ENG503 Treasure

Major Kinds of Deixis

Person Deixis: They usually operate in three-part division of pronouns; those of first person (I, we), second person (you), and third person (he, she, they).

Examples of personal deixis are him, them, those, Khan, Qureshi, etc.

Spatial Deixis: Spatial deixis are used to indicate the relative location of people and things. They are also known as ‘place deixis’.

Examples are here, there, near that, etc.

Temporal Deixis: It is also known as ‘time deixis.’ Temporal deixis and the choice of verbs are present tense (proximal form) and past tense (distal form). Psychological basis of temporal deixisis ‘the coming week’ is now (present) Versus then (past and future), last week, next week, today, tonight, and yesterday, etc.

Reference: An act by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a listener (or reader) to identify something. The words don’t refer to anything, people do by using proper nouns, other nouns or pronouns. There is a range of references for each word or phrase. The pronouns (e.g. it, they, he, she, them, etc.), demonstratives (this, that, these, those), the article the, etc. are used for identification.

Major Forms of Reference

•  Endophoric Reference (Endophora) - where the interpretive source lies in the co-text. An Endophoric reference can be divided into two sub-types:
•  Anaphoric Reference (Anaphora): where the referent lies in the prior text, e.g. respect a man, he will do the more.
•  Cataphoric Reference (Cataphora): where the referent lies in the text to come, e.g. When I met her, Mary looked ill.
•  Exophoric Reference (Exophora): where the interpretive source lies in the context, e.g. (Mary is standing there) I like her.

Presupposition: A presupposition is something the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance. Speakers, not sentences, have presupposition. It is treated as a relationship between two propositions. E.g., • Mary’s dog is cute. (=p) • Marry has a dog. (=q) p >> q Entailment: An entailment is something that logically follows from what is asserted in the utterance. Sentences, not speakers, have entailments. The relationship between two sentences where the truth of one (A) requires the truth of the other (B).

Example: (A) The president was assassinated entails (B) the president is dead.

Face: It is defined as “the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself”, and the efforts

negative face.

Positive face reflects the desire to have one’s self-image approved of by others.

Negative face is a part of personality that desires not to be imposed upon.

Politeness strategies will differ depending on whether a person is dealing with another’s positive or negative face.

Face-Threatening act - If you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self-image. Example: If you use a direct speech act to get someone to do something (Give me that paper!), you are behaving as if you have more social power than the other person.

Face-Saving act- Whenever you say something that lessens the possible threat to another’s face.

Example: An indirect speech act, in the form associated with a question (Could you pass me that paper?), removes the assumption of social power - this makes your request less threatening.

Negative Politeness - A face saving act which is oriented towards a person’s negative face. It tends to show deference, concern for other’s time and may also include an apology for the imposition. Examples: Could you lend me your pen? I am sorry to bother you, but can I ask for a pen or something.

Positive Politeness – A face saving act which is concerned with the person’s positive face. It tends to show solidarity, emphasize that both speakers want the same thing, and they have a common goal : appeal to friendship. It may be preceded by some ‘getting to know you’ talk. Example: Hey, buddy, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me use your pen.

Three Maxims of Politeness (Lakoff, 1973)

1. ‘Don’t impose’ – ‘I’m sorry to bother you but….’
2. ‘Give options’ – ‘Do you think you could possibly come to pick me up?’
3. ‘Make your hearer feel good’ – ‘You’re better at this than me’, ‘Oh that’d be great’.

According to Austin (1975), the speech act theory is a foundational part of pragmatics. It attempts to explain the processes of how meanings are constructed within conversations. According to Austin and Searle “Language is used to ‘do things’ other than just refer to the truth and falseness of particular statements.” Speech acts are defined as what actions we perform when we produce utterances. Similar to physical acts, people also perform acts by using language, e.g., to give orders, to make requests, to give warnings or to give advice to do things that go beyond the literal meanings of what we say.

Facets of Speech Acts According to Austin, there are three part system for describing a speech act.

•  Locutionary Act -- Literal meanings of the actual words. What speaker says and makes sense; i.e. follows the rules of pronunciation and grammar.
•  Illocutionary Act - Speaker’s intention in uttering the words; the uses to which language is put in a society.
•  Perlocutionary Act - The effect or ‘take up’ of an utterance on the thoughts or actions of the other person; what follows an utterance.
•  Sociolinguistics - study of the relationship between language and society.
•  Society - any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or purposes.
•  Language - what the members of a particular society speak.

Possible Relationships Between Language and Society

•  Social structure may either influence or determine linguistic structure and/or behavior (Age-Grading).
•  Linguistic structure and/or behavior may either influence or determine social structure (Whorfian hypothesis).
•  Language and society may influence each other (Marxist View).
•  There is no relationship at all between linguistic structure and social structure (Chomsky).

Varieties of Language

•  Abstand is a variety considered as a language, rather than a dialect, by virtue of being different in its linguistic characteristics.
•  Ausbau is a variety which derives its status as a language, not so much from its linguistic characteristics but from its social, cultural and political characteristics (Norwegian and Swedish).