ENG508 Final Term Important File by Nimma Malik and Ameer

Important Note

Every person has his own mentality to conclude any matter. Every person has his own opinion according to his own perception. Here I am going to post some of my experiences regarding VU syllabus for MA ELT because I observed a lot of discrepancies which should be remedied .The handouts of MA ELT are not sufficient to hold a master level knowledge. There is no doubt that most of the lectures are elaborated in video lessons but books have no match. Firstly, there should be proper books of each syllabus. Secondly, if we consider handouts, than handouts are always in bullet form and do not provide explanation. In master classes, due to shortage of time and due to a lengthy syllabus, a skimming technique is applied because main pointes mostly slipped after some period while in video lectures it is not possible. Due to non availability of books we are facing lot of problems. In VU content library there is a multitude of books for additional study material and each book contains more than 500 pages. Firstly many students can’t afford to purchase these books secondly study is impossible if book is in softcopy.

In context to above paragraph, all students are requested to post their proper comments when asked by VU as after exams. Place your solid argument that handouts should be revised and in elaborated form until books are not published from VU.

Notes are always a shortcut to pass the exam but it is not a proper solution to get a degree. All students are requested to go through the handouts and lectures. These notes are only for extreme cases when time is too short or for revising some important points before appearing for paper. Most of the questions were elaborated by taking help from different resources yet some are still copy paste because if original text is totally excluded so student may miss some MCQs. Due to shortage of time I have no time to revise it for vetting or proof study to be errorless. All students are requested that if they found any material suspicious they are to check at their own and also inform to other students to amend it.

Regards

SAJID IQBAL KHAN MA English (UOS)

A Comparative Table of Semantics & Pragmatics · Semantics Vs Pragmatics · Semantics · Pragmatics

Study of the relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent. study of meaning as communicated by the speaker and interpreted by the listener

Literal ( lafzi matlab) (e.g. “God is one” show clear meaning, no confusion) Invisible / non-literal (e.g. Khuda ganjy ko nakhan na day)

de-contextualized Contextualized (background knowledge context) Grammatical (e.g.as we say yes for consent) Expression-based (e.g. as we show thumb up to give consent with smile) is always an attempt to focus on what the words mean is always an attempt to focus on what the speaker/listener mean relationships between signs and symbols Relationship between speaker and listener In the semantic analysis, there is always an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean Pragmatics is the study of “invisible” meaning, or how we recognize what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or written Linguistic semantics is the study of how languages organize and express meanings (Kreidler, 1998). The relationship between the linguistic form and communicative function is of central interest in “Pragmatics”.

pragmatics is concerned with what is conveyed by a particular utterance of a phrase, by a speaker, in a context. Sentence meaning Speaker meaning Truth-conditional Non-truth-conditional Encoded Inferred Sentences are abstract linguistic structures Utterance will have spatio-temporal and physical properties Sentences are linguistic entities An utterance is an instance of the production of a sentence or a fragment of a sentence

Q What is Semantics?

The field of linguistics which is concerned with the study of meaning in language is called Semantics. Semantics is the part of linguistics that is concerned with the study of literal, de-contextualized and grammatical meaning (Frawley, 1992). Semantics can also refer to the branch of study within linguistics that deals with language and how we understand meaning. This has been a particularly interesting field for philosophers as they debate the essence of meaning, how we build meaning, how we share meaning with others, and how meaning changes over time. Linguistic semantics is the study of how languages organize and express meanings (Kreidler, 1998)..

Q What is Pragmatics?

Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics, which is the study of language. Pragmatics focuses on conversational implicature, which is a process in which the speaker implies and a listener infers. Simply put, pragmatics studies language that is not directly spoken. Instead, the speaker hints at or suggests a meaning, and the listener assumes the correct intention. Pragmatics is the study of meaning as communicated by the speaker and interpreted by the listener”. According to Yule (2010), ‘Pragmatics is the study of “invisible” meaning, or how we recognize what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or written’. This includes background knowledge context i.e. people know about each other and the world. Pragmatics may vary from culture to culture.

Q Differentiate Utterances, Sentences, and Proposition.

➢ Utterance

Definition:An utterance is any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is silence on the part of that person. Rule: An utterance is the use by a particular speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of language, such as a sequence of sentences, or a single phrase, or even a single word. Example:‘Hello’, ‘Not much’ are utterances. Where as,‘Pxgotmgt’ and ‘Schplotzenpflaaaaaaargh!’ are not utterances because these strings of sounds is not from any language.

➢ Sentence

Definition: A sentence is neither a physical event nor a physical object. It is, conceived abstractly, a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language. A sentence can be thought of as the ideal string of words behind various realizations in utterances and inscriptions. Rule: We have defined a sentence as a string of words. A given sentence always consists of the same words, and in the same order. Any change in the words, or in their order, makes a different sentence, for our purposes.

Example:

a) Helen rolled up the carpet a)Sincerity may frighten the boy

➢ Proposition

Definition: A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs.