(PDF) SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS A Practical Course for the Study of Meaning

SEMANTICS AND

PRAGMATICS

A Practical Course for

the Study of Meaning

SEMANTICS AND

PRAGMATICS

A Practical Course for the Study

of Meaning

Dr. Mohammad Salman Mansoor

Yusra Mohammad Salman

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No part of this publication may be

translated, reproduced, printed, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording,

or otherwise without the prior written

permission of the publisher.

SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS

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i

List of Contents Page

Contents i

Table of Figures vii

Preface viii

Dedication x

Part One: Semantics 2

Chapter One: Introduction 4

Starter 4

Hint: 1 4

Semantics: Definition and Background 4

Hint: 2 5

Types of Meaning 6

Meaning in Language 7

Hint: 3 9

Literal and Non-Literal Meaning 9

Semanticist’s Concern 10

Reminder 13

Study Section 15

Chapter Two: Basic Terms 18

Starter 18

Hint: 1 18

Hint: 2 18

Utterance 19

Sentence 20

Proposition 21

Hint: 3 22

Sense 23

Reference 24

Referring Expression 26

Opaque Context 28

Equative Sentence 28

ii

Predicator and Predicate 30

Hint: 4 31

Degree of a Predicate 32

Reminder 35

Study Section 38

Chapter Three: Lexical Relations 44

Starter 44

Hint: 1 44

Lexical Relations 45

Hint: 2 45

Synonymy 45

Paraphrase 47

Antonymy 48

Hyponymy 49

Hint: 3 50

Homonyms and Homophones 50

Polysemy 51

Metonymy 52

Meronymy 52

Prototype 52

Reminder 54

Study Section 56

Chapter Four: Semantic Concepts 60

Starter 60

Hint: 1 60

Hint: 2 61

Ambiguity 61

Metaphor 63

Pun 65

Hint: 3 66

Irony and Sarcasm 66

Semantic Roles 69

iii

Semantic Features 71

Reminder 72

Study Section 75

Chapter Five: Multi-Word Chunks and Meaning 80

Starter 80

Hint: 1 80

Hint: 2 81

Collocation 81

Idioms 84

Phrasal Verbs 85

Hint: 3 86

Proverbs 87

Reminder 89

Study Section 91

Part Two: Pragmatics 95

Chapter Six: Introduction 97

Starter 97

Hint: 1 97

Hint: 2 98

Semantics and Pragmatics 98

Hint: 3 99

Denotation and Connotation 99

Pragmatics: Background and Scope 101

Reminder 104

Study Section 106

Chapter Seven: Basic Terms 109

Starter 109

Hint: 1 109

Hint: 2 110

Reference and Inference 110

Anaphora and Anaphor 111

Context 112

Hint: 3 113

iv

Deixis 114

Presupposition 115

Entailment 117

Hint: 4 119

Implicature 119

Reminder 121

Study Section 124

Chapter Eight: Cooperation and Communication 128

Starter 128

Hint: 1 128

Principles of Effective Communication 129

Hint: 2 130

Maxims of Conversation 130

Maxim of Quantity 131

Maxim of Quality 131

Maxim of Relevance (Relation) 132

Maxim of Manner 132

Hint: 3 134

Maxims of Politeness 134

Tact Maxim 135

Generosity Maxim 135

Approbation Maxim 136

Modesty Maxim 137

Agreement Maxim 137

Sympathy Maxim 138

Reminder 140

Study Section 142

Chapter Nine: Speech Acts and Communication 146

Starter 146

Hint: 1 146

Speech Acts: Structure 147

Hint: 2 148

Speech Acts: Function 149

v

Declaratives 149

Representatives 149

Expressives 149

Directives 150

Commissives 150

Locution, Illocution and Perlocution 150

Locution/Locutionary Act 151

Illocution/Illocutionary Act 151

Perlocution/Perlocutionary Act 152

Hint:3 152

Performatives and Constatives 152

Performatives 153

Constatives 154

Performative Hypothesis/Formula 154

Felicity Conditions 156

General Conditions 157

Content Conditions 157

Preparatory Conditions 158

Sincerity conditions 159

Essential conditions 160

Reminder 161

Study Section 164

Chapter Ten: Politeness and Interaction 169

Starter 169

Hint: 1 169

Hint: 2 169

Politeness: Background and Definition 170

Hint: 3 172

Face Theory and Politeness 172

Hint: 4 175

Positive and Negative Politeness 175

Impoliteness 178

Reminder 181

vi

Study Section 183

Glossary 186

Answers to the Hint Section 195

Answers to the Exercises 206

References 217

Appendix 223

vii

Table of Figures Page

Figure 1.1 4

Figure 2.1 18

Figure 3.1 44

Figure 3.2 50

Figure 4.1 60

Figure 4.2 71

Figure 5.1 80

Figure 6.1 97

Figure 7.1 109

Figure 8.1 128

Figure 9.1 146

Figure 10.1 169

viii

Preface

This book is an introductory course to semantics and pragmatics for

foreign university students of English. It is a textbook that has been specially

designed to meet the needs of students who encounter the study of meaning

for the first time. The main objective is to acquaint students of English, as a

foreign language, with background information, basic ideas and concepts

about the study of the two areas of meaning (semantics and pragmatics) with

an edutaining flavour.

In writing this book, we have tried to adopt the same approach and

strategies used in writing the first textbook (Linguistics) for foreign

university students of English. The approach is communicatively and

interactively oriented. It is based on edutainment in that it educates and

entertains as the same time. It employs a variety of strategies and techniques

that depend on brainstorming, group work, discussion groups, video and

image watching, report writing, all of which are presented in the Hint

sections and Exercises sections.

The book has also been designed to make the students’ learning task

easier, and more beneficial and interesting. This is done by splitting the main

topics into smaller manageable subtopics, in addition to simplicity of

expression, straightforward style, clarity of presentation and comprehensive

coverage of fundamental semantic and pragmatic issues and concepts. To put

all these considerations into practical application, the strategies previously

mentioned have been employed throughout the book. These aim at making

the book easy to follow and handle, and make the study of meaning an

interesting thing rather than boring, especially for students, and other readers

who want to use it on their own as part of self-study.

Vertically, each chapter begins with the Starter Section, followed by

the Hint Section, the basic material to be delivered in the chapter, then the

Reminder Section and ends with the Study Section. The Starter introduces

the basic topics and terms to be presented in the chapter as headlines. The

purpose behind this section is to direct the students' attention to what is to be

dealt with in the chapter. The Hint is a two-fold activity. It is either a picture

or a short video. But the two have one purpose in common; they function as a

ix

brainstorming stimulus for students to be actively and indirectly involved in

the material to be presented later. Here students are required to watch the

picture (in the figure) or the video and answer the relevant questions. The

pictures and videos intend to prepare students for active involvement in the

subject, but in an entertaining and easy manner by means of the information

displayed on the picture or the video. These two means challenge the

students’ ability to recall, observe, analyse, synthesize and infer to get at the

correct answer. The Reminder, which comes at the end, is a summary of the

main points and basic terms introduced in the chapter. It has been devised to

help students have a brief account of the subject through skimming. The

Study Section, which comes after the Reminder, is divided into two main

parts; questions and exercises. The questions aim at checking the students'

knowledge and understanding of the main ideas and important terms

presented in the chapter. The exercises aim at developing the students'

knowledge and giving them more practice to arouse their awareness of

semantics and pragmatics.

Horizontally, the book is divided into two parts. Part One:

Semantics, which is supposed to be covered in the first semester, includes

five chapters; Introduction (Chapter 1), Basic Terms (Chapter 2), Lexical

Relations (Chapter 3), Semantic Concepts (Chapter 4), Multi-Word Chunks

and Meaning (Chapter 5). Part Two: Pragmatics, which is to be covered in

the second semester, also includes five chapters; Introduction (Chapter 6),

Basic Terms (Chapter 7), Cooperation and Communication (Chapter 8),

Speech Acts and Communication (Chapter 9) and Politeness and Interaction

(Chapter 10).

Last but not least, the book has been supplemented with PowerPoint

Presentations covering its ten chapters. The purpose behind this is to provide

both the teacher and students with a useful and entertaining tool to the study

of meaning, which has always been looked upon (by most students) as a

difficult and boring subject.

The authors

March, 2016

x

Dedication

To Ziad

To Shuyi

To Adam

I dedicate this work……

M.S.M

xi

How to Use this Book

For the Teacher For easy and effective treatment of the subject matter,

the teacher is advised to follow the same method of

presentation and gradation adopted in the book. Since

each section in the chapter is built on the idea of

systematic gradation, the teacher has to stick to the

same sequence, and proceed from the Starter to the

Hint and to the rest of other topics and sections.

The Starter section is mainly intended to draw the

students’ attention to the main topics in the chapter.

The Hint section, through the images and videos,

intends to prepare students for active involvement in

the subject, but in an entertaining and easy manner.

These two facets of the Hint section function as a

brainstorming activity which is vitally important as an

entry to the topics subject to treatment. The Reminder

section, which is a kind of summary of the main points

and basic terms, has been devised to help students have

a brief account of the subject through skimming.

As for the Study Section, which includes questions

and exercises, the teacher’s role is an organizer, a

facilitator and a guide rather than a controller or a

performer. This activity gives students the chance to

deepen their understanding of the material presented in

the chapter.

Since the book is supplemented by ten PowerPoint

Presentations, the teacher has to effectively exploit this

xii

facility in a way that makes the teaching of Semantics

and Pragmatics both knowledge and entertainment.

For the student The approach adopted in this book gives a good

chance for students to take the initiative and be

actively engaged into a variety of activities. For active

involvement in the subject, students are asked to do the

Hint Section (watch the videos and figures) and

provide answers before coming to class. This strategy

helps students approach the subject with basic

information that can be used as feedback to develop

their knowledge of the newly-presented material.

The method of presentation and gradation adopted by

the authors help students to approach the study of

meaning from a new perspective which makes their

study both useful and interesting. This is achieved

through video watching, image capturing, interactive

discussion groups, group work, report, essay writing

and power point presentations.

By virtue of the PowerPoint Presentation facility,

students and other learners can use the book

independently as a part of self-study material. So enjoy

good reading with Semantics and Pragmatics.

1

SEMANTICS AND

PRAGMATICS

2

PART ONE:

SEMANTICS

3

Chapter One:

Introduction

4

1Introduction

Starter

In this chapter we study the following topics:

- Semantics: Definition and Background

- Semanticist’s Concern

- Types of Meaning

- Literal and Non-Literal Meaning

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below and answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the figure?

2. What definition is given for semantics?

3. Relate the definition to the information in your textbook.

Figure: 1.1

Semantics: Definition and Background

Semantics1 is the study of the meaning (of words, phrases and

sentences) in language. It describes the meaningful relationships between

1 The word is derived from Ancient Greek: σημαντικός sēmantikós, meaning 'significant'.

5

words, and explains the processes that lead to new words and senses.

Semantics is also defined as “the study of the relationships between the

symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language”.2 A

semanticist is a linguist who is concerned with the study of meaning or a

specialist in semantics.

Aristotle can be regarded as a forerunner (pioneer) of modern

semantics. He was concerned with the same general areas that concern

modern semanticists. Many of the most common and best known ideas of

general semantics are found in his famous books Poetics, Rhetoric and

Topics. These include word meanings, sentence meanings and definitions. He

also referred to the treatment of the particular and the universalist and made a

distinction between them. There is an exaggerated claim that general

semantics is an improvement on Aristotelian views, but what was lacking in

those views were clarity of expression and dramatic power in presentation,

which modern semanticists possess.3

Hint: 2

Now watch video 1.1 and answer these questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. How many definitions do words have in language? What are they?

3. What does the first one mean?

4. What does the second one mean?

5. How can a reader or a listener determine the type of meaning?

What helps him to do so?

2 Kitcher and Wesely, 1989: 35.

3 Hurford, et al, 2007; Ross (ed.), 1928; Richard, 1947; Irving, 1952.

6

Types of Meaning

When studying semantics, it is very important to distinguish between

two types of meaning; word/sentence meaning and speaker meaning4. Word

meaning or sentence meaning is what a word or a sentence means literally.

It is what words conventionally mean when put together to form sentences.

This is referred to as denotative meaning which is considered as central or

core meaning of a lexical item.5 It is also called general meaning or

conceptual meaning.6 Conceptual meaning covers those basic components

of meaning that are conveyed by the literal use of words (as found in

dictionaries), therefore, it is generally known as dictionary definition of

words. This kind of meaning falls within the scope of semantics.

As for speaker meaning, it is the kind of meaning that an individual

person wants to convey when he/she uses language (by means of words,

phrases, sentences). It is also known as connotative meaning which refers to

the additional meaning that a word or a phrase has beyond its central or core

meaning. This type of meaning is called by some linguists as associative

meaning which refers to all associations and connections a person might

think of when hearing a word or a sentence. This kind of meaning falls within

the scope of pragmatics (this will be discussed in chapter six).

To elaborate on these two types of meaning (word/sentence meaning

and speaker meaning), let us take, for instance, the word needle. If we

consider the first kind of meaning (word/conceptual/literal/denotative/

dictionary definition), then the word needle means thin, sharp, steel

4 Hurford, et al, 2007:3

5 Richards, 1993: 101.

6 Yule, 2010:113.

7

instrument. But different people might have different associations or

connotations when they come across such a word. To some people, the word

needle is associated with pain and illness. To others, it is associated with

blood or drugs, while others may think of knitting or sewing when they hear

of such a word. These types of connotations, connections or associations,

which differ from one person to another, show people’s attitudes and

emotions towards what the word or phrase refers to.

Note: To have more practice on sentence meaning and speaker meaning, do

exercise (1) in the Study Section.

Meaning in Language

Meaning plays a vital role in language and language study. In order to

get at the meaning of words, phrases and sentences, we need to get into the

habit of careful thinking and analysis about language and the way we use it.

To approach meaning, language users need to pay attention to both

types of meaning; word/sentence meaning and speaker meaning. But priority

should be given to the former (word/sentence meaning) since it is easier to

handle than the latter (speaker meaning). This is because speaker intended

meaning, which reflects the speaker’s will (intention), the circumstances and

the linguistic context, is more complex than the former, and therefore, can be

dealt with at later stages of language study.

The study of meaning (semantics) tries to set up a theory of meaning.

This semantic theory deals with semantic facts, and facts about meaning. A

theory can be defined as a formal set of ideas that is intended to explain why

8

something happens or exists. Simply, it is the basic principles on which a

particular subject is based.7

Semantic theory is a part of a larger theory (linguistic theory) which

includes the study of syntax (grammar), phonetics (pronunciation) and

semantics (study of meaning).8

It is important to note that semantic theory is applicable to all

languages. This is due to the similarities between languages concerning some

general statements (generalizations) about whole classes of items, such as

proper names, common nouns, prepositions, articles, etc. Proper names, for

example, have different meanings from common nouns, and this is applicable

in all languages. It is also true that prepositions, articles or conjunctions have

different meanings from both proper names and common nouns.9

The similarities between languages encourage semanticists to believe

that it is possible to make some general statements about all languages,

especially about the most fundamental and central areas of meaning. Take,

for example, the antonymous adjectives (dead/alive) which express the same

general fact about meaning that exists in all human languages. Consider the

following examples from English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Arabic

and Kurdish:

dead ≠ alive (English)

mort ≠ vivant (French)

tot ≠ lebendig (German)

muerto ≠ vivo (Spanish)

morto ≠ vivo (Italian)

≠  (Arabic)

وود/ند ≠ووز /ووز (Kurdish)

7 OALD, 2006: 1533.

8 Hurford, et al, 2007: 13.

9 ibid, 9.

9

But along with these similarities, there are differences because each language

has its own characteristic features which make it different, in some semantic

aspects, from other languages.

Hint: 3

Watch video 1. 2, and answer these questions:

1. Who is the speaker? What is she talking about?

2. What does literal mean?

3. What three examples does she give to illustrate literal meaning?

4. What do the three examples nonliterally mean?

5. Give an example (from the video) of a non-literal phrase in a passage of text.

6. What does it really (non-literally) mean?

Literal and Non-Literal Meaning

Literal Meaning is straightforward or factual meaning; it is the

dictionary meaning or definition of a word. It refers to words that do not

deviate from their defined meaning (as used in the dictionary). It is the type

of meaning when language is used in a neutral factual way. A literal usage is

the "normal" meanings of the words.10 It maintains a consistent meaning

regardless of the context,11 with "the intended meaning correspond[ing]

exactly to the meaning" of the individual words.12

Non-Literal Meaning or figurative meaning is far more interesting.

It’s imaginative; it conveys not just the facts but ideas. It encourages us to

use our imaginations. Non-literal or figurative language refers to words, and

groups of words, that exaggerate or alter the usual meanings of the

component words. Non-literal or figurative use of language is the use of

10 Jaszczolt and Turner, 2003 (cited in Wikipedia).

11 Glucksberg, 2001(cited in Wikipedia)

12 Harley, 2001: 293.

10

words or phrases in a manner where the literal meaning of the words is not

true or does not make sense, but "implies a non-literal meaning which does

make sense or that could be true".13 It is the type of meaning when language

is used deliberately to describe something in untrue or impossible terms in

order to achieve special effects.

To illustrate the two types of meaning, consider the following

examples, in which (1) is literal, while (2), (3) and (4) are non-literal or

figurative:

1. I’m very hungry.

2. I’m starving.

3. I could eat a horse.

4. My stomach thinks my throat’s cut. 14

Note: For more practice, do exercise (2) in the Study Section.

