Anglistics Study Programme ENGLISH SEMANTICS Week 14 Anglistics

Anglistics Study Programme ENGLISH SEMANTICS Week 14 Anglistics Study Programme www. singidunum. ac. rs/admission

Anglistics Study Programme PLAN - Linguistics and its main disciplines – revision - Revising the main concepts in pragmatics - Comparing pragmatics and semantics (focus on sentence semantics) Anglistics Study Programme www. singidunum. ac. rs/admission

Anglistics Study Programme THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE - Key takeaways Building blocks of language: Linguistics • Phonetics and Phonology Sounds Morphemes Words Sets of words – phrases, clauses, sentences Meaning • Morphology • Syntax • Semantics and Pragmatics

Anglistics Study Programme Examples – focus on language there/ where, you, are → Where are you? / There you are. / Are you there? / You are there. She/ Victoria lives in a flat/ house. Victoria Smith’s new flat is smaller than the previous one.

Anglistics Study Programme Pragmatics: language + context + interlocutors (intention, effect)

Anglistics Study Programme Pragmatics in action 1. Are you there? 2. It’s getting late. 3. I sent you the email last night. 4. My friends are staying over.

Anglistics Study Programme utterance meaning = sentence meaning utterance meaning differs from sentence meaning

Anglistics Study Programme What domain is it - semantics or pragmatics? 1. context-invariant, speaker-independent meaning 2. only linguistic meaning 3. concrete meaning in a given context 4. What does the speaker mean by uttering X? (non-conventional meaning, what is meant) 5. Principles for bridging the gap between what is said and what is meant

Anglistics Study Programme Key concepts - language - meaning - context - speaker/ hearer (reader) - intention/ effect - speech acts - deixis - implicature

Anglistics Study Programme Speech acts - reminder Speech act refers to the act we perform while uttering a sentence in a certain communicative situation, and is connected with the intention the speaker involves and the effect the utterance has on the listener. Types: - locutionary (language, message)

Anglistics Study Programme Identify the type of speech act of the following utterances “I regret saying that. ” “I pronounce you husband wife. ” “I kindly ask you to a. assertive (used to inform) b. declarative (an utterance brings about a new situation, changes, e. g. , christening, marrying, objecting, etc. ) c. commissive (an utterance is used to express a promise, guarantee – by saying something, a speaker commits

Anglistics Study Programme Classify the following acts as either illocutionary or perlocutionary irritating someone apologising to someone promising requesting impressing someone objecting

Anglistics Study Programme Pragmatic inference, implicature, presupposition - reminder inference – a type of reasoning, a process of reaching a conclusion based on some evidence conversational implicature, or just implicature (information contained in the utterance but not explicitly stated. It also contributes to economy in communication because if we state something which implies additional information, we do not have to state this information explicitly. ) presupposition (a kind of inference) https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=YD 82 l_b. Uh. Lc

Anglistics Study Programme Meaning and context - reminder 1. knowledge we have about the physical context 2. knowledge we gain from what has already been said 3. common, background knowledge (can be culturally and individually conditioned)

Anglistics Study Programme Some headlines In African American communities, private grief amid public rage ‘A riot is the language of the unheard': MLK's powerful quote resonates amid George Floyd protests Birmingham protesters tear down Confederate monument, set Thomas Jefferson statue ablaze – Taken from The Washington Post, June 1, 2020.

Anglistics Study Programme What do all these people have in common? Matt Damon T. S. Eliot Bill Gates Tommy Lee Jones, cum laude Natalie Portman Mark Zuckerberg

Anglistics Study Programme Meaning and cultural background/ context Listen to J. K. Rowling’s speech at Harvard Commencement https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=w. HGqp 8 lz 36 c , , Now all I have to do is take a deep breath, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion. ’’ , , You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve come out ahead

Anglistics Study Programme More context , , Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

Anglistics Study Programme Background knowledge Quizizz – American culture and history