended hearing is distinct
from the literal meaning.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN AN UTTERANCE, ASENTENCE AND A PREPOSITION.

PROPOSITION

A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance in a declarative sentence which
describes some state of affairs and thus in uttering a declarative sentence, a speaker typically
asserts a proposition.

 True prepositions correspond to facts (Mary loves John).

 False preposition do not correspond to facts. (John loves Mary)
Therefore a proposition is the basic element of sentence meaning.

SENTENCE
A sentence is a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language. It is an
abstract entity and can only be conceived abstractly. A sentence can also be defined as a
grammatically complete string of words expressing a complete thought.

e.g. – I would like a cup of coffee.

- Coffee please
- In the kitchen
- Please put it in the kitchen.
The above strings can be interpreted as sentences in English language for they can be categorized
functionally and structurally as sentences in English.

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UTTERANCE

An utterance is any stretch of talk by one person before and after which there is silence on the
part of that person.

An utterance is the use by a particular speaker on a particular occasion of a piece of language

from a given language such as a sequence of sentences ,a single phrase or even a single word.

Examples:

1. ‘Hello.’
2. ‘Not much.
The above qualify as utterances for they can be placed as strings of English language.
Utterances may consist of a single word, a single phrase or a single sentence. They may also
consist of a sequence of sentences.
N/B: An utterance can consist of one or more grammatically incomplete sentence
fragments.
3. *pxgotmgt
4. * Schplotzenpflaaaargh!

The above strings cannot qualify to be utterances because they cannot be placed under any world
language.

EXERCISE
Giving examples make a distinction of a sentence, a proposition and an utterance.

SPEECH ACT THEORY.

Proposed by Steve Austin and states that we use language to do thing e.g. describe, promise,
insult, agree, criticize etc.

Austin claims that when one utters a sentence one is involved in three different speech acts:

i.) Locutionary Act: Means uttering of a sentence with meaning

e.g. it is very hot today. (locution)

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 ii.) Illocutionary Act: This is the intention of the speaker in
making an utterance.
iii.) Perlocutionary Act: This is the response the speaker expects
from the hearer. E.g.
I will disconnect your phone.- this a Locutionary act.
Intention – A threat – the illocutionary force.
The hearer pays the bill – perlocutionary force.
In the above speech act the illocutionary force i.e. a threat is implicit.

Examples of explicit illocutionary forces occur in performative utterances whereby in making

an utterance the speaker simultaneously does or performs what the act describes:

 I declare the meeting open

 I baptize you Isaac
In performatives one says and performs the act signified.

Performative can only be deemed appropriate if it meets the truth conditions.

e.g.

 I declare you insane

 The bride may now kiss the bride.

The speech acts above can only be appropriate if uttered by the right people at the right context.

Speech act theory also recognizes constatives which are propositions in the form of questions or
statements. They can be said to be true or false e.g.
 I have a headache
 Here comes the P.M
 Did you read the novel?

Ethical propositions are forms of speech acts meant to guide behaviour and be adjudged true or
false.
E.g. Ignorance is no defense

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 Honesty is the best policy
Boys don’t cry
Other utterances in the speech act theory serve a social value e.g. niceties e.g.

 You look hot.

 How are you today?
 So splendid. Thanks

FELICITY CONDITIONS THAT PERFORMATVES MUST MEET TO

BESUCCESSFUL.

i.) Conventional procedures for doing what is being done must

co-exist i.e.who does what and says what in what circumstance.
ii.) All participants must properly execute the procedure and
complete it.
iii.) The necessary thoughts and feelings must be present in all the
parties.
N/B: performatives are characterized by 1st person, subject, simple present tense
verbs and the adverb hereby.
e.g.
I do hereby declare that the accused be sentenced to hang by the neck till his
death.
The above is a performative only appropriate to a court of law, uttered by a judge
using the right tone and facial expression. He ends up the statement by signing the
death warranty and hits the gavel on his desk to signal a new case or adjournment of
the court proceedings.

According to Searle a student of Austin one locution may be used to achieve different
illocutioning forces and vice versa.

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E.g. want coffee? – could be a question

- could be a request one locution achieving many locutions.

- could be an offer

Is there food? Many locutions

What is there for lunch? One locution

Give me food? Illocutionary Force.

CORE READING MATERIALS

Horn,L.(2014).Cooperative Principle.Oxford.O.U.P
Horn, L. R. & G. Ward (2006).The Hand book of Pragmatics. Oxford, Blackwell.
Hurford, B. &Heasley, M. B. S (2007).Semantics: A Course book. Cambridge: CUP.
Levin.(2014).Semantic Roles. Oxford. O.U.P
Levinson J. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge, CUP.
Lyons, J (1977).Semantics (Vol.I &II). Cambridge, CUP.
Ricananti, F. (2004).Literal Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sidnell.J.(2011).Conversational Analysis.Oxford.O.U.P

Sperlich.D.(2015).Conversational Implicature.Oxford.O.U.P

RECOMMENDED READING MATERIALS

Carston, R. (2002). Thoughts and Utterances: The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Cutting, J. (2002).Pragmatics and Discourse.A Resource Book for Students.
Routledge
English Language Introductions. London: Routledge.
Green, G.M. (1989). Pragmatics and Natural Language Understanding.Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
Holmes, J. (1995).Women, Men and Politeness.Harlow: Longman.
Horn,L.(2014).Cooperative Principle.Oxford.O.U.P

Levin.(2014).Semantic Roles. Oxford. O.U.P

Sperlich.D.(2015).Conversational Implicature.Oxford.O.U.P

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