Semanticist’s Concern

A semanticist is like a linguist in that he is not concerned with laying

down standards of correctness to be followed by language users. He doesn’t

prescribe what meanings words and sentences should have in language or

what they may be used for; he simply describes these meanings and the

contexts in which they are used. The aim of serious semanticists is mainly to

explain and clarify the nature of meaning. A semanticist is concerned with

many issues:

1. He needs to think in abstractions. Dealing with semantics is a matter of

conceptual analysis, exploring the nature of meaning in a careful and a

13 Montgomery, et al., 2007: 117.

14 Saeed, 2009:15.

11

thoughtful way, using a wide range of illustrative examples.15

2. He “tries to understand why certain words and constructions can be

combined together in a semantically acceptable way, while others cannot”.16

Look at the following sentences, which are syntactically and semantically

acceptable:

1. My sister is a spinster.

2. The girl tasted the food, and then ate it.

3. Claudia married yesterday.

But what about the following sentences:

1. My wife is a spinster.

2. The girl swallowed the food, and then ate.

3. Claudia married tomorrow.

Are they well-formed syntactically? Are the words in their correct order? The

answers to these questions are positive (Yes). If yes, are they semantically

acceptable? Could an English native speaker consider them as acceptable?

The answers to these questions are negative (No). So, what makes these

sentences unacceptable? The answer is very simple; it is because they are odd

and contradictory to conceptual or denotative meaning. This leads us to the

conclusion that, what seems to be syntactically correct does not necessarily

mean that it is semantically acceptable.

3. A semanticist is also interested to know why anyone who knows a

language can recognize certain words, phrases and sentences as being

synonymous (similar in meaning). Consider the following words:

wish = want; fatigued = tired; retire = go to bed;

indicate = show; route = way; habitual abode = home

15 ibid,1-14.

16 Aitchison, 2003: 88.

12

Now look at the following sentences:

1. I am fatigued and wish to retire.

2. Indicate to me the route to my habitual abode.

Depending on the synonymous relations between the words previously

mentioned, one with good knowledge of language can consider the following

sentences as equivalent to the two sentences mentioned above:

1. I am tired and want to go to bed.

2. Show me the way to my home.

4. A semanticist seeks to explain how language users can recognize

ambiguous sentences, and how they clear up ambiguity by depending on a

surrounding (linguistic) context. Ambiguity is the state of having more than

one possible meaning or interpretation. Thus, an ambiguous sentence is one

with more than one possible meaning. Consider the following example:

The chicken is ready to eat.17

This sentence is ambiguous. What is the intended meaning? Is it the chicken

as a type of cooked food or a meal? Or is it the chicken as a bird (hen)? By

depending on a surrounding context, the ambiguity of the sentence can be

cleared up:

1. The chicken is ready to eat.

I like it with rice and salad.

Or: 2. The chicken is ready to eat something (its food).

17 Hurford, et al., 2007: 128.

13

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following points:

- Semantics: The study of the meaning (of words, phrases and

sentences) in language.

- Semanticist: A linguist who is concerned with the study of

meaning, or specialist in semantics.

- Aristotle: A forerunner (pioneer) of modern semantics.

- Word/Sentence Meaning: What a word or a sentence means

literally. It is also called denotative meaning or conceptual meaning.

- Speaker Meaning: The kind of meaning that an individual person

wants to convey when he/she uses language (words, phrases,

sentences). It is also called:

- Connotative Meaning: The additional meaning that a word or a

phrase has beyond its central or core meaning.

- Associative Meaning: All associations or connections a person

might think of when hearing a word or a sentence.

- Theory: A formal set of ideas that is intended to explain why

something happens or exists. It is the basic principles on which a

particular subject is based.

- Semantic Theory: A part of a larger theory (linguistic theory)

which includes the study of syntax (grammar), phonetics

(pronunciation) and semantics (study of meaning).

- Literal Meaning: Straightforward or factual meaning (dictionary

14

definition of words).

- Non-Literal/Figurative Meaning: It’s imaginative meaning; it

conveys not just the facts but ideas, to describe something in order

to achieve special effects.

In this chapter we have presented introductory information about

semantics as the study of meaning. We have also dealt with the role of

meaning in language and types of meaning. In the next chapter we are going

to be acquainted with some basic notions and terms in the study of meaning.

15

Study Section

Questions

1. Define semantics.

2. What is a semanticist? What are his concerns about meaning?

3. What is the aim of serious semanticists?

4. What is meant by word/sentence meaning and speaker meaning?

5. What is the difference between denotative and connotative meaning?

6. Define ambiguity. How can it be cleared up. Give examples.

7. What is meant by theory?

8. What is semantic theory a part of?

9. Is semantic theory applicable to all languages? Why?

10. Make a distinction between literal and non-literal meaning.

Exercises18

Exercise 1: Which of the following sentences reflects speaker meaning

(SPM), and which one reflects sentence meaning (SM)?

1. Calligraphy means beautiful handwriting. ( )

2. What does the English word beautiful mean in Kurdish? ( )

3. Money means nothing to him. ( )

4. A bachelor is an unmarried man. ( )

5. A red light means stop. ( )

6. What annoyed me not what he said, but what he meant? ( )

7. Dark and thick clouds mean rain. ( )

8. To many people happiness means money. ( )

9. Courtesy means politeness. ( )

10. A spinster is an older unmarried woman. ( )

Exercise 2: Which of the following sentences indicates literal or non-literal

meaning. Answer with L (literal) or N.L (non-literal).

1. I could eat a horse. ( )

2. I want to eat these two sandwiches. ( )

18 Exercises 1 and 2 are adapted from Hurford, et al, 2007.

16

3. Any help? This box is killing me. ( )

4. He was killed in a car accident. ( )

5. Don’t be afraid our dog doesn’t bite. It’s friendly. ( )

6. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. ( )

7. He was terribly sick. He kicked the bucket very soon. ( )

8. He kicked the ball into the goal. ( )

9. You have to eat your words. ( )

10. It was raining cats and dogs all the night. ( )

17

Chapter Two:

Basic Terms

18

2 Basic Terms

Starter

In this chapter we study the following topics:

- Utterance

- Sentence

- Proposition

- Sense and Reference

- Referring Expression

- Opaque Context

- Equative Sentence

- Predicator and Predicate

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below and answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the figure?

2. Are the words (in the figure) found in the Starter section?

3. Find definitions for these terms (words) in your textbook.

Figure: 2.1

Hint: 2

Watch the PP slides, and answer the following questions:

19

1. What is the title of the slides?

2. What definition is given for an utterance?

3. What forms can it be? Relate the examples to the forms.

4. How is a sentence defined?

5. When words are grouped meaningfully, what do they express?

6. How is a proposition described? Locate the true and false propositions.

7. Is the information on the slides similar to that in your textbook?

8. Do practice 1 and practice 2.

Utterance

An utterance can be defined as “a stretch of talk, by one person,

before and after which there is silence on the part of that person.”19 It is a

natural unit of speech or talk bounded by the speaker’s silence. Very simply,

an utterance is the act of expressing something in words, i.e., something that

a speaker utters or says. Thus, an utterance may be a single word (hi, bye,

hello) a single phrase (nice day, see you, fine weather), a single sentence, or a

sequence of sentences.

It is important to mention that an utterance is a physical event (like

any other event, such as a party or a meeting), and events are said to be

ephemeral (short-lived). Similarly, utterances are ephemeral which soon die

on the wind (unless recorded or written for the purpose of documentation or

analysis). It is also noteworthy to say that an utterance is basically spoken,

but it can be written only for the purpose of analysis, description or study.

Utterances are separated from one another by silence.

Last but not least, accent (pronunciation) and voice quality (speed,

pitch, tone) belong to the utterance, not to the sentence, because these are

19 ibid, 16.

20

phonetic characteristics which are associated with speech (utterances) not

with writing (sentences).

Sentence

A sentence is “a string of words put together by the grammatical rules

of a language”. Traditionally, it is defined as “a grammatically complete

string of words expressing a complete thought”.20 According to the OALD, a

sentence is “a set of words expressing a statement, a question or an order,

usually containing a subject and a verb”.21

A sentence is different from an utterance in that it is not a physical

event. Unlike utterances, sentences are permanent (long-lived). Since they are

basically written, sentences can stay for hundreds of years in good condition

(in books, documents, newspapers, etc.). Sentences are separated from each

other by punctuation marks which are characteristics of written language.

In conversations, people do not always use well-formed sentences to

communicate with others. Utterances of non-sentences are very commonly

used, such as short phrases, fragments (short broken sentences) and single

words. Consider the following examples:

1. a: When did his father die?

b: in 1995

2. a: Do you like tea or coffee?

b: Tea, please

Semantics is not only concerned with the meaning of whole

sentences, but also with the meaning of non-sentences. But it is more

20 ibid: 17.

21 OALD, 2006: 1331.

21

convenient to begin our semantic analysis with whole sentences because the

meanings of whole sentences involve propositions.

Proposition

A proposition is that part of the meaning of a declarative 22 sentence

which describes a state of affairs.23 It is the basic meaning that a sentence

expresses. A proposition is an abstraction (general idea) in the mind of an

individual person regardless of language, region or accent. Propositions can

be ways of capturing part of the meaning of declarative sentences.24 In

uttering a declarative sentence, a speaker asserts (states) a proposition.

Briefly stated, a proposition is a declarative sentence which is either true or

false. True propositions correspond to facts, but false propositions do not

correspond to facts:

1. Cairo is in Africa. (true)

2. London is in Africa. (false)

The notion of truth can be used to decide whether two sentences or

more express the same or different propositions. Consider the following

examples in which all the sentences are true and express the same

proposition, but in different ways as regards their grammatical structure:

1. Caesar invaded Gaul.

2. Gaul was invaded by Caesar.

3. It was Caesar that invaded Gaul.

4. It was Gaul that Caesar invaded.

5. What Caesar invaded was Gaul.

22 A declarative sentence is a simple statement.

23 Hurford, et al., 2007: 20.

24 Saeed, 2009:14.

22

6. The one who invaded Gaul was Caesar.25

It may happen that the same declarative sentence expresses or implies

more than one proposition26: Maria’s friend, Tony, who is a dentist, likes apples.

This sentence contains many underlying propositions:

1. Maria has a friend.

2. The friend’s name is Tony.

3. Tony is a dentist.

4. Tony likes apples.

When uttering a simple declarative sentence, the speaker commits

himself/herself to the truth of the corresponding proposition, i.e., he/she

asserts the proposition. But when uttering an interrogative (question) or an

imperative (command), the speaker can mention a particular proposition

without asserting its truth27:

1. Peter can do it now. (declarative: proposition asserted)

2. Can Peter do it now? (interrogative: proposition mentioned/not asserted)

3. Do it now, Peter. (imperative: proposition mentioned/not asserted)

Note: Depending on the previous information about utterance, sentence and

proposition, do exercises (1) and (2) in the Study Section that follows the

chapter.

Hint: 3

Watch the PP slides, and answer the following questions:

1. What is the title of the slides?

25 ibid, 13.

26 Richards, et al., 1993:297.

27 Hurford, et al., 2007:22.

23

2. What definition is given for reference?

3. What are the two types of reference? What examples are given on the slide?

4. How is sense defined?

5. What types of meaning are the examples given for sense?

6. Which one is described as sense or reference?

7. Which one is described as abstract/concrete, sense or reference?

Sense

Broadly speaking, the term sense is used to refer to the meaning that a

word or a phrase has (in the dictionary). But more specifically, it is used to

mean the relationships between elements or words inside the language

system, whose meaning is dependent on other elements or words in the

system. It is the position or place which a word or a phrase has in a system of

semantic relationships with other words in the language.

One of these semantic relationships is sameness of meaning

(synonymy), such as almost = nearly, likely = probable, fatigued = tired, etc.

There are many words in language that have more than one sense (meaning),

e.g., bank (n.) (v.):

1. He swam to the other bank of the river. (river side)

2. She saves her money in the bank. (financial institution)

3. The plane banked suddenly to avoid a crash. (flew with one side higher than

the other)

4. They banked the fireplace with coal. (piled/filled)

There are also some expressions or words in different dialects or varieties

with the same sense: pavement, flat (BrE) = sidewalk, apartment (AmE), kid

(informal) = child (formal/neutral), brat (disapproving/slang), passed away

(euphemistic) = died (direct/neutral), etc.

24

It is worth noting that sense is an abstraction that can be entertained

(thought about/considered) in the mind of a language user. When a person

understands what is said or written, it is reasonable to say that he/she grasps

(understands) the sense of the expressions he/she hears or reads.28

Reference

In its broader sense or meaning, reference is the relationship between

a word or a phrase and an entity in the external world (outside language).29

For example, the word tree refers to an object in the world called tree. It is to

be noted that the same word can refer to different things or people; the words

tree and John can refer to unlimited number of things or people in the world

with such labels.

But in its narrower sense, reference is the relationship between a word

(inside language) and a specific object or person in the external world

(outside language). For example, Peter’s horse refers to a particular horse

owned by a man called Peter. Similarly, when the phrase: the tree in our

garden is mentioned it has a unique reference since it refers to a particular

tree, namely the one in our garden. More specifically, any word that has

existence or reality in the external world (the world outside language) is said

to have reference.

There are some words in language with a variable (changeable)

reference and others with a constant (unique, unchangeable) reference.

Words like, I, you, she, John, this page, my car are said to have variable

reference since their reference is determined by the context in which they are

28 ibid, 2007: 31.

29 Richards, et al, 1993:311.

25

used. The phrase the President of the USA may refer to different presidents

when used with different temporal deixis (time-pointing context):

(a) in 2007 - refers to President George Bush

(b) in 1996 - refers to President Bill Clinton

(c) in 2013 - refers to President Barack Obama.

Conversely, there are words in language which have unique or

constant reference, such as: the moon, the sun, the north/south pole, London,

Paris, Japan, Europe, the Eiffel Tower, etc.

There are also cases in which two expressions can have the same

referent30, i.e., they refer to the same object or person, e.g., the morning star

and the evening star, which both refer to Venus. Another example is: the

leader of the Democratic Party and the President, when we talk about USA

politics in 2014, which both refer to president Obama.

It is important to mention that every expression or word in language

has sense, but not every expression has reference. There are lots of words in

language (mostly abstract words) that have no existence or reality in the

world outside language. Examples of such words are: almost, rather,

immediately (adverbs), if, but, and, which (conjunctions), at, for, by

(prepositions), a, an, the (articles), decision, idea, issue (nouns), probable,

far, easy (adjectives), etc. Conversely, words that have both sense and

reference are basically concrete nouns and proper names, such as tree,

station, London, Iraq, John, Alice, etc.

It is pertinent to note here that the two terms: sense and reference

were first coined (invented) by Friedrich Frege (1848-1925); a German

30 The term ‘referent’ means ‘that refers to an object (somebody or something) in a

particular context’.

26

philosopher and mathematician. According to him, sense and reference are

two different aspects of any expression in language.

Note: For more practice on sense and reference, do exercises 3, 4 and 5 in the

Study Section.

Referring Expression

A referring expression is a word that refers to somebody or

something with a particular referent in mind (the speaker's mind).31 For

example, in the utterance: David helped me, David is a referring expression

because the speaker has a particular person in his mind. But when saying:

There is no David on this list, the speaker does not have a particular person in

mind, it may refer to any one with this name.

The same word can be a referring expression or not depending on the

context in which it is used. This is clear with indefinite noun phrases (NPs).

Consider the following pairs of examples in which sentence (a) is a referring

expression, while (b) is not:

1. a. A man was in here looking for you. (a particular person in mind)

b. The first sign of a monsoon is a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a man’s

hand. (no particular person/any man)

2. a. Nancy married an Italian. (a particular Italian in mind)

b. Nancy wanted to marry an Italian. (any Italian)

3. a. I was looking for a car. (any car)

b. I bought a car yesterday. (a particular car)

31 Hurford, 2007: 37.

27

It is clear from the sentences mentioned above that the linguistic context

often gives a vital clue as to whether an indefinite NP is a referring

expression or not, but it does not always give a clear indication.32

One might say that sentences, as in (b) version, can be ambiguous

(not clearly stated or defined). Ambiguity in such cases can be resolved or

cleared up by using the adjective certain before the indefinite NP:

Nancy wanted to marry a certain Italian.

(a particular Italian in Nancy’s mind)

Whether a word is a referring expression or not is heavily dependent

on: (1) the linguistic context and (2) the circumstances of utterance. This is

true with NPs, whether definite or indefinite. Definite NPs are of three kinds:

proper names (David, Nancy), personal pronouns (he, she, they) and a longer

expression (Smith’s murder, the man who killed Smith). Definite NPs can be

considered as referring expressions in utterances like the following:

1. Tony is my best friend.

2. He is a very good man.

(said by a wife to her husband in a conversation about their bank manager)

3. It’s new and luxurious. (said in a conversation between a son and his father about

a car)

4. The man who shot President Kennedy was Lee Harvey Oswald.

But, sometimes, it may happen that even definite NPs are not referring

expressions:

1. If anyone challenges this strong wrestler, he will be defeated. (he refers to

anyone: no particular person in mind)

32 ibid, 38.

28

2. Every man who owns a palace must be proud of it. (it does not refer to a

particular palace)

3. The man who did this crime must be insane. (said by a detective after

discovering a brutally mutilated corpse, having no idea about the killer)33

Note: For more practice, do exercise (6) in the Study Section.

Opaque Context

An opaque context can be defined as that part of a sentence which

could be made into a complete sentence by the addition of a referring

expression.34 For example, Steve believes that............ robbed John’s house is an

opaque context because it can be made into a complete sentence by adding

the referring expression Peter: Steve believes that Peter robbed John’s house.

It is to be noted that opaque contexts are often introduced by certain

verbs such as, want, believe and think: John thinks that...........is a genius.

By adding the referring expression: the new doctor, the opaque context can be

made into a complete sentence: John thinks that the new doctor is a genius.

Similarly, by adding the referring expression: her parents, the opaque context

Sue wants to get married when …………… come back home can be made into a

complete sentence: Sue wants to get married when her parents come back home.

Equative Sentence

An equative sentence is one which is used to assert the identity of

two referring expressions, i.e., to assert that the two referring expressions

have the same referent (refer to the same person or thing). A remarkable

33 ibid, 39.

34 ibid, 40.

29

feature of equative sentences is that the two referring expressions can be

reversed without loss of acceptability or change of meaning:35

David Cameron is the British Prime Minister.

The British Prime Minister is David Cameron.

David Cameron and British Prime Minister have the same referent, i.e., refer

to the same person.

Cairo is the largest city in Africa.

The largest city in Africa is Cairo.

Cairo and The largest city in Africa have the same identity.

But the reversal test applied above does not always function as a

reliable indicator of equative sentences. It may happen that there are some

sentences which are reversible but not equative:

What I need is a cup of tea.

A cup of tea is what I need.

In the above sentences a cup of tea is not a referring expression, because the

speaker does not have a particular cup in mind, yet the sentence is reversible.

Conversely, there are sentences which are equative, but not

reversible: That is the boy who stole the money.

That and the boy who stole the money refer to the same person, but it is

unacceptable to say: The boy who stole the money is that.

35 ibid, 40-42.

30

Predicator and Predicate

A predicator is a word which does not belong to any of the referring

expressions (in a simple declarative sentence), and carries the most specific

information or meaning. The predicator describes the state or process in

which the referring expressions are involved. Notice the following sentences

in which the predicator is underlined36:

1. Daddy is hungry. (describes the state (hunger) in which the referring

expression daddy is in)

2. John loves Mary. (describes the process (love) in which the two referring

expressions John and Mary are involved in)

3. Janet was waiting for the bus. (describes the process of waiting in which

the two referring expressions Janet and the bus are in)

The predicator in a simple declarative sentence can be easily found by

deleting the referring expressions. The remainder, which carries the basic

meaning, is the predicator. This remainder should be carefully checked so as

to delete extra words that do not contribute anything to the basic meaning. A

series of deletions are made, for instance, auxiliaries: is, are, was, has, had,

etc., -ing, -s, ed- forms, articles and conjunctions. Study the following

examples, which show you how to find the predicator in a sentence:

Mr Smith is typing his manager’s speech. (type)

Jane bought a car two days ago. (buy)37

My house is behind the supermarket. (behind)

Ahmad's father is a doctor. (doctor)

Note: Following the same method, do exercise (7) in the Study Section.

36 ibid, 47.

37 In case of verbs, the predicator is always the base form (infinitive) of the verb.

31

Words that can function as predicators are different parts of speech,

such as main verbs (type, wait, love, buy), adjectives (red, hungry, asleep),

nouns (genius, doctor, nuisance) and prepositions (in, between, behind).

Words that cannot function as predicators include: articles (a, an, the),

conjunctions (and, but, or, which, who) and auxiliary verbs (verb to be: is,

are, was; verb to have: has, have, had).

When analysing simple declarative sentences, two major semantic

roles are revealed: (1) the role of the predicator and (2) the role of the

argument played by the referring expression. For example, in the sentence

below, the predicator is nuisance, and the argument is Tony:

Tony is a nuisance. (predicator: nuisance/argument : Tony)

Note: Depending on the same method, do exercise (8) in the Study Section.

Hint: 4

Now watch video 2.1, and answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the video?

2. According to the video, what is a predicate?

3. Does the content of the video match the information in your textbook?

4. What is the difference?

5. Is the content of the video semantically oriented or syntactically oriented?

A predicate is any word (or a sequence of words) which can function

as the predicator of a sentence38. For example, dusty, awake, show, in front

of, wait for are predicates because they can function as predicators in simple

38 According to traditional grammatical analysis, a predicate is “that part of a sentence which

states or asserts something about the subject”(Richards, et al. 1993:285). Accordingly,

sentences are divided into two parts: a subject and a predicate, e.g., Jane (subject) is tired.

(predicate), The children (subject) saw the play (predicate).

32

declarative sentences, while but, and, is are not predicates because they

cannot function as predicators:

1. My house is in front of the public garden.

2. She showed me her new mobile phone.

3. The students are waiting for the bus.

We need here to make a clear distinction between the two terms;

predicate and predicator. The term predicate identifies elements in the

language system. The term predicator identifies the semantic role played by a

particular word in a particular sentence. A simple sentence only has one

predicator, although it may have more than one predicate.39 Thus, a

predicator is similar to the grammatical term “subject” in that there is only

one subject in a simple declarative sentence. For example, the sentence 'A tall

gorgeous young lady welcomed the guests', has only one predicator

(welcome), but it contains the words tall, gorgeous, young, lady, guests

which are all predicates because they can function as predicators in other

sentences:

1. Anne is tall.

2. She is gorgeous.

3. She is young.

4. She is a lady.

5. They are our guests.

Degree of a Predicate

The degree of a predicate is a number indicating the number of

arguments (played by the referring expressions) in simple sentences. For

example, the adjective hungry is a predicate of degree one or one-place

39 Hurford, et al., 2007: 49.

33

predicate, and the verb love is a predicate of degree two or two-place

predicate:

1. The man is hungry. (The man: argument/hungry: predicate of degree one)

2. John loves Mary. (John (subj.)/Mary (obj.): arguments/love: predicate of

degree two)

Generally, most predicates are of degree two (with transitive verbs as

in 2 above), but there are few three-place predicates. These are confined to

some ditransitive verbs40, such as give, send, write, show which are followed

by two objects: indirect and direct (respectively) as shown by the underlined

words below:

1. Mahmood gave Ahmed a book. (predicate: give- degree three/arguments:

Mahmood/Ahmed/book)

2. Tara sent her mother an email. (predicate: send-degree three/arguments:

Tara/her mother/email)

3. My friend wrote me a letter. (predicate: write- degree three/arguments: my

friend/me/a letter)

4. Sue showed Janet the new mobile phone. (predicate: show-degree three/

arguments: Sue/Janet/the new mobile phone)

The majority of adjectives are one-place predicates as in (1), but some

adjectives can be two-place predicates as in (2) below:

1. My father is tired. (predicate: tired/argument: my father)

2. Jack is afraid of the dog. ( predicate: afraid/ arguments: Jack, the dog)

Most nouns are of degree one (one-place predicates) as in (1), but

there are some nouns of degree two (two-place predicates) as in (2) and (3)

40 Transitive verbs are used with one object, while ditransitive verbs are used with two

objects. Intransitive verbs do not need any object.

34

below, which are mostly relational (mother, father, brother, sister, son,

daughter):41

1. Chomsky is a linguist. (predicate: linguist: degree one/argument: Chomsky)

2. Mr Alfred is a father of Jenifer. (predicate: father: degree two/

arguments: Mr Alfred, Jenifer)

3. Sami is the brother of Hani. (predicate: brother/arguments: Sami/Hani)

Finally, prepositions can be two-place predicates as in (1) and (2), or

three-place predicates as in (3) below:

1. My house is near the bus stop. (predicate: near: two-place/arguments: my house,

bus stop)

2. The teacher is in front of the students. (predicate: in front of: two-place/

arguments: the teacher, the students)

3. Is Erbil between Kirkuk and Mosul? (predicate: between: three-place/arguments:

Erbil, Kirkuk, Mosul)

Note: Now do exercise (9) and question (37) in the Study Section that follows

the chapter.

41 Hurford, et al., 2007:53.

35

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following topics:

- Utterance: A stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which

there is silence on the part of that person.

- Utterances are physical events (ephemeral which soon die on the

wind).

- An utterance is basically spoken, but it can be written or recorded

for the purpose of analysis, description or study.

- Sentence: A string of words put together by the grammatical rules

of a language.

- Traditionally, it is defined as a grammatically complete string of

words expressing a complete thought.

- A sentence is basically written. It is not a physical event. Unlike

utterances, sentences are permanent (long-lived).

- Proposition: A declarative sentence which describes a state of

affairs.

- A proposition is a declarative sentence which is either true or false.

True propositions correspond to facts, but false propositions do not

correspond to facts.

- Sense: The relationships between elements or words inside the

language system.

- Reference: The relationship between a word or a phrase and an

entity in the external world (outside language).

36

There are two types of reference:

- Variable (changeable): Words like, I, you, she, John, this page, my

car are said to have variable reference since they are determined by

the context in which they are used.

- Constant (unique, unchangeable): Words in language which have

unique or constant reference, such as: the moon, the sun, the

north/south pole, London, Paris, Japan, etc.

- Referring Expression: A word that refers to somebody or

something with a particular referent in mind (of the speaker).

- Opaque Context: That part of a sentence which could be made into

a complete sentence by the addition of a referring expression.

- Equative Sentence: A sentence which is used to assert that the two

referring expressions have the same referent (refer to the same

person or thing).

- Predicator: A word which does not belong to any of the referring

expressions and carries the most specific information or meaning.

- The predicator describes the state or process in which the referring

expressions are involved: Daddy is hungry. (describes the state of hunger)

John loves Mary. (describes the process of love)

- Predicate: Any word which can function as the predicator of a

sentence.

- Degree of a Predicate: A number indicating the number of

arguments (referring expressions) in simple sentences.

This chapter has introduced some basic terms in semantics, such as

utterance, sentence, proposition, sense, reference, referring expression,

37

opaque context, equative sentence, predicator and predicate. The next chapter

will introduce some lexical relations among words of the language.

38

Study Section

Questions

1. Define an utterance. What may it consist of?

2. What is a sentence? How is it traditionally defined?

3. Do people always use well-formed sentences in conversations? What do

they actually use? Give examples.

4. Point out the differences between utterances and sentences.

5. Is semantics only concerned with complete sentences? Explain.

6. What should we begin our semantic analysis with? Why?

7. Define a proposition.

8. What does a speaker assert in uttering a declarative sentence?

9. What do true and false propositions correspond to? Provide examples.

10. Can different sentences express the same proposition? Give examples.

11. Is it possible for the same declarative sentence to express more than one

proposition? Provide examples.

12. Broadly speaking, what does the term ‘sense’ refer to?

13. More specifically, what does the term ‘sense’ refer to?

14. Can certain words in language have more than one sense (meaning)?

Give examples.

15. Are there words in different dialects and varieties with the same sense?

Give examples.

16. Define the term ‘reference’. Give examples.

17. Do all words in language have sense or reference? Explain with

examples.

18. Give examples to illustrate each of the following:

a. words with variable reference

b. words with constant or unique reference

c. two expressions with the same referent

19. What is a referring expression? Give examples.

20. How can the same indefinite NP be a referring expression in one sentence

and not in the other? Explain with examples.

21. How can the ambiguity of indefinite NPs be resolved (cleared up)?

39

Exemplify.

22. Whether a word is a referring expression or not depends on two factors.

What are they?

23. Can definite NPs be referring expressions or not? Explain with examples.

24. What is an opaque context? Exemplify.

25. What is meant by an equative sentence? Give examples.

26. A remarkable feature of equative sentences is the reversal test, but

sometimes it does not work. Explain with illustrative examples.

27. Write sentences to illustrate the following:

a. equative and reversible

b. reversible but not equative

c. equative but not reversible

28. Define a predicator. What does it describe? Give examples.

29. How can the predicator in a sentence be found? Exemplify.

30. What types of words can function as predicators in sentences, and what

words that cannot? Explain.

31. What semantic roles are revealed in the analysis of simple declarative

sentences? Give examples.

32. What is a predicate?

33. Make a clear distinction between a predicate and a predicator.

34. Define a predicate according to traditional grammar.

35. How is a predicator similar to the grammatical term ‘subjects’? Explain

with examples.

36. What do we mean by the degree of a predicate?

37. Write sentences to illustrate each of the following cases:

a. one-place predicate (noun)

b. two-place predicate (noun)

c. two-place predicate (verb)

d. three-place predicate (verb)

e. three-place predicate (preposition)

f. two-place predicate (preposition)

g. one-place predicate (adjective)

h. two-place predicate (adjective)

40

Exercises

Exercise 1: Tick with + or – as appropriate.42

utterance sentence proposition

1. can be loud or quiet

2. can be grammatical or not

3. can be true or false

4. can be in a particular accent

5. can be in a particular language

6. can be described as a physical event

Exercise 2: Indicate whether the following pairs of sentences express the

same (S) or different (D) propositions:

1. a. Suzan ate the apple.

b. The apple was eaten by Suzan.

2. a. The rat ate up the cheese.

b. The rat ate the cheese up.

3. a. The dog chased the cat.

b. The cat chased the dog.

4. a. This machine is easy to operate.

b. It is easy to operate this machine.

5. a. My mother cooked the food.

b. My mother had the food cooked.

6. a. John killed Nancy.

b. John caused Nancy to die.

Exercise 3: Say whether each of the italicized words shows sense or

reference.

1. If you look outside, you know who l mean.

2. Please tell me what 'fantastic' means.

3. Look up the meaning of this word in your dictionary.

4. To some people money means happiness.

5. When he was talking about true friends, he meant you.

6. The word 'smart' means 'intelligent'.

42 Adapted from Hurford, et al, 2007:23.

41

Exercise 4: Mark the words or phrases that indicate sense with (S) and those

that indicate reference with (R).

1. The Nile; my car; happiness; in order to; by the way; that book

2. because; when; tree; Africa; idea; the door

3. probably; university; above; the bird on the tree; problem

Exercise 5: Which of the underlined expressions has a constant reference

(CR), and which has a variable reference (VR)?

1. Japan is a big industrial country.

2. The president gave a speech yesterday.

3. Life is impossible on the moon.

4. My car is new.

5. You don’t know him.

6. Cairo is in Africa.

Exercise 6: Indicate whether the underlined words are referring expressions

or not. Answer with (Yes) or (No).

1. The book is on the table.

2. He gave me the book l asked for.

3. Suzy came to our party last night.

4. There is no Suzy on this list.

5. My parents are so kind to me.

6. Parents are kind to their children.

7. A student was in here looking for you.

8. A student is a person who is studying at a college or university.

9. She is a very polite young lady. (used in a conversation between two employees

about their company secretary)

10. If you annoy a girl, she will be angry and nervous.

Exercise: 7 Point out the predicator in the following sentences. The first one

has been done for you:

1. Mr. Smith is typing his wife’s speech. (type)

2. Paris is in Europe. (...................)

3. Erbil is between Kirkuk and Mosul. (...................)

4. The fish swims. (...................)

5. Einstein was a genius. (...................)

6. My friend’s car is red. (...................)

7. Mother has cooked the food. (...................)

42

8. My father is hungry. (...................)

9. This is a library. (...................)

10. His sister is a secretary. (...................)

Exercise 8: Point out the predicator and argument(s) in the following

sentences:

1. Tony is a car mechanic.

(predicator:.........../argument:........................)

2. John showed Cathy his new car.

(predicator:............/argument:.....................)

3. Ahmed is pleased with his success.

(predicator:.............../argument:...............)

4. My house is behind the hospital.

(predicator:................/argument:...................)

5. The classroom is dusty.

(predicator:................/argument:..................)

6. Chicago is between Los Angeles and New York.

(predicator:................/argument:...............)

Exercise 9: What degree are the predicates in the following sentences?

Underline the predicate, mention its type and point out the arguments.

Example: This food is smelly.

(smelly (adj.)/degree one predicate/argument: food)

1. Jimmy is an actor.

2. William married Suzan.

3. Baghdad is between Basra and Mosul.

4. Jane is Kim’s mother.

5. My father sold his car.

6. Ali gave his friend a book.

7. Peter is a fool.

8. This food is tasty.

9. Sara is jealous of Tara.

10. His office is behind the local cinema.

43

Chapter Three:

Lexical Relations

44

3 Lexical Relations

Starter

In this chapter we study the following lexical relations:

- Synonymy

- Paraphrase

- Antonymy

- Hyponymy

- Homonymy

- Polysemy

- Metonymy

- Meronymy

- Prototype

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below and answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the figure?

2. What definition is given in the figure?

3. What types of lexical relations are the three examples in the figure?

Figure: 3.1

45

Lexical Relations

Lexical relations are relations between words which constitute a

general pattern. The meaning of some words in language can be explained in

terms of their relationships to other words. For example, when we are asked

about the meaning of perform, we might answer by giving a word of similar

meaning (synonymy): do. If one asks us about the meaning of light, we

probably think of its opposite meaning (antonymy) as heavy or dark. If we

are asked about the meaning of daffodils, we directly say: a kind of flower

(hyponymy).

This approach, which is adopted in the semantic description of

language, is used for the analysis of a variety of lexical relations between

words such as synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, homonymy, polysemy,

metonymy, meronymy, metaphor, ambiguity, etc.

Hint: 2

Watch video 3.1, and answer these questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. What is a synonym?

3. Give some examples of synonyms on the video.

4. What is an antonym?

5. Give some examples of antonyms on the video.

6. What grammatical mistake is made on the video?

7. Do the exercise on the video.

Synonymy

Synonymy is a lexical relationship in which two or more words have

the same, or nearly the same meaning. Synonyms are words with the same or

nearly the same meaning.

46

Synonyms cannot often be substituted for each other in all contexts or

circumstances. In some contexts, it is possible to say:

1. He bought a new car/automobile.

2. That house is large/big.

The underlined words in sentence (1) (car/automobile) are considered as

perfect or absolute synonyms because they can be substituted without any

change in meaning.43 The same thing can be said about the underlined words

(large/big) in sentence (2).

But this is not the case in all contexts. First, because perfect

synonymy is rare in language, and secondly because words which seem to be

synonymous in one context may not be so in another. Take, for example the

words reply and answer. Although the two can be replaceable without change

in meaning in sentences like: What was her answer? / What was her reply?,

they cannot replace each other in other sentences. While, it is suitable to say:

She had only one answer correct in the exam, it would be odd (strange) to

say: She had only one reply correct in the exam.

This restriction seems to be related to the combinatory nature of

words (collocation), in that the word correct does not collocate (go) with

reply, it only collocates with answer.44 Another example of this type of

restriction is the two words hard and difficult which are considered as

absolute synonyms in the sentence: It is a hard/difficult question. But not in a

sentence like: I want the money in hard currency. Here difficult cannot be

43 Arnoff, 2003: 249.

44 It is acceptable, in good English, to say correct answer, but not correct reply.

47

used instead of hard simply because, in good English, difficult does not

collocate with currency.

Other common examples of synonyms are: almost/nearly,

buy/purchase, conceal/hide, profound/deep, liberty/freedom, wide/broad,

fall/autumn, cab/taxi, sidewalk/pavement, sofa/couch, etc. But the choice of

one instead of the other depends on many factors, such as variety, style,

register or collocation. The use of cab or taxi, sidewalk or pavement,

apartment or flat, for example, is related to variety (AmE vs. BrE

respectively). Similarly, one of the synonymous words is preferable in one

style, but not in another. The words purchase, father, commence, children,

conclude are common in formal style for buy, dad, begin, kids, end which are

very common in informal style. Similarly, the term rubella used in medical

register is generally referred to as German measles by the majority of English

speakers45.

Note: For more practice on synonymy, do exercise (1) in the Study Section.

Paraphrase

Generally speaking, a paraphrase is a restatement of speech or

writing that retains the basic meaning while changing the words. A

paraphrase often clarifies the original statement by putting it into words that

are more easily understood. For example, unwillingness to do something is a

paraphrase of the noun reluctance, and to make somebody/something look or

feel younger or livelier is a paraphrase of the verb rejuvenate.

45 Aitchison, 2003:80.

48

Semantically speaking, a sentence which expresses the same

proposition as another is a paraphrase of that sentence46. Thus, two sentences

which express the same proposition (describe the same state of affairs) are

said to be a paraphrase of each other. For example, Bachelors prefer red-

haired girls, is a paraphrase of Girls with red hair are preferred by

bachelors.

Note: For more practice, do exercise (2) in the Study Section.

Antonymy

Antonymy refers to the lexical relationship of having words of

opposite meaning. Two words of opposite meaning are called antonyms.

Common examples of antonyms are: small/big, old/new-young, fast/slow,

married/single, male/female, dead/alive, rich/poor, etc.

Antonyms are of three main types: gradable, non-gradable and

converse. Gradable antonyms are opposites which can be measured in terms

of a scale or degree, e.g., small/big, old/young, hot/cold, rich/poor, fast/slow.

These antonyms display (show) two characteristics:

1. They can be used comparatively:

This house is smaller/bigger than ours.

His father is older/younger than mine.

This room is colder/hotter than that.

2. The negative of one in the pair does not imply the other. For example, ‘My

car is not new’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘My car is old’. Similarly, ‘He is not

poor’ doesn’t mean that ‘He is rich’.

46 Hurford, et al., 2007: 108.

49

On the contrary, non-gradable antonyms are not used in the

comparative. We cannot say: This man is more dead than that or: She is more

married than her sister. Another characteristic is that the negative of one

member in the pair does imply the other: My brother is not married implies

that my brother is single. Similarly, when we say His mother is not alive, this

implies that His mother is dead. Antonyms of this type are also called

complementary pairs or binary antonyms47.

Converse antonyms are two-way contrast that is interdependent in

that the existence of one member presupposes the existence of the other48.

Examples of such type are: buy/sell, give/take, parent/child, send/receive,

win/lose, east/west 49, etc. When I say, for example, I bought a car, it means

that someone sold it to me. Similarly, if I give you the pen, it is the case that

you take it.

Note: Do exercise (3) in the Study Section.

Hyponymy

Hyponymy is a lexical relationship in which the meaning of one

word is included in the meaning of another. Words of this type are called

hyponyms. Examples of hyponyms are the pairs: animal/dog, vegetable/

cucumber, flower/rose, vehicle/bus, etc. Thus, dog is a hyponym of animal,

cucumber is a hyponym of vegetable, rose is a hyponym of flower and so on.

If we take the words bus, car, lorry, van whose meaning is included

in the meaning of a more general word to which they belong (vehicle), then

we can describe the general word at the top (at a higher level) as

47 Yule, 2010:118 and Hurford et al, 2007:123.

48 Crystal, 2007:196.

49 Ingo, et al, 2009.

50

superordinate, and the words underneath (that share the same superordinate)

as co-hyponyms50. Look at figure 3.2 below:

Superordinate vehicle

Co-hyponyms bus car lorry van

Figure: 3.2

The relation of hyponymy can be considered as ‘a kind of’. Thus, we

can say that bus is a kind of vehicle, and rose is a kind of flower and so on.

Hint: 3

Watch video 3.2, and answer the following questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. What definition is given for homophones?

3. Mention examples (on the video) of homophones. What does each one mean?

4. What are homonyms?

5. Mention examples (on the video) of homonyms. What does each one mean?

6. What are polysemes?

7. Mention examples (on the video) of polysemes. What does each one mean?

8. Do the definitions on the video match the ones in your textbook?

9. Do the task on the video.

Homonyms and Homophones

Homonyms are words of the same spelling and pronunciation, but

have different (unrelated) meanings. Consider the following examples:

bank 1. They were walking along the river bank. (side of a river)

2. He saves his money in the bank. (financial institution)

pupil 1. Pupils should respect their teachers. (at school)

50 Yule, 2010:119.

51

2. The small round black area in the centre of the eye is called pupil. (in the eye)

lie 1. You seem tired. Go and lie in bed. (sleep in bed)

2. Tell the truth. Don’t lie to me. (say untrue things)

Homophones are words with the same pronunciation, but with

different spelling and meaning. Consider the following examples: no/know,

right/write, to/too/two, meat/meet, sea/see, etc.

Polysemy

Polysemy is the case of having one word with multiple and related

meanings. Polysemous words usually have something in common in that they

share the same semantic concept (as shown in the examples below). A major

distinction between homonymy and polysemy is that with the former we talk

about unrelated meaning, while with the latter we talk about related meaning.

Good examples of polysemy are head, foot and mouth:

foot 1. He hurt his foot. (lower part of body)

2. He stood at the foot of the stairs. (lower part of stairs)

[Both have the concept of being the lower part]

head 1. She nodded her head. (upper part of the body)

2. That man is the head of the department. (a person in charge of a

group of people; teachers and students)

3. This is the head of the river. (place where a river begins)

[The three share the concept of something high or higher position]

mouth 1. He opened his mouth to say something. (an opening in the face used for

speaking, eating, etc.)

2. Two ships were near the mouth of the river. (a place where the

river joins the sea)

3. A fox entered the mouth of the cave. (an entrance or opening)

[The three share the concept of an opening from the inside to

the outside, and at the end of some long narrow channel]

Note: Do exercise (4) in the Study Section.

52

Metonymy

Metonymy is the act of referring to something by the name of

something else that is closely connected with it (a representative-symbol

relationship)51. Simply, it is the use of one name for the name of something

else with which it is associated52, e.g., crown/monarch for king/queen, the

White house for US president, 10 Downing Street for UK prime minister. In

metonymy, the connection can also be extended to include a whole-part

relation, e.g., Australia lost by two goals, where Australia as a country

(whole) is used to refer to a football team (part).

Meronymy

Meronymy is "a term used to describe a part-whole relationship

between lexical items"53. Members of this lexical relation are known as

meronyms. For example, cover and page are meronyms of book, and wheel,

engine, oil pump, brake, battery are meronyms of car.

Closely related to meronymy is synecdoche. It is a word or a phrase

in which a part is used to represent a whole, e.g., hand (part of a body) in

Tennyson’s In Memoriam refers to his friend (as a whole): A hand that can

be clasped no more.

Prototype

A prototype is a typical example of a category or a group. It is a

typical member of a category54. The concept of prototype helps explain the

51 ibid,121.

52 Cowie, 2009: 33.

53 Saeed, 2009: 70.

54 ibid, 37.

53

meaning of certain words by putting them into categories in which members

of the same category are described in terms of one typical example55.

If we take the word bird as a main category, then we can include the

words: canary, dove, duck, pelican and robin. According to many linguists

the word robin is considered a prototype of this group. Other examples of

prototypes include: chair for the category label furniture which includes

table, chair, bench, stool, cupboard, sofa, etc. Carrot is a prototype of the

category vegetable which includes cucumber, carrot, okra, potato, tomato,

etc.

Note: For more practice, do exercise (5) in the Study Section.

55 Aitchison, 2010:115; Richards, et al, 1993:298.

54

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following topics:

- Lexical Relations: Relations of meaning between words which

constitute a general pattern.

- Synonymy: A relationship in which two or more words have the

same, or nearly the same meaning.

- Synonyms: Words with the same or nearly the same meaning, e.g.,

car/automobile, large/big.

- Paraphrase: A restatement of speech or writing that retains the

basic meaning while changing the words, e.g., unwillingness to do

something is a paraphrase of the noun reluctance.

- Antonymy: The relationship of having words of opposite meaning.

- Antonyms: Two words of opposite meaning. They are of three

kinds:

- Gradable: Opposites which can be measured in terms of a scale or

degree, e.g., small/big.

- Non-Gradable: Opposites which are not used in the comparative.

The negative of one member in the pair does imply the other, e.g.,

dead/alive, male/female.

- Converse: Two-way contrast that is interdependent in that the

existence of one member presupposes the existence of the other,

e.g., buy/sell, give/take.

- Hyponymy: The meaning of one word is included in the meaning of

55

another. Words of this type are called hyponyms , e.g., vehicle/bus,

animal/dog.

- Homonyms: Words of the same spelling and pronunciation but have

different (unrelated) meanings, e.g., bank (side of a river) and

(financial institution).

- Homophones: Words with the same pronunciation, but with

different spelling and meaning, e.g., no/know.

- Polysemy: The case of having one word with multiple and related

meanings, e.g., foot:

1. He hurt his foot. (lower part of body)

2. He stood at the foot of the stairs. (lower part of stairs)

- Metonymy: The act of referring to something by the name of

something else that is closely connected with it, e.g., the White

house for US president.

- Meronymy: A term used to describe a part-whole relationship

between lexical items, e.g., cover and page are meronyms of book.

- Prototype: A typical example of a category or a group, e.g., carrot

is a prototype of the category vegetable which includes cucumber,

carrot, okra, potato, tomato, etc.

In this chapter many lexical relations have been discussed. The next

chapter will present a variety of semantic concepts (ambiguity, metaphor,

irony, sarcasm) semantic roles, semantic features, and the role they play in

language particularly in word and sentence meaning.

56

Study Section

Questions

1. How can the meaning of some words in language be explained? Give

examples.

2. What is synonymy? Are there perfect or absolute synonyms? Give

examples.

3. Can synonymous words be substituted for each other in all contexts?

Explain.

4. Words which seem to be synonymous in one context may not be so in

another. Explain with examples.

5. How does collocational restriction affect the use of synonyms? Explain

with examples.

6. What other factors affect the choice of synonyms? Explain.

7. What is meant by paraphrase, both generally speaking and semantically

speaking?

8. Define antonymy. What types is it? Explain with examples.

9. What is the difference between homonyms and homophones? Exemplify.

10. Define hyponymy. Show, through examples, the relationship between

different hyponyms.

11. Point out the major distinction between homonymy and polysemy.

Exemplify.

12. What is the difference between metonymy and meronymy? Provide

examples.

13. What is closely related to meronymy? Give examples.

14. Define prototype. Give examples.

Exercises

Exercise 1: Are the underlined words synonymous with each other? Answer

with (Yes) or (No).

1. The criminal tried to conceal/hide the evidence. ( )

2. I’m going to purchase/buy a new car. ( )

57

3. These apples are ripe/large. ( )

4. This is a very clear/easy definition. ( )

5. It is a very wide/broad street. ( )

6. This river is very deep/shallow. ( )

Exercise 2: Are the following pairs of sentences paraphrases of each other?

Answer with (Yes) or (No).

1. a. John sold the house to Mr Paterson.

b. Mr Paterson bought the house from John. ( )

2. a. David is the father of Tom.

b. Tom is the son of David. ( )

3. a. James is the child of Peter.

b. Peter is the child of James. ( )

4. a. The book was under the table.

b. The table was under the book. ( )

5. a. Some people are not friendly.

b. Not all people are friendly. ( )

6. a. Fred sent Mary an email.

b. Fred sent Mary a present. ( )

7. a. Fred sent Mary a present.

b. Fred sent a present to Mary. ( )

8. a. Jerry ate up the sandwich.

b. Jerry ate the sandwich up. ( )

9. a. The bus ran down the dog.

b. The bus ran the dog down. ( )

10. a. The boy went down the street.

b. The boy went the street down. ( )

Exercise 3: Classify the following antonyms into gradable (G), nongradable

NG) or converse (C).

1. easy-difficult 2. dead-alive 3. tall-short

4. good-bad 5. parent-child 6.send-receive

7. love-hate 8. married-single 9. male-female

10. small-big 11. present-absent 12. borrow-lend

Exercise 4: Which of the following is an example of homonymy (H),

homophone (HO) hyponymy (HY) or polysemy (P)?

1. see-sea-c 2. tail: of a cat/of a coat

3. two-to-too 4. animal-cow

58

5. bachelor: unmarried man/university graduate

6. head: higher part of a body-higher position

7. branch-tree

8. lie: not tell the truth/be in a resting position

Exercise 5: Indicate whether each of the following is an example of

meronymy, metonymy or prototype.

1. chair: bench, stool, cupboard, sofa

2. The white House

3. Buckingham Palace

4. England won by two goals-nil

5. The crown

6. 10 Downing Street

7. car: tyre, bonnet, oil pump

8. robin: canary, dove, duck, pelican

59

Chapter Four:

Semantic Concepts

60

4 Semantic Concepts

Starter

In this chapter we deal with the following semantic concepts:

- Ambiguity/Anomaly

- Metaphor

- Pun

- Irony/Sarcasm

- Semantic Roles

- Semantic Features

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below and answer these questions:

1. What is the figure about?

2. What titles in the figure are found in the Starter?

3. Depending on the information in your textbook, name the three semantic roles in

the sentence: I opened the door with the key.

Figure: 4.1

61

This chapter presents some concepts related to the relations between

words existing in language, and the role they play in word and sentence

meaning. These include a variety of issues, such as ambiguity, metaphor,

pun, semantic roles and semantic features.

Hint: 2

Now watch video 4.1, and answer the following questions:

1. What is the content of the video about?

2. How does the speaker define ambiguity?

3. How many types of ambiguity are there?

4. When does lexical ambiguity occur? Mention the example given on the video.

5. When does syntactic ambiguity occur? Mention the example given on the video.

6. What is meant by vagueness?

Ambiguity

Ambiguity is the state of having more than one possible meaning or

interpretation. It is “the use of a single word or expression to signify two or

more distinct references or to express two or more diverse attitudes or

feelings”56. Generally, there are two main types of ambiguity: lexical

(semantic) and syntactic (grammatical). Lexical ambiguity occurs when a

word has several meanings. This kind of ambiguity is related to the

polysemous relations of words (related meaning)57, e.g., foot (lower part of

body/lower part of stairs), head (upper part of the body/a person in charge of

a group of people; teachers and students/a place where a river begins), face

(human face, face of a clock, cliff face). Ambiguity can also be the result of

homonymy (unrelated meaning), e.g., bank (financial institution/river side),

bachelor (unmarried man/first university degree holder). Spoken language

56 Abrams & Harpham, 2009, 12.

57 See Mansoor, 2014: 97.

62

can provide examples of ambiguities, where there is phonological

resemblance between utterances, for example, ice cream and I scream

/aɪskri:m/. Such ambiguity is generally resolved according to the context (I

like ice cream even in winter).

As for syntactic (grammatical) ambiguity, it occurs when a

sentence can have two (or more) different meanings because of its syntactic

structure. For example, He ate the cookies on the couch, could mean that 'he

ate the cookies that were on the couch (not those on the table)', or it could

mean that 'he was sitting on the couch when he ate the cookies'. Another

example is: The lamb is too hot to eat. At the sentence level, such ambiguity

can be resolved by depending on a surrounding context which indicates

which meaning is exactly intended58. The previous sentence is ambiguous;

which is hot, is it the lamb (young sheep) or the lamb as cooked food? By

depending on the surrounding context, the ambiguity of the sentence can be

cleared up:

The lamb is too hot to eat. (Don’t eat now. Wait for a couple of minutes).

Or: The lamb (as an animal) is so hot that it cannot eat anything.

A distinction is to be made between ambiguity and anomaly.

Ambiguity, as mentioned earlier, refers to the state of having more than

possible interpretation. Generally speaking, anomaly refers to a situation that

is different from what is normal or expected. Semantically speaking,

anomaly is a term used to refer to strange or unusual meaning that violates

semantic rules59. There is often some sort of overlap between ambiguity and

58 Richards, et al, 1993:15.

59 Hurford et al, 2007:209.

63

anomaly. A typical example of this case is found in the advertisement: Turn

your car into a cat. It is incredible and impossible to turn a car into a cat.

Does the advertisement really mean such a thing? Surely, it doesn't. The

anomaly and ambiguity lie in the surface meaning of the word cat. But after

some consideration of this word which is an abbreviation for Catalyst (a new

brand fuel) all the ambiguity and anomaly will be resolved in that the ad

promotes and encourages drivers to start trying this new fuel for their cars60.

Other examples of anomaly are: my car is a lemon, Sam is a mule, that

woman is a snake, my brother is an only child, etc.

Note: Do exercise (1) in the Study Section.

Metaphor

A metaphor is “a word or a phrase used to describe somebody or

something, in a way that is different from normal use, in order to show that

the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more

powerful”61. It is an imaginative use of language in which there is an indirect

comparison between two different objects that share something in common

(without using the words 'like' or 'as' as is the case with simile). For example,

She has a heart of stone, is a metaphorical expression for a woman who is

exceptionally unkind, severe and with no tender feelings, and thus, she

resembles a stone rather than a human being.

A metaphor is used to describe something by stating another thing

with which it can be compared, e.g., Her words stabbed at his heart, the

words did not actually stab, but their effect (pain and intensity) is compared

60 Mansoor, 2013:233-234.

61 OALD, 2006.

64

to the stabbing of a knife. Other common examples of metaphor include: he

is a lion/a mule (to compare-respectively-his bravery to that of a lion, or his

obstinacy and strength to that of a mule).

One of the most prominent examples of a metaphor in English

literature is All the world’s a stage monologue from As You Like It:

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

(William Shakespeare)

This quote (quotation) is a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage.

By figuratively asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses the

points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an

understanding about the mechanics of the world and the lives of the people

within it62.

A conceptual metaphor can be described as a comparison that shows

how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in another

important way. In this respect, a metaphor is simply understanding and

experiencing one thing in terms of another. Two examples of conceptual

metaphors used in everyday situations are: argument is war (in the sense that

the two actions involve the use of available means (as weapons), such as

manoeuvre, strategy conflict, attacking the opponent, defending one’s

standing) and time is money (in the sense that each one is as important as the

other; money is wasted when a person’s time is not used productively; time is

valuable and should not be wasted unproductively)63.

Note: Do exercise (2) in the Study Section.

62 en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Metaphor.

63 Lakoff, & Johnson, 1980, 3-13.

65

Pun

Pun is simply defined as the clever or humorous use of a word that

has more than one meaning, or words that have different meanings but sound

similar64. Pun refers to the humorous use of a word that has two meanings;

one is explicit, the other is implicit (in which the pun lies). It is a kind of

figurative or rhetorical use of language which involves clever play on words

with the multiple meanings of an expression, or two expressions that sound

similar. A deliberate use of pun aims at impressing the hearers or readers and

giving an aesthetic touch to the language and style. Puns which are used to

create humour have long been used by comedy writers, such as William

Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and George Carlin65.

The homophonic pun, a common type mainly in speaking, uses word

pairs which sound alike (homophones) but are not synonymous. For example,

the joke question: Why do we still have troops in Germany? Answer: To keep

the Russians in Czech relies on the aural ambiguity of the homophones check

(under control) and Czech (country in Europe) since both are pronounced as

/tʃek/66.

Punning is a common strategy used in newspapers. Many newspaper

headlines in English attract readers’ attention by the use of pun or playing on

words in an entertaining way. Pun, as mentioned earlier, refers to the

humorous use of a word that has two meanings; one is explicit, the other is

implicit (in which the pun lies). A good example is in the headline: Short

Sharp Lecture in Karate, where there is pun in the word lecture which

64 Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009 and Dictionary.com. 2009.

65 Fontaine, 2010.

66 wikipedia.org/wiki/Pun

66

generally means a lesson given by a teacher or instructor (explicit meaning).

The pun lies in the implicit meaning of the word which means a good

beating. Another example is the use of the headline Ruffled feathers to

describe an incident where a wife was angry with her husband for allowing a

Russian eagle to sleep in their bedroom. We use the idiom to smooth

someone's ruffled feathers, meaning to pacify someone after an argument. It

is suitable to use it here as the story is about a bird although, of course, it was

the woman's feathers which were ruffled67.

Hint: 3

Watch video 4.2, and then answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the video?

2. What is meant by verbal irony?

3. Does this definition exactly match the information in your textbook?

4. What is meant by sarcasm?

5. Compare the definition of sarcasm on the video to the one in your textbook.

Are the two similar or different?

6. Give examples (from the video) of verbal irony and sarcasm.

7. What are some common uses of verbal irony?

8. What two examples are given from literature to illustrate irony?

Irony and Sarcasm

The term irony is defined as "the use of words that say the opposite

of what you really mean, often as a joke and with a tone of voice that shows

this"68.

Verbal irony is a statement in which the meaning that the speaker

implies differs sharply from the meaning that is apparently or seemingly

67 McCarthy and O'Dell 2003 cited in Mansoor, 2013: 198.

68 OALD, 2006: 789.

67

expressed69. It is a case in which one meaning is stated and a different,

usually a contradictory or opposite, meaning is intended. The irony of a

statement often depends on context. If one looks out of his window at a rain

storm and remarks to a friend, Wonderful day, isn’t it? the contradiction

between the facts and the implied description of them establishes the irony.70

Other examples of irony are those intentionally produced by speakers to

indicate contradictory situations to what is being verbally expressed. For

example, a man may claim I’m not upset/tired/angry, but reveals an

emotional or physical state (through his voice and facial expressions) that he

is actually upset, tired or angry.

Ironic similes are a form of verbal irony where a speaker intends to

communicate the opposite of what he/she means. For instance, the following

explicit similes begin with the deceptive formation of a statement that means

the opposite of what is conveyed: as soft as concrete, as clear as mud, as

pleasant as a root canal. The irony in these examples is recognizable in each

case only by using knowledge of the source concepts, e.g., that concrete is

hard, that mud is opaque/not clear at all, that root canal (the space inside the

root of a tooth) surgery is painful71.

A typical example of historical irony is found in John F. Kennedy's

last conversation with Mrs Connolly. During the motorcade in Dallas, in

response to Mrs Connolly's comment, Mr President, you can't say that Dallas

doesn't love you, Kennedy replied: That's very obvious. Immediately after, he

was attacked and fatally shot by a sniper (gunman) at 12: 30 p.m., and soon

69 Abrams, 2009: 165.

70 Preminger, et al. 1993, 633–635.

71 https://books.google.iq/books?isbn.

68

died after 30 minutes72.

A distinction should be made between irony and sarcasm. While irony

is a remark that says one thing but another thing is intended, sarcasm is a

remark or an insult made with the intent to mock or hurt somebody. It is a

sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark73. It is a type of aggressive

humour that says unkind things about somebody to make people laugh at

him/her74. Very common examples of sarcasm occur when the speaker

mockingly describes somebody or something in a way that is intended to

degrade or insult rather than approve or praise, e.g., What a genius you are!

(said to someone who is unintelligent or slow on the uptake), What a clever

remark it was of you!/Good idea! (mockingly said to mean the opposite:

What a silly remark/idea!). Now compare the following situations:

1. Bill and Alice have just seen a really appalling (extremely bad) play. Both

Bill and Alice are disappointed:

Bill: Well! What a worthwhile use of an evening!

Alice: Yeah.

2. Alice hates Bill’s travel books.

Alice: Yeah, I like, really dig your travel books, Bill.

You're a really skillful author.

Bill: Oh.

72 President Kennedy was shot at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza,

Dallas, Texas, while travelling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally,

and Connally's wife Nellie. He was immediately taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital just

a few minutes away. But little could be done for the President, and soon he was announced

dead at 1:00 p.m.(Wikipedia.org/wiki/assassination_ of_F._ Kennedy).

73 Boxer, 2002:100.

74 Martin, 2007, 13.

69

In (1) there is no sarcasm because Bill was not intending to wound

Alice with his comment. He was using irony to remark that they both had

wasted their evening at the theatre for nothing. In (2) there is sarcasm

because Alice used it to show Bill that she didn't like his books and thought

that he sucked (became bad) as a writer. The tone of the delivery and the

intention makes it sarcastic. She was being nasty (offensively unkind)75.

Note: For more practice, do exercises (3 and 5) in the Study Section.

Semantic Roles

The term semantic roles or thematic relations refers to the role that

a noun phrase plays with respect to the action or state described by a sentence

verb. Nouns accompanying (going with) verbs fulfil different semantic roles

or thematic relations. Nouns describe roles and verbs describe actions. There

are many semantic roles in language, some of which are76:

1. Agent: It is a noun that initiates or performs an action (the doer of an

action). Notice the underlined nouns:

The boy ate the sandwich.

Susan ate an apple.

The cat ate the fish.

2. Patient: It is a noun that receives an action; upon which the action is

carried out. Notice the underlined nouns:

The dog chewed the bone.

The boy ate the cake.

3. Recipient: It is a noun that receives something:

75 http://everything2.com

76 Aitchison, 2003, and wikipedia.org/ Thematic_relation

70

John sent a letter to Sam. (Sam received a letter)

4. Goal: It is a noun that is aimed at. It is also known as direction; where the

action is directed towards. Look at the underlined nouns:

The player kicked the ball into the net.

He jumped into the river.

He walked to school.

5. Instrument: It is a noun (usually a thing) by means of which the action is

carried out. See the underlined nouns:

He dug the hole with a spade.

He opened the door with a key.

6. Location: It refers to the place where the action occurs:

Johnny and Linda played carelessly in the park.

I'll be at Julie's house studying for my test.

7. Manner: It refers to the way in which an action is carried out (how it is

done):

He did the job with much care.

She passed the exam easily.

8. Purpose: It refers to the reason for which an action is performed:

Suzy phoned the police to get some help.

He studied hard to pass.

9. Time: It refers to when the action occurs:

The rocket was launched yesterday.

They travelled to London two months ago.

10. Source/Origin: It refers to where the action originated.

The rocket was launched from a ship.

She walked away from the library.

Note: For more practice, do exercise (6) in the Study Section.

71

Semantic Features

By semantic features, we mean a set of defining qualities or

properties that can be used to describe and analyse the meaning of words.

The word man can be described as having the semantic features of: adult,

human and male. Other semantic features are animate, female, bovine (of the

cow family: bull, calf), porcine (of the pig family: boar, sow, piglet), equine

(of the horse family: mare, stallion), feline (of the cat family: tom-cat,

tiger/tigress, lion/lioness), etc. The presence of a certain feature is indicated

by using plus (+) and its absence is indicated by minus (-). Study the

semantic features of the words: table, horse, boy, man, girl and woman77:

Semantic Feature table horse boy man girl woman

animate - + + + + +

human - - + + + +

female - - - - + +

adult - + - + - +

Figure: 4.2

Note: For more practice, do exercise (7) in the Study Section.

77 Yule, 2010:114.

72

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following topics:

- Ambiguity: The state of having more than one possible meaning or

interpretation. There are two main types of ambiguity: lexical and

syntactic.

- Lexical ambiguity occurs when a word has several meanings. This

kind of ambiguity is related to the polysemous relations of words,

e.g., foot (lower part of body/lower part of stairs).

- Syntactic ambiguity arises when a sentence can have two (or more)

different meanings because of the structure of the sentence (syntax),

e.g., The lamb is too hot to eat. Is it the lamb (young sheep)? or the

lamb as cooked food?

- Anomaly: Strange or unusual meaning that violates semantic rules,

e.g., Sam is a mule/that woman is a snake.

- Metaphor: An imaginative use of language in which there is

indirect comparison between two different objects that share

something in common, e.g., He is a lion/All the world's a stage.

- Conceptual metaphor: A comparison that shows how two things

that are not alike in most ways are similar in another important way,

e.g., argument is war.

- Pun: A clever or humorous use of a word that has more than one

meaning, e.g., Short Sharp Lecture in Karate.

- Irony: The use of words that say the opposite of what you really

mean, often as a joke and with a tone of voice that shows this, e.g.,

as soft as concrete, as clear as mud.

73

- Sarcasm: A remark or an insult made with the intent to mock or

hurt somebody, e.g., what a genius you are! (said to someone who is

unintelligent or slow on the uptake).

- Semantic roles: The role that a noun phrase plays with respect to

the action or state described by a sentence verb, such as:

- Agent: A noun that initiates or performs an action (the doer of an

action), e.g., Susan ate an apple.

- Patient: A noun that receives an action; upon which the action is

carried out, e.g., The boy ate the cake.

- Recipient: A noun that receives something, e.g., John sent a letter

to Sami.

- Goal: A noun that is aimed at, e.g., He jumped into the river.

- Instrument: A noun by means of which the action is carried out,

e.g., He opened the door with a key.

- Location: The place where the action occurs, e.g., They played in

the park.

- Manner: The way in which an action is carried out (how it is done),

e.g., He did the job with much care.

- Purpose: The reason for which an action is performed, e.g., Suzy

phoned the police to get some help.

- Time: When the action occurs, e.g., The rocket was launched

yesterday.

- Source/Origin: Where the action originated, e.g., She walked away

from the library.

- Semantic Features: A set of defining qualities or properties

(indicated by using (+) or (-) that can be used to describe the

74

presence or absence of a particular feature and analyse the meaning

of words.

This chapter has dealt with meaning from different perspectives by

referring to many issues, such as semantic concepts, semantic roles and

semantic features. The next chapter will deal with multi-word chunks and the

role they play in the study of meaning.

75

Study Section

Questions

1. Define ambiguity. How can it be cleared up? Give examples.

2. What is meant by lexical ambiguity? Exemplify.

3. What is meant by syntactic ambiguity? Exemplify.

4. What is meant by anomaly? How is it overlapped with ambiguity?

5. Define metaphor. How is it different from simile? Exemplify.

6. How is conceptual metaphor commonly used in everyday life?

7. Elaborate on the conceptual metaphor: argument is war.

8. Define pun. What does deliberate use of pun aim at?

9. What is homophonic pun? Give examples.

10. Many English newspapers use a lot of pun. Why do they do so?

Exemplify.

11. Make a clear distinction between irony and sarcasm. Elaborate with

examples.

12. Cite Boxer's definition of sarcasm.

13. Cite Martin's definition of sarcasm.

14. What is meant by verbal irony? Exemplify.

15. What is meant by ironic simile? Exemplify.

16. Give an example of historical irony.

17. What does the term ‘thematic relations’ mean?

18. What is the difference between agent and patient? Exemplify.

19. What is the difference between recipient and patient? Exemplify.

20. What is the difference between location and instrument? Exemplify.

21. What is the difference between time and manner? Exemplify.

22. What do we mean by semantic features? How can they be used to

describe the meaning of words? Give examples.

23. Assign semantic features to these words: mare, sow, tigress, tom-cat,

stallion, calf, piglet.

76

Exercises

Exercise 1: Point out the ambiguity and anomaly in the following sentences:

1. The chicken is ready to eat.

2. Visiting aunts can be boring.

3. My husband will be a bachelor next month.

4. Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

5. Jane waited by the bank.

6. The English history teacher is clever.

7. The boy saw the man with a telescope.

8. Walls have ears.

9. She sliced the idea.

10. Jack’s courage chewed the bone.

11. My car is a lemon.

12. My brother is an only child.

Exercise 2: Point out and explain the metaphors and puns in the following

sentences:

1. He could eat a horse.

2. She is an angel.

3. You recede. We reseed.

4. That bachelor is pregnant.

5. Dr John is a butcher.

6. Life is a journey.

7. Time is money.

8. The fellows died/dyed (their hair).

9. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to hospital.

When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said,

‘No change yet.’

10. Do hotel managers get bored/board with their jobs?

Exercise 3: Point out the irony and sarcasm and explain what they exactly

mean in these sentences.

1. How beautiful you look in this dress, darling!” (said when the dress actually

looks horrible)

2. Someone stained your new dress. You say: Great!

3. You are more than beautiful! (said to an unattractive woman)

4. The name of Britain’s biggest dog (until it died recently) was Tiny?

77

5. That's just what we need!

(When something happens that you don’t want or need.)

6. Make yourself at home! Clean my kitchen.

7. I’m trying to imagine you with a personality.

8. And which dwarf are you?

Exercise 4: The English Newspaper The Guardian is particularly fond of

playing with words in its headlines. See if you can find some examples at its

website: www.gurdian.co.uk.

Exercise 5: Read the following conversation between wife and husband, then

pick out the irony you find. Explain the situation.78

Husband: When I go away next week, I’m taking the car.

Wife: Oh, are you? I need the car to take the kids to school.

Husband: I’m sorry, but I must have it. You’ll have to send them on the bus.

Wife: That’ll be nice for the family.

Husband: Nice day.

Exercise 6: Assign semantic features to: horse, cow, boar, calf, bull, cat by

using the sign + or - (to indicate the presence or absence of the designated

semantic features) in the following table:

Semantic Feature horse cow boar calf bull cat

porcine

bovine

equine

feline

adult

male

female

Exercise 7: Name the type of thematic relations (semantic roles) displayed

by the underlined words.

1. The boy ate the sandwich with relish.

2. Messi kicked the ball into the goal.

78 Quoted from Hurford, eta al, 2007: 5.

78

3. The spaceship was sent to the moon.

4. The satellite was launched last year.

5. Jane received many presents from her friends.

6. The children walked to the school.

7. We had a nice party at the club.

8. He ran away from the prison.

79

Chapter Five:

Multi-Word Chunks

and Meaning

80

5 Multi-Word Chunks and Meaning

Starter

In this chapter we study the following topics:

- Collocations

- Idioms

- Phrasal Verbs

- Proverbs

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below and answer these questions:

1. What type of multi-word chunks do you find in the figure?

2. What type are the collocations in the figure (lexical or grammatical)?

3. Identify the headword and the collocates (words that go with it) in the first group.

4. Cite some wrong collocations in the second group (that don’t collocate), and

compare them to the correct ones in the first group.

Figure: 5.1

In addition to words, that represent the core of meaning, language

also consists of a number of multi-word chunks that play a vital role in the

81

study of meaning79. The term multi-word chunks is used broadly to refer to

vocabulary items consisting of a sequence of two or more words which

“semantically and/or syntactically form a meaningful and inseparable unit”80.

What characterizes these chunks is that they are used and learnt as a whole

(indivisible units or parts). In this chapter multi-word chunks are introduced

as other carriers of meaning. These include: collocation, idioms, phrasal

verbs and proverbs.

Hint: 2

Watch video 5.1, and answer these questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. What is a collocation?

3. Is learning collocations essential? Why?

4. What examples of collocations are given on the video?

5. Cite at least three collocations with big.

6. Cite at least three collocations with great.

7. Cite at least three collocations with large.

8. Cite at least three collocations with strong.

9. Cite at least three collocations with deep.

10. Cite at least three collocations with heavy.

Collocations

Collocation is an important aspect of lexical relationships between

words. It can be defined as the company words keep in language, or the

habitual co-occurrence of words or words that go naturally together.

Competent language users know which words tend to occur with other words,

and this happens naturally and spontaneously. If you ask thousands of native

speakers what word they might think of when they hear the word hammer,

79 Lewis 1997, cited in Harmer, 2003: 91.

80 Moon, 1997:43.

82

for example, they will mostly say nail. If they are asked about table, butter,

needle and salt, they will say: chair, bread, thread and pepper (respectively).

Collocations can be predictable in the sense that when one word is

mentioned, the other one is generally expected. When the word rancid is

mentioned, English native speakers immediately think of butter. Similarly,

when shrug is mentioned the word shoulders is mentioned not legs, hands, or

head (shrug the shoulders). Other predictable collocations include: bread and

butter, ladies and gentlemen, black and white, do favour, make, commit/a

mistake, cats mew, dogs bark, donkeys bray, lions roar, etc.

Some collocations are logical and literal (play tennis, do a favour,

make a mistake), but many others are not. Let's take, for instance, the

collocations: open a meeting why not start a meeting, break silence why not

interrupt silence, hold talks why not begin or start talks? Such collocations

which are not literally and logically perceived or interpreted are called

metaphorical.

When dealing with this type of collocations (metaphorical), rules of

logic are not always followed in the sense that no logical or literal

interpretations can be given. This is because collocations are not always

governed by such rules owing to their metaphorical non-literal nature81.

Metaphorical collocations are so frequently used by English people that they

may not notice them as metaphors82. Examples of metaphorical collocations

are: juicy gossip (exciting and interesting talk about other people’s private

affairs), hit the roof (lose one's temper), election fever (great excitement),

81 Mansoor, 2007: 23-24.

82 McCarthy and O'Dell, 2003:15.

83

green with jealousy (very jealous/why not yellow or red), white coffee (coffee

with milk/though the colour is brown).

Knowing the correct use of collocations, whether predictable or

metaphorical is vitally important. Building an effective collocational

competence on the part of the learner depends, among other things, on

remembering and storing a large stock of collocations. One of the best ways

to build the foreign learner's vocabulary is to remember multi-word chunks

like collocations, idioms, phrasal verbs rather than single words. Knowledge

of collocational appropriacy is part of the native speaker's competence, and

can be problematic even for the advanced learners who often make

inappropriate or unacceptable collocations83.

In English, there are two main types of collocation; lexical and

grammatical84. Lexical collocations are made up of two lexical items that

collocate, i.e. the components are lexical not grammatical. They can be

divided into many different groups or types according to the headword that

collocates (goes) with another lexical item. Below is a list of the most

common ones:

1. verb + noun: make a mistake, do a favour, exert an effort, pay attention, score

a goal

2. adjective + noun: hard currency, fast food, strong tea, black market, rancid

butter, legible handwriting

3. verb + adjective: come right/true, smell good/bad, get better/worse, look

sad/ill

4. noun + noun: traffic jam, culture clash/shock, death penalty, insurance policy,

football fans, body and soul, ladies and gentlemen, wife and husband, pros and

cons, advantages and disadvantages

5. noun + verb: necessity arises, fight broke out, bomb exploded, plan succeeded

83 McCarthy, 1990:13.

84 Mansoor, 2007:35-61.

84

6. adverb + adjective: highly skillful/qualified, extremely dangerous, vitally

important, seriously damaged, deeply concerned

7. adverb + verb: frankly admit, totally neglect, commonly used, willingly assist

8. verb+ adverb: run smoothly, note carefully, close firmly/properly, serve

loyally/faithfully, write legibly

The other type grammatical collocation (colligation) is chiefly

determined by a grammatical word or a structure like a preposition or to-

infinitive which collocates with the headword. Examples of grammatical

collocations are: afraid of, interested in, famous for, in progress, respect for,

by accident, amused to, responsible for, claim/reason for, lack of, at one’s

service/disposal, ready to go/do, easy/difficult to pass, nice to deal with,

supposed to finish, pleased to meet, etc.

Note: For more practice, do exercise (1) in the Study Section.

Idioms

All languages have some phrases that cannot be understood literally.

Even if you know the meaning of all the words in a phrase and understand all

the grammar of the phrase completely, the meaning of the phrase may still be

confusing. Many proverbs, informal phrases, and common sayings offer this

kind of problem. A phrase or sentence of this type is said to be idiomatic. An

idiom is defined “as a group of words whose meaning is different from the

meanings of the individual words”85. An idiom is an expression which

functions as a single fixed unit and whose meaning cannot be deduced

(predicted) from knowledge of its constituent parts86. There is often a

metaphorical (non-literal) element in most idioms. Idioms are problematic to

85 OALD, 2006.

86 Richards et, al., 1997:172.

85

foreign learners of English basically because they are difficult to produce

and, in addition, many idioms have a very narrow register since they are used

only in certain contexts and for certain effects87. Look at these idioms which

are fixed and metaphorical:

1. He kicked the bucket = he died

2. The coast is clear = there is no danger of being seen or caught

3. To get somebody's goat = to irritate or annoy sb. greatly

4. You and yours = you and your family and close friends

5. Sweeten the pill = make something unpleasant seem less unpleasant

6. A bitter pill = a situation or information that is unpleasant but must be accepted

7. Bite off more than one can chew = to take on more responsibility than one can

manage

8. Split the whistle = to arrive just on time

9. Let the cat out of the bag = to reveal a secret

10. From A to Z= covering a complete range; comprehensively

Note: For more practice, do exercise (2) in the Study Section.

Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is the combination of a verb + a particle (preposition

or adverb) resulting in a new unit. The meaning of the new unit is different

from the meaning of its parts. Generally, the meaning of the phrasal verb may

not be guessed from its individual parts. Thus, a metaphorical (non-literal) or

an idiomatic meaning is often implied. In addition, many phrasal verbs are

homonymous (having more than one meaning), but there are some phrasal

verbs whose meaning can be guessed or predicted from the meanings of their

constituent parts, e.g., turn the light off (on), switch it off, cut something

down, look around. A phrasal verb may have a variety of meanings. Notice

87 Thornbury, 2002:127.

86

the various meanings of the phrasal verbs go off and run into in the following

examples88:

1. The bomb went off and killed many people. (exploded)

2. She went off to fetch a drink. (left)

3. Suddenly the light went off. (stopped functioning or operating)

4. Hasn't the baby gone off yet? (fallen asleep)

5. This milk has gone off. (become bad)

6. I ran into an old friend at the supermarket. (met by chance)

7. The project is running into financial difficulties.

(experiencing/undergoing)

8. We ran into a patch of thick fog outside Naples. (entered an area of bad

weather while travelling).

9. Her annual income runs into $ 100,000. (reaches the amount or level)

10. The bus ran into a tree. (crashed into)

An extension of the concept of phrasal verb is that of phrasal noun,

where a verb + particle is nominalized (used as a noun).The particle may

come before or after the verb89:

Standby We are keeping the old equipment on standby, in case of emergency.

(readiness to do sth. immediately if asked or needed)

Backup Neil can provide technical backup if you need it. (extra help or support)

Onset The match was halted by the onset of rain. (unpleasant beginning)

Input Try to come to the meeting, we'd value your input. (knowledge, ideas)

Note: For more practice, do exercise (3) in the Study Section.

Hint: 3

Watch video 5.2, and answer the following questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. What are proverbs?

3. Is learning proverbs useful? Why?

4. How many proverbs does the video contain? What are they?

88 OALD, 2006: 637, 1283.

89 McCarthy and O'dell (2007) cited in wikipedia.

87

5. What does each one mean?

6. Try to memorize these proverbs and know their meanings.

Proverbs

Every culture has a collection of wise sayings that offer advice about

how to live your life. These sayings are called proverbs. A proverb is a well-

known saying (phrase or sentence) that gives advice or says something that is

generally true. It is a simple and concrete saying, popularly known and

repeated, that expresses a truth based on common sense or the practical

experience of humanity. Proverbs are often metaphorical in that literal

interpretation does not help in grasping the intended meaning, but some of

them are obviously literal. Learning proverbs can also help you to understand

the way that people in English-speaking cultures think about the world.

Below is a list of some common proverbs in English with their meanings90:

1. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

When someone has done something bad to you, trying to get revenge will only

make things worse. The situation will not be improved by doing sth bad to them.

2. The pen is mightier than the sword.

Trying to convince people with ideas and words is more effective than trying to

force people to do what you want.

3. When in Rome, do as the Romans.

Act the way that the people around you are acting. Behave in the same way that

people around you behave.

4. No man is an island.

You can't live completely independently. Everyone needs help from other people.

5. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Don't criticize other people if you're not perfect yourself. You should not criticize

people because they will easily find ways of criticizing you.

6. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

The meaning seems pretty clear since it is literally interpreted.

7. Birds of a feather flock together.

90 http://www.phrasemix.com/collections/the-50-most-important-english-proverbs

88

People like to spend time with others who are similar to them.

8. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

If you have enemies, pretend to be friends with them instead of openly fighting

with them. That way you can watch them carefully and figure out what they're

planning.

9. The early bird catches the worm.

The person who takes the opportunity to do sth before other people will have an

advantage over them. You should start work early if you want to succeed.

10. Easy come, easy go.

A relationship or possession acquired without effort may be abandoned or lost

without regret. When you get money quickly, like by winning it, it's easy to

spend it or lose it quickly as well. If something comes easily to you, you are

going to lose it easily too.

Note: For more practice, do exercise (4) in the Study Section.

89

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following topics:

- Multi-Word Chunks: Vocabulary items consisting of a sequence of

two or more words which semantically and/or syntactically form a

meaningful and inseparable unit.

- Collocation: The company words keep in language, or words that

go naturally together. They are two kinds:

- Lexical Collocations: Two lexical items that collocate, i.e. the

components are lexical not grammatical, e.g., make a mistake, do a

favour.

- Grammatical Collocations (Colligation): They are chiefly

determined by a grammatical word or structure like a preposition,

to-infinitive which collocates with the headword, e.g., afraid of,

interested in, famous for, in progress.

- Idiom: A group of words whose meaning is different from the

meanings of its individual parts, e.g., kicked the bucket.

- Phrasal Verb: A combination of a verb + a particle (preposition or

adverb) resulting in a new unit, e.g., go off, run into. The meaning of

the new unit is different from the meaning of its parts.

- Proverb: A well-known saying (phrase or sentence) that gives

advice or says something that is generally true, e.g. birds of a

feather flock together, the early bird catches the worm.

90

In this chapter we have presented some semantic concepts, such as

collocation, idioms, phrasal verbs and proverbs. With this we have completed

Part One of the book which is assigned to the study of meaning (semantics).

The next part (Part Two) is assigned to the study of meaning in context or

speaker meaning (pragmatics).

91

Study Section

Questions

1. What do multi-word chunks include? Why are they important in the study

of meaning?

2. What is collocation? How does it help competent language users?

3. What is meant by predictable collocations? Give examples.

4. What is meant by metaphorical collocations? Give examples.

5. What does building collocational competence depend on?

6. Draw a clear distinction between lexical and grammatical collocations?

7. Define idioms. Why are they problematic to foreign learners of English?

8. Define phrasal verbs. Exemplify.

9. Define proverbs. What do they generally express?

Exercises

Exercise 1: Test your collocational knowledge by choosing the correct

option that collocates with the underlined word.

1. She ...... a horrible mistake.

(had, made, did)

2. You have to ......many exercises for the homework.

(do, make, play)

3. He is an excellent football player. He always...........goals for his team.

(makes, scores, does)

4. If you want to ask a question, please ….......your hand.

(lift, raise, rise)

5. I like to drink...........tea.

(powerful, strong, heavy)

6. You need to pay the money in ........currency not in local currency.

(strong, hard, difficult)

7. Could you ........me a favour, and lend me some money?

(make, have, do)

8. The prisoner was facing death...........

(punishment, penalty, decision)

9. He’s got .......black hair.

(dense, thick, heavy)

92

10. The doctor advised him to .........smoking.

(cut, give up, leave)

Exercise 2: Match the idioms in List A to their meanings in List B.

List A: Idioms List B: Meanings

1. pull someone’s leg

2. thumb someone’s nose

3. skeleton in the cupboard

4. put it in a nutshell

5. the pros and cones

6. lick somebody’s boots/arse

7. alive and kicking

8. as sound as a bell

9. a feather in your cap

10. a kick in the teeth

a. an insult or unfair act

b. in perfect condition

c. to play joke on somebody

d. the advantages and disadvantages

e. an action you can be proud of

f. to express scorn or disgust

g. to show too much respect for somebody in

authority (to please him)

h. something shocking or embarrassing, you

want to keep as secret

i. very active, healthy or popular

j. to say something very clearly and briefly

Exercise 3: Study the different meanings of the phrasal verbs with keep and

give:

keep on = continue (do sth. repeatedly)

keep back = restrain (prevent a feeling from being expressed)

keep down = hide oneself

keep off = avoid eating/drinking/smoking

keep away = avoid going near sb./sth.

give up = stop doing sth.

give in = surrender, yield

give away = reveal a secret

give out = stop working

give up on = stop hoping that somebody will change or get better

Now use the correct form of the phrasal verb that matches the meaning of the

underlined words. Notice that (1-5) sentences are phrasal verbs with keep,

and (6-10) sentences are with give.

1. Avoid going near that big rock, it is dangerous.

2. Hide yourself ! You mustn’t let anyone see you.

93

3. She continued laughing while he was telling the jokes.

4. You look overweight. Avoid eating fatty food.

5. She was unable to restrain her tears.

6. One of the plane’s engines stopped working in mid-Atlantic.

7. The terrorists were forced to surrender.

8. The doctors advised him to stop smoking.

9. That student is a nuisance. All his teachers seem to be hopeless

that he will change.

10. Their secretary revealed many documents to a rival company.

Exercise 4: Match the proverbs in List A with their meanings in List B.

List A: Proverbs

1. Necessity is the mother of invention.

2. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

3. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

4. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

5. Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.

6. Two heads are better than one.

7. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

8. Actions speak louder than words.

9. Beggars can't be choosers.

10. Fortune favours the bold.

List B: Meanings

a. Just saying that you'll do something doesn't mean much.

Actually doing it is harder and more meaningful. What a person actually does

means more than what they say they will do.

b. If you try to help someone, but they don't take your advice or offers, give up. You

can't force someone to accept your help.

c. If you're asking for a favour from someone else, you have to take whatever they

give you. You must be satisfied with what is available.

d. You should not be too confident that something will be successful because it may

go wrong.Wait until you've already succeeded, and then you can think about what

to do next.

e. People who bravely go after what they want are more successful than those who

try to live safely.

f. When two people cooperate with each other, they come up with better ideas. Two

people can achieve more than one person working alone.

94

g. When you’re really in need, you think of creative solutions for your problems.

h. Don't risk all of your money or time in one plan. Give yourself more options or

possibilities.

i. Sometimes it's good to be away from your partner, because it makes you want to

see each other again.

j. When there are too many people involved in doing something, it will not be done

well.

95

PART TWO:

PRAGMATICS

96

Chapter Six:

Introduction

97

6 Introduction

Starter

In this chapter we study the following topics:

- Semantics and Pragmatics

- Denotation and Connotation

- Pragmatics: Background and Scope

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below and answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the book?

2. Check your textbook to find definitions for semantics and pragmatics.

3. In what sense are the two terms different from one another?

Figure: 6.1

In this chapter we deal with the study of speaker meaning

(pragmatics). A distinction is to be made between semantics and pragmatics

98

since both fields are concerned with the study of meaning, but from different

perspectives.

Hint: 2

Watch this video (6.1), and answer the following questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. What is pragmatics according to the video?

3. Does this definition match the one given in your textbook?

Point out the difference.

4. What is the most important principle of pragmatics? What does it mean?

5. What does "give me a hand" mean in context? Should we take it literally? Why?

Semantics and Pragmatics

As mentioned earlier, both semantics and pragmatics deal with the

study of meaning, but from different perspectives. Semantics is the study of

meaning in language (meaning of words, phrases and sentences). It is the

meaning of words or linguistic expressions in a given language without

reference to the speaker and the situation. Semantics is mainly concerned

with the literal or denotative meaning of words and sentences, which is

predicted from linguistic knowledge (dictionary definition or meaning).

Pragmatics, on the other hand, is defined in relation to a particular

speaker or language user and a particular context. It attempts to study the

relationship between linguistic forms and the users of those forms.

Pragmatics deals with how speakers use language in ways which cannot be

predicted from linguistic knowledge alone. It is the type of meaning that

depends more on the context or situation and the communicative intentions of

the speaker and the associations made between linguistic forms and situations

or contexts (connotative meaning) rather than on the conceptual (denotative)

99

meaning of words91. Briefly stated, pragmatics is the study of speaker

meaning or meaning in context.

To end with, semantics is the literal meaning of an idea whereas

pragmatics is the implied meaning of the given idea92.

Hint: 3

Watch this video (6.2), and answer these questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. What is the song about?

3. What definition is given for connotations?

4. What definition is given for denotations?

5. Mention at least three examples from the video that illustrate negative

connotation (NC), positive connotation (PC) and denotation (D).

6. Do you like the song? Why?

7. If you like it, try to memorize it, will you?

Denotation and Connotation

When dealing with the study of meaning a distinction is to be made

between denotation and connotation. Denotation, in its simplest and broadest

sense, refers to the actual, conceptual or literal meaning of words as

explained in the dictionary. It is the type of meaning that dictionaries are

designed to describe. Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the

associations or connections made between the basic or conceptual meaning

and an additional non-literal or metaphorical meaning. Broadly speaking, it is

an idea suggested by a word in addition to its main dictionary meaning. It is a

kind of inferred meaning;93 a meaning that is arrived at depending on the

91 See Leech, 1996: 6 and Yule, 2000: 4.

92 Morris, 1938 cited in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics.

93 Babylon 10 online dictionary.

100

intention of the speaker and the associations or connections of ideas between

the lexical item and the context in which it is used. Connotation refers to the

wide collection of positive and negative associations that most words

naturally carry with them, whereas denotation is the precise, literal definition

of a word that might be found in the dictionary.

Connotation is the emotions, thoughts, images, and associations

attached to a word. It is what a term or a word implies. It is the emotional and

imaginative association surrounding a word. A set of words could have the

same denotation (dictionary definition), but make different impressions on

readers because they have different connotations, or they are used in a certain

way to imply different meanings. Words in language can have positive,

negative, or even neutral connotations. It all depends on the context, how and

where the word is used. Take, for example, the two words finish and

terminate, which both have very similar denotations, but different

connotations. Both words denote 'bringing something to an end'. To finish

can have positive connotations: a sense of completion, achievement or

accomplishment (finishing school/university/final exams, crossing the finish

line); it can also have neutral connotations (finishing the laundry/cooking/

washing the dishes); and it can sometimes have negative connotations: a

sense of an eternal end (You’re finished in this town! = You’ll never work

here again/His life finished (died). To terminate really only has negative

connotations: termination implies an eternal end, but does not imply

completion or accomplishment:

1. The agreement was terminated.

2. She decided to terminate her pregnancy.

3. Your contract terminates in October.

101

Again, we can see that one term is much more extreme than the other,

even though they are very similar94. It may happen that a particular lexical

item or a word indicates the two types of meaning; denotation and

connotation. A good example in this respect is the word Hollywood. The

strict dictionary meaning of the name Hollywood denotes 'an area of Los

Angeles, worldwide known as the centre of the American movie industry',

but connotes many things such as glitz (quality of being exciting, impressive

and very attractive), glamour (attractiveness and beauty), tinsel (shiny strips

for decoration), celebrity (fame), and dreams of stardom (becoming a famous

star: singer/actor)95.

Note: For more practice on denotation and connotation, do exercises (1, 2, 3)

in the Study Section.

Pragmatics: Background and Scope

Originally, the word pragmatics is derived from Latin pragmaticus-

from the Greek pragmatikos, meaning amongst others "fit for action", which

comes from pragma, meaning "deed, act", and prassō, meaning " to practise,

to achieve"96, thus meaning, to practise or achieve a deed or an action.

The term pragmatics was coined in the 1930s by the American

philosopher Charles William Morris (1901-1979) who was a forerunner in

this field. Paul Grice (1913-1988) has made a significant contribution to the

field that he is called the father of pragmatics. Pragmatics was developed as a

subfield of linguistics in the 1970s.97 Pragmatics or speaker meaning tries to

94 www.sophia.org/connotation-denotation-top.

95 http://grcpublishing.grc.nasa.gov.

96 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics

97 http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/pragmaticsterm.htm

102

explore the intended meaning the speaker or writer is after in a particular

situation or context, i.e., it is language in use or in context. “Pragmatics is the

study of the relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those

forms”98. It tries to explore aspects of meaning not predictable from linguistic

knowledge. Pragmatics is sometimes described as invisible meaning99, i.e.,

how we recognize what is actually meant even if it isn’t written or said. In

order for us to understand such kind of meaning, we must depend on some

shared knowledge; assumptions and expectations which provide us with

insights into how we understand and interpret what is being actually

intended. A good example, in this respect, is a headline from the Guardian

newspaper of May 10, 2002:

Health crisis looms as life expectancy soars 100

If we study the semantics of the headline (denotative/literal meaning),

we may be puzzled. The word soars is used metaphorically to indicate 'an

increase or rise in the average life-expectancy of the UK population'101. Most

of us are living longer. So why is this a crisis for health? Pragmatics supplies

the answer. The headline writer assumes that we share his/her understanding

that the crisis looms (appears threatening) not because of the health or

longevity (long life) of the nation, but because of the financial cost to our

society incurred by providing health care for these long-living people. The

UK needs to pay more money and employ more people to provide this care.

98 Yule, 2000, 4.

99 ibid, 128.

100 www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/pragmatics.htm.

101 Life-expectancy means the number of years in one’s life.

103

In order to get at this interpretation, we must use not only our

knowledge of the meaning of the words in the headline, but also the context

in which they occur, and some assumptions and expectations of what the

intended meaning would be in a way that matches the meaning conveyed by

the producer of the headline.

Pragmatics not only deals with how listeners or readers arrive at the

intended meaning of the speakers or writers, but also deals with the general

principles followed by human beings when they communicate with one

another. Pragmatics deals with how human beings cooperate efficiently by

following certain rules to get at effective communication that depends on

shared knowledge and understanding. In this respect, pragmatics explains

how language users are able to overcome apparent ambiguity, since meaning

relies on the manner, place, time etc. of an utterance102. The ability to

understand another speaker's intended meaning is called pragmatic

competence.

102 Mey, 2001.

104

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following topics:

- Semantics is the study of meaning in language (meaning of words,

phrases and sentences).

- Semantics is mainly concerned with the literal or denotative

meaning of words and sentences, which is predicted from linguistic

knowledge (dictionary definition).

- Pragmatics is the study of meaning in context or speaker meaning.

- Pragmatics depends more on the context or situation and the

communicative intentions of the speaker and the associations or

connections.

- The American philosopher Charles William Morris was a

forerunner in the field of pragmatics.

- Paul Grice is called the father of pragmatics.

- Denotation refers to the actual, conceptual or literal meaning of

words as explained in the dictionary.

- Connotation is the emotions, thoughts, images, and connections or

associations attached to a word. It is what a term or a word implies.

- Pragmatic Competence is the ability to understand another

speaker's intended meaning.

105

In this introductory chapter, we have made a clear distinction between

semantics (denotative meaning) and pragmatics (connotative meaning). The

next chapter will be assigned to basic terms in the study of pragmatics.

106

Study Section

Questions

1. Define semantics and pragmatics.

2. Make a clear distinction between the two fields of meaning. Give

examples.

3. What is the main difference between denotation and connotation? Give

examples.

4. Words in language can have positive, negative, or even neutral

connotations. Explain with examples.

5. It may happen that a particular lexical item or a word indicates the two

types of meaning; denotation and connotation. Explain with reference to

the word ‘Hollywood’.

6. Why is pragmatics described as invisible meaning? Explain.

7. When was the word pragmatics used for the first time? By whom?

8. What is meant by pragmatic competence?

Exercises 103

Exercise 1: Point out the connotative (non-literal/associative) meaning of

each of the underlined words, in addition to their denotative (literal) meaning.

1. You have been given the green light.

2. Don’t trust her. She is a snake.

3. He showed her a greasy smile.

4. Make yourself at home.

5. She is just a chick.

Exercise 2: Underline the word with positive connotation in each of the

following:

1. skinny, slim, thin

2. aggressive, pushy, forceful

3. thrifty, stingy, economical

4. handicapped, disabled, physically challenged

103 Adapted from: www.nps.gov/arcive/manz/ed_loaded_words_deno_ cono.htm

107

5. plain, ugly, unattractive

6. pretty, attractive, fair

7. house, home, dwelling place

8. cunning, clever, crafty

Exercise 3: Underline the word with negative connotation in each of the

following:

1. young woman, chick, immature

2. black, negro, African American

3. crippled, handicapped, differently-abled

4. cunning, clever, intelligent

5. protest, demonstration, riot

6. fighter, rebel, terrorist

7. childish, young, youthful

8. conversational, talkative, chatty

108

Chapter Seven:

Basic Terms

109

7Basic Terms

Starter

In this chapter we study the following topics:

- Reference and Inference

- Anaphora and Anaphor

- Context

- Deixis

- Presupposition

- Entailment

- Implicature

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below and answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the figure?

2. What definition is given for inference? Does it match the definition in

your textbook?

3. What examples are given to indicate inference?

4. What example is given to indicate reference?

5. Tell the difference between the two terms: reference and inference.

(check your textbook)

Figure: 7.1

110

Hint: 2

Watch video 7.1, then answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the video?

2. Define inference (as shown on the video). Exemplify.

3. Could you say that the man is waiting for a bus?

Support your conclusion with evidence.

4. What strategy is used to make a reasonable conclusion (inference)?

5. Which statement in Practice 1 gives a reasonable conclusion (inference)?

6. Which statement in Practice 2 gives a reasonable conclusion (inference)?

Reference and Inference

Reference (as mentioned earlier in chapter three) refers to the

existence of an expression (word) in the external world. It is the relationship

between a word or a phrase and a specific object or person in the world

outside language.

Inference is additional information used by the listener to create a

connection between what is said and what must be meant104. There is a kind

of pragmatic connection between proper names and objects associated with

those names. For example, a student may ask a classmate: Can I use your

Chomsky/Shakespeare?, and may get the response: Yes, it’s on the shelf.

Similarly, a waiter in a restaurant can ask another waiter: Where is the cheese

sandwich sitting?, and he may get the answer: He is sitting by the window.

This means that we can use names of people (Chomsky/Shakespeare) to refer

to things (books), and names of things (cheese, sandwich) to refer to people

(customers).

Briefly stated, inference is a reasonable conclusion based on

evidence. It is the act of forming an opinion based on what one already

104 Yule, 2010: 131-132.

111

knows, a statement about the unknown on the bases of the known105.

Language users make inferences about what is said in order to arrive at an

interpretation of the speaker’s/writer’s intended meaning. This helps to make

the expected inference in such a way that more is being communicated than

what is said. Turning back to reference, it can be said that it is sometimes

achieved by using anaphora.

Anaphora and Anaphor

Anaphora is a process in which a word or a phrase refers back to

another word or phrase which was used earlier in a written text or a

conversation. It is a subsequent reference to an already introduced entity106.

The first mention of a word or a phrase is called antecedent, while the

subsequent reference to it is the anaphor or anaphoric expression. An

anaphor is a word, typically a pronoun or a noun, used to refer to someone

or something already mentioned. Consider the following example:

While I was going home yesterday, I met a man. The man was carrying a bag.

He put the bag on the pavement to rest. Then he carried it and went away.

The connection between an antecedent and an anaphor is shown by

the underlined words. The antecedent a man, which has been mentioned for

the first time, is replaced by the anaphor The man, which is in turn, replaced

by the anaphors He-he. The antecedent a bag is replaced by the anaphor the

bag, which is replaced by it.

105 Hayakawa, 1973: 41.

106 Richards et al, 1993: 17 and Yule, 2010: 132.

112

It may happen, sometimes, that there is a reversal in the order of the

antecedent-anaphor pattern107. This occurs when the anaphor comes before

the antecedent as in:

1. I crossed the grassy path and almost stepped on it. (anaphor)

There was a large snake in the middle of the grass. (antecedent)

2. He helped us a lot.(anaphor)

The taxi driver was a good man.(antecedent)

It may also happen that the connection between the antecedent and

the anaphor is often based on inference:108

We bought a house, but the bedroom was small.

In order to interpret the connection between the antecedent (a house) and the

anaphor (the bedroom), we have to depend on the fact that if there is a house,

then it has a bedroom.

Note: For more practice, do exercise (1) in the Study Section.

Context

Broadly speaking, context refers to the situation in which something

happens, and that helps to understand it. The context often helps in

understanding the particular meaning of a word or a phrase. There are two

types of context: linguistic and physical109. A linguistic context refers to the

set of words used in the same phrase or sentence in a written text or an

utterance. The surrounding linguistic context has a strong effect on what a

particular word means. If we take the homonym bank which has different

unrelated meanings, it is only the linguistic context that can help us to

107 Yule, 2000: 23.

108 ibid, 2010: 132.

109 ibid, 129-130.

113

determine the intended meaning (whether it is a river side or a financial

institution):

He jumped in and swam to the other bank, or:

She went to the bank to draw some money.

As for the other type (physical context), it depends on the location

(place) that will influence our interpretation. For example, when we see the

word bank on the wall of a building, then the meaning that comes to the mind

is a financial institution not a river side. But when we see it (the word bank)

on a sign near a ferry crossing, then the meaning that comes to the mind is a

river side not a financial institution.

Context is any background knowledge shared by speaker and hearer

which contributes to the hearer’s interpretation of what the speaker means by

a given utterance110. This shared knowledge includes facts about the topic of

conversation in which the utterance occurs, and also facts about the situation

in which the conversation takes place111. For example, A is asking B about

the first time they met, and B gives his reply depending on their shared

knowledge:

A: Do you remember where we met for the first time?

B: Yes. It was a sunny bright day, wasn’t it?

Hint: 3

Watch video 7.2, and answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the video?

2. What is meant by deixis?

3. How many kinds of deixis are there? Give examples.

4. Point out the difference between primary and secondary deixis.

5. How many types is secondary deixis? Give examples.

110 Leech, 1996:13.

111 Hurford, et al., 2007:71.

114

Deixis

Deixis is a term used to refer to a word or a phrase which directly

relates an utterance to time, place or people. It is a word which takes its

meaning from the context or the situation (the speaker, the addressee, the

time and place) of the utterance in which it is used112. Briefly stated, it is the

use of certain words as a way of pointing with language. We use this device

to point to things (it, this/these books), or people (I, him, them, those men).

There are three types of deixis:

1. Person deixis refers/points to people (he, she, this girl).

2. Spatial deixis refers/points to a location (here, there, near that).

3. Temporal deixis refers/points to time (now, then, last week,

tomorrow, next month).113

All these deictic expressions have to be interpreted in terms of which person,

place or time the speaker has in mind. For example, if on December 10th

2012, you say: Yesterday was a very cold day. Here yesterday refers to the 9th

of December.

When dealing with deixis, we need to make some distinction between

deictic expressions which are marked as close to the speaker (this, these,

here, now) and what is marked as distant (that, those, there, over there, then).

Person deixis includes the first person singular pronoun ‘I’ which refers to

the speaker or writer, the second person singular and plural ‘you’ which

refers to the person or persons addressed, the third person singular (he, she)

and third person plural (they) which refer to some other person or persons114.

112 ibid, 66.

113 Yule, 2010:130.

114 Lyons, 1977 (cited in Richards, 1993:100).

115

It is worth mentioning that all types of deixis are actually referring

expressions, like: you, he, they (refer to people), here, there (refer to place),

yesterday, tomorrow, then, now (refer to time). Even demonstratives (this,

that, these, those) can be used with referring expressions: this boy, those

girls, that house, etc. It is also remarkable to mention that the grammatical

device ‘tense’ can be used to serve a deictic function (indicating present, past

and future time):

1. Rosemary is chatting online with her friends.

(The act of chatting happens at the same time of the utterance: present time)

2. If you say: John did it well.

(The act of doing refers to a point of time before the utterance: past time)

3. She is going to buy a new car.

(The act of buying refers to a point of time after the utterance: near future.)

Note: For more practice, do exercise (2) in the Study Section.

Presupposition

Presupposition is something the speaker assumes or supposes to be

true before making an utterance115. It refers to what a speaker or a writer

assumes that the receiver of the message already knows. If somebody asks

you a question like: When did you give up smoking?, there are two

presuppositions involved. Firstly, the speaker presupposes that you used to

smoke. Secondly, he knows that you no longer smoke116. Another example is

seen in this dialogue between A and B117:

115 Yule, 2000:25.

116 ibid, 2010: 133.

117 Richards, et al, 1993: 288.

116

A: What about inviting Simon tonight?

B: What a good idea! Then he can give Monica a lift.

Here, speakers A and B know both Simon and Monika. They also already

know that Simon has a car and Monika has no car.

Presupposition is the relationship between two propositions.118

Consider, for example, these two declarative sentences which involve two

propositions:

a. Ahmed’s car is new.

b. Ahmed has a car.

The relationship between the two propositions is expressed in this way:

If we accept (a): the idea that Ahmed’s car is new, this presupposes (b): that

Ahmed has a car. So the existence of (a) presupposes (b), i.e., it is based on

the idea that something is true or will happen; it shows that you know the

truth he has a car. The same relationship still exists, even if we negate

sentence (a): Ahmed’s car is not new. This again presupposes that: Ahmed has

a car. An utterance may involve a number of pre-suppositions119, e.g.: John

regrets that he stopped doing linguistics before he left Cambridge. This utterance

involves the following presuppositions:

1. There is someone known to both speaker and addressee (as John).

2. John stopped doing linguistics before he left Cambridge.

3. John was doing linguistics before he left Cambridge.

4. John left Cambridge.

5. John had been at Cambridge.

118 Yule, 2000, 26. A proposition is a declarative sentence which describes a state of affairs.

119 Levinson, 1983: 179–180.

117

A presupposition can be of many kinds: factive, lexical or

structural120. A factive presupposition is expressed by using the verbs: know,

realize, regret and the verb be with adjectives like: aware, glad and odd

which all express a certain fact:

1. She knows that John is a doctor. (The fact that: John is a doctor)

2. They didn’t realize that he was absent. (The fact that: He was absent)

3. I wasn’t aware that she was ill. (The fact that: She was ill)

4. I’m glad that they left soon. (The fact that: They left soon)

A lexical presupposition is one in which the speaker’s use of a

particular expression is taken to presuppose another non-asserted (unstated)

concept:

He stopped drinking. → presupposes: He used to drink.

You’re late again. → presupposes: You were late before.

A structural presupposition is one in which speakers can use certain

structures to treat a piece of information as presupposed (assumed), and

hence to be accepted as true by listeners. A good example of this type of

presupposition is found in wh-questions in which all the information, after it,

is already known to be the case:

When did he die? → presupposes: He died.

Why did they sell their house? → presupposes: They sold their house.

Entailment

Entailment is a logical concept or relationship between two

propositions121. It is the relationship between two sentences where the truth

120 Yule, 2000: 27-28.

121 Richards, et al, 1993:125.

118

of one requires the truth of the other. For example, sentence (A): The

president was assassinated entails (involves) (B): The president is dead.

Notice also that if (B) is false, then (A) must necessarily be false.

To show entailment, we must show that (A) true forces (B) to be true

and (B) false forces (A) to be false, i.e., the truth of (B) follows necessarily

from the truth of (A). For example, the sentence: John killed Bill entails that

Bill is dead, and Bill ate all the chocolates entails someone ate something.

Entailment is a logical consequence, it is something that logically follows

from what is asserted (stated as true) in the utterance122. In the utterance:

Jane’s sister (Mary) bought two cats, many entailments can be inferred:

1. Mary bought something.

2. She bought two animals.

3. She bought two cats.

A distinction should be made between presupposition and entailment.

In a presupposition, the truth of what one is presupposing is taken for

granted. It is something the speaker assumes to be true before making an

utterance. For example, both The king of France is ill and The king of France

is not ill presuppose that there is a king of France. However, entailment refers

to something that logically follows from what is asserted in the utterance, for

example, The president was not assassinated no longer entails The president

is dead 123. Another example, John killed Bill entails that Bill is dead.

Note: Do exercises 4 and 5 in the Study Section.

122 Yule, 2000:25.

123 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Entailment

119

Hint: 4

Watch video 7.3, and then answer these questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. Define implicature.

3. What does proposition refer to?

4. What do we do when we use implicature?

5. Who is Paul Grice?

6. What is implicature divided into?

7. What does conversational implicature involve?

8. What does conventional implicature involve?

9. What is conversational implicature subdivided into? Give examples.

10. Compare the information on the video and that in your textbook. Which one has

more details?

Implicature

Implicature is an additional conveyed meaning which is covertly

expressed124. It refers to what is suggested in an utterance, even though

neither expressed nor strictly entailed by the utterance125. For example, the

sentence: Mary had a baby and got married strongly suggests that Mary had

the baby before the wedding.

When talking about implicature, we usually talk about speakers

implying something not said. For example, when a woman was once asked

about how she liked the sandwich she ate, she replied: A sandwich is a

sandwich. By giving such a reply, the woman was implying that the sandwich

wasn’t worth talking about. Another implicature is that she has no opinion,

either good or bad, to express since all sandwiches are the same. Now

consider the following example:

124 Yule, 2010: 148-149.

125 Blackburn, 1996:189.

120

Carol: Are you going to party tonight?

Lara: I’ve got an exam tomorrow.

Lara’s answer could provide many instances of implicature (additional

meaning) concerning tonight’s activities. Hearing such an answer, Carol can

work out (imply) that having an exam tomorrow involves study tonight, and

this precludes (prevents) going to the party. Thus, in uttering such a reply,

Lara intends to convey the additional meaning that since she has an exam

tomorrow, she is unwilling to attend tonight’s party.

Note: Do exercise 6 in the Study Section.

121

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following topics:

- Reference: The relationship between a word or a phrase and a

specific object or person in the world outside language.

- Inference: The additional information used by the listener to create a

connection between what is said and what must be meant. It is a

logical conclusion based on evidence.

- Anaphora: A process in which a word or a phrase refers back to

another word or phrase which was used earlier in a written text or a

conversation.

- Anaphor: A word, typically a pronoun, used to refer to someone or

something already mentioned: The man put the bag on the pavement

to rest. Then he carried it and went away.

- Antecedent: The first mention of a word or a phrase, e.g., While I

was going home yesterday, I met a man. The man was carrying a

bag.

- Context: A situation in which something happens, and that helps to

understand it. There are two types of context:

- Linguistic Context: Set of other words used in the same phrase or

sentence in a written text or an utterance.

- Physical Context: It depends on the location that will influence our

Interpretation.

- Deixis: The use of certain words as a way of pointing with language.

There are three types of deixis:

122

- Person Deixis points to people (he, she, this girl).

- Spatial Deixis points to a location (here, there, near that).

- Temporal Deixis points to time (now, then, last week, tomorrow,

next month).

- Presupposition: Something the speaker assumes to be the truth

before making an utterance. A presupposition can be factive, lexical

or structural:

- A factive presupposition is expressed by using the verbs: know,

realize, regret and the verb be with adjectives like: aware, glad and

odd which all express a certain fact: She knows that John is a

doctor. (The fact that John is a doctor).

- A lexical presupposition is one in which the speaker’s use of a

particular expression is taken to presuppose another unstated

concept: He stopped drinking.→ presupposes: He used to drink.

- A structural presupposition is one in which speakers can use

certain structures to treat a piece of information as presupposed, and

hence to be accepted as true, e.g., When did he die? → presupposes:

He died.

- Entailment: A logical relationship between two sentences where the

truth of one requires the truth of the other, e.g., The president was

assassinated entails (involves) The president is dead.

- Implicature: An additional conveyed meaning which refers to what

is suggested in an utterance, even though neither expressed nor

strictly implied by the utterance , e.g.: Carol: Are you going to party

tonight? Lara: I’ve got an exam tomorrow.

123

This chapter has acquainted us with basic terms in pragmatics which

are achieved through spoken situations (conversations). The next chapter will

deal with the process of effective communication and how it is achieved in

everyday conversations.

124

Study Section

Questions

1. What is inference? How is it different from reference?

2. Make a clear distinction between anaphora and anaphor.

3. What does context refer to? What does it help?

4. Make a distinction between linguistic context and physical context.

Exemplify.

5. Define deixis. What kinds is it? Give examples.

6. What is meant by an antecedent and anaphoric expression? Explain with

examples.

7. It may also happen that the connection between the antecedent and the

anaphor is based on inference. Explain through examples.

8. What does presupposition refer to?

9. Presupposition is a relationship between two propositions. Explain with

examples.

10. Make a distinction between factive, structural and lexical presuppositions.

Exemplify.

11. What is entailment? Give examples.

12. What is meant by implicature? Give examples.

Exercises

Exercise 1: Point out the anaphor and its antecedent in these sentences.

1. Peel the orange and eat it.

2. The man bought a house and then sold it.

3. They were invited to the party, but they didn’t go there.

4. Ali’s father is a good man. He is respected by all neighbours.

5. We’ll meet at 10:30 tomorrow morning. Till then, I wish you happy time.

Exercise 2: Point out the deictic expression and mention its type in the

following sentences.

1. You can find it over there.

2. That man is my uncle.

3. They decided to meet next week.

125

4. He looks very tired today.

5. She is sitting beside Jane.

Exercise 3: What facts do the following sentences presuppose?

1. I wasn’t aware that he was an artist.

2. He gave up smoking.

3. Again you break your promise.

4. When did they travel to London?

5. He didn’t take notice of her delay.

Exercise 4: What do the following sentences entail?

1. The boy ate the chocolate.

2. John killed Bill.

3. Jim is a bachelor.

4. My father bought a car.

5. l saw a boy.

Exercise 5: Say whether the sentence in Column A entails the sentence in

Column B. Answer with Yes or No.

Column A Column B

1. Jane is a spinster.

2. He has done his homework

3. Many people live on this island.

4. William picked a flower.

5. Nancy played the piano.

1. Jane is an older woman.

2. He hasn’t gone to school.

3 .The island is inhabited.

4. William picked a book.

5. Nancy played a musical instrument.

Exercise 6: What implicature can you give of B’s reply in each of the

following situations?126

1. A: Do you love me?

B: I respect you a lot.

2. A: Did you go to the cinema last night?

B: Many guests arrived when l was about to go.

3. A: Do you like my new carpet?

B: The wallpaper’s not bad.

4. A: What did you think of this new movie?

126 Quoted from Hurford et al, 2007: 321,325.

126

B: Well, the costumes were authentic.

5. A: How do you like my new suit?

B: Well, your shoes look nice.

6. A: Have you done your homework and taken the garbage out?

B: I’ve taken out the garbage.

127

Chapter Eight:

Cooperation and

Communication

128

8 Cooperation and Communication

Starter

In this chapter we deal with the following topics:

- Effective Communication

- Cooperative Principle

- Maxims of Conversation (Paul Grice)

- Maxims of Politeness (Geoffrey Leech)

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below, and then answer these questions:

1. What is the figure about?

2. Are the contents of the figure found in the Starter section?

3. What two conditions (according to the figure) are necessary for effective

communication between sender and receiver?

Figure: 8.1

129

This chapter deals with the process of effective communication and

how it is achieved. For effective communication to be successfully achieved,

two conditions should be met. First, there should be a sender and a receiver.

Second, there should be a message from the sender and feedback from the

receiver. In this respect, we try to shed light on the principles of effective

communication by referring to the cooperative principle (devised by Paul

Grice) and the politeness principle (devised by Geoffrey Leech).

Principles of Effective Communication

To ensure effective communication, language users have to depend on

certain principles or rules to create a friendly atmosphere between the

speaker and hearer. This atmosphere helps to create strong social ties

between participants, ties based on mutual understanding, exchange of

information and politeness. This is referred to as Cooperative Principle

(CP).

The famous philosopher Paul Grice127 (1913-1988), who is

considered as the father of pragmatics, emphasized that human beings

communicate efficiently because they are helpful to each other. The CP is

based on the following assumption:

“Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it

occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are

engaged.”128

127 Paul Grice was a British-educated philosopher of language. He spent the final two

decades of his life in the United States.

128 Grice, 1975:41-58.

130

Grice was the first to describe the so-called cooperative principle by

proposing the four maxims or rules of conversation. The British linguist

Geoffrey Leech (1936-2014) formulated the Politeness Principle (PP) as a

necessary complement (addition) of Grice’s cooperative principle129. This is

because politeness is missing in the cooperative principle. The PP seeks to

regulate a polite behaviour oriented towards avoiding conflict and

minimizing any threat against the individual’s social image in

communication. The PP is a series of maxims, which Leech has proposed as

a way of explaining how politeness operates in conversational exchanges.

Leech defines politeness as forms of behaviour that establish and maintain

comity (friendly social atmosphere). That is the ability of participants to

engage in social interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony130.

Hint: 2

Watch this video (8.1), and answer the questions below:

1. What is the video about?

2. What is meant by the cooperative principle?

3. How many maxims does the video talk about?

4. Are they the same as those in your textbook?

5. What definition does the speaker give for each maxim?

Compare them to the ones in your textbook.

6. How can the maxims be violated? What examples does the speaker give?

Maxims of Conversation

Grice proposed (suggested) four maxims (rules) that govern

conversations. They are also called Gricean Maxims which include the

following:

129 See Aitchison, 2003, and Grice, 1975 (cited in Yule, 2010: 147).

130 Leech, 1996.

131

Maxim of Quantity

Be exact and accurate. Give the right information when you talk. Give

what is required in the situation or context, no more or less. This means that

you, as stated by Grice, have to:

1. "Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current

purposes of the exchange).

2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required."131

If you are asked: ‘Who is that man over there?’, a cooperative answer would

be: Mr Jackson the manager. If you give an answer like: A manager or

That’s Mr Jackson the new manager who has been appointed after Mr

Peterson who retired last month after 40 years’ service in the company....etc.,

this would be an uncooperative reply since it violates (does not follow or

obey) the maxim of quantity. A violation of any maxim is referred to as

flouting.

Maxim of Quality

Be truthful. Tell the truth. Don’t lie. Don’t give false information.

Tell what you really know. Don’t make unsupported claims. This means that

you should not say what you believe to be false or say anything for which

you lack adequate evidence132. For example, if someone asks you: Do you

know where the Big Ben Clock Tower is?, and you answer: It’s in in Hong

Kong, then your reply lacks truth if you know the correct answer (It’s in

131 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative principle

132 Thomas, 1995: 65; Levinson, 1983: 104.

132

London). So, in order to maintain the maxim of quality, you have to give the

last answer directly. Here is another example:

A: Jenny, how do you like this novel?

B: Oh, I like the red cover.

Here the maxim is violated because Jenny says something that

evidently she does not believe in (i.e. she tells a lie). The cover is clearly not

red, and Jenny’s response is not what one would expect when deciding if one

likes a novel133. This is a flouting implicature that she is not interested in the

novel at all.

Maxim of Relevance (Relation)

Be relevant. Give a reply that fits the question or provides the needed

bit of information. If someone asks you: What do you have for dinner?, and

you answer: shirts and shoes or linguistics and literature, such answers are

considered irrelevant and are not considered cooperative since they violate

the maxim of relevance. A cooperative reply is something like: fish and rice

or chicken and chips.

Maxim of Manner

Be clear and orderly. Avoid ambiguity, obscurity of expression and

unnecessary prolixity (being detailed and boring)134. Consider this example:

A: I hear you went to the opera last night; how was the lead singer?

B: The singer produced a series of sounds corresponding closely to the score of an

133 Thomas, 1995: 65; Levinson, 1983: 104.

134 Grice, 1989: 26–27.

133

aria from ‘Rigoletto’135.

B flouts (doesn’t respect or obey) the maxim of manner since his reply to A’s

question is unnecessarily prolix in that it includes unnecessary details and a

bit boring, in addition to being unclear and obscure. Thus, speaker B violates

the maxim of manner.

It is also important to describe things in the order in which they

occurred. An utterance like: He started working and entered the office is not

considered cooperative because it isn’t in the right order (He entered the

office and started working).

It is pertinent to note that any violation of these maxims results in

what Grice terms conversational implicature136. Consider the following

situation:

1. A: Where is John?

B: I don’t know. Perhaps Kate knows.

2. A: Where is John?

B: He must be somewhere in the city.

3. A: Where is John?

B: It’s going to rain.

4. A: Where is John?

B: In the t-o-i-l-e-t.

Speaker B violates the maxim of quantity, quality, relation, and

manner in (1- 4) respectively. He is likely to imply that: in (1) he wants to

offer help, or that he is a kind man; in (2) he doesn’t want to tell speaker A

where John is; in (3) he wants to avoid the topic of “John”; in (4) he doesn’t

135 Levinson, 1983. An aria is a song for one person in an opera. Rigoletto is an opera of

three acts, created by the Italian composer Verdi, and performed in Venice in 1851(en.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Verdi).

136 hi.baidu.com/sonya88.

134

want to utter the word ‘toilet’ in the normal way because it is not a pleasant

word on that occasion to the audience.

Sometimes, it may happen that violation or flouting implies

implicature with irony:

A: Do you like my new haircut?

B: Oh yes, my mother had such a haircut in the 1970s.

The speaker in B has violated the maxim of quality (not telling the truth), by

implying that he does not like the haircut and answers in an ironic way (by

referring to his mother's hair cut in the 1970's).

Hint: 3

Watch this video (8.2), and answer the questions below:

1. What is the title of the video?

2. What is the first maxim? What does it involve?

3. What is the second maxim? What does it involve?

4. What is the third maxim? What does it involve?

5. What is the fourth maxim? What does it involve?

6. What is the fifth maxim? What does it involve?

7. What is the sixth maxim? What does it involve?

8. Is the explanation given to the sixth maxim similar or different to that given in

your textbook? How?

Maxims of Politeness

The maxims of politeness outlined in Leech’s politeness principle

include six maxims of: tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement,

and sympathy. These maxims are culture-specific in that they vary from one

culture to another; what may be considered polite in one culture may be

135

strange or rude in another137. It is to be noted that, when dealing with these

six maxims, the term self is used to refer to the speaker and the term other to

the hearer.

Tact Maxim138

The Tact Maxim is focused on other (hearer). It states: Minimize

(the expression of beliefs which express or imply) cost to other; Maximize

(the expression of beliefs which express or imply) benefit to other139. The

speaker (self) usually uses indirect tactful utterances to be more polite by

minimizing cost to the hearer (other). Look at the example below which is

said to ask the hearer to sit down. This utterance implies that sitting down is

benefit to the hearer: Won't you sit down?

Generosity Maxim

The Generosity Maxim is focused on self (speaker). It states:

Minimize (the expression of beliefs that express or imply) benefit to self;

Maximize (the expression of beliefs that express or imply) cost to self. Unlike

the tact maxim which focuses on other (hearer), the maxim of generosity

focuses on self (speaker), and says that the other should be put first instead of

self and should be given much consideration than self140:

1. You relax and let me do the dishes.

2. You must come and have dinner with us.

137 Leech, 1996:132.

138 Generally speaking, tact means diplomacy or skill in dealing with others in order not to

offend or disturb them.

139 Leech, 1996:132. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politeness_maxims.

140 ibid.

136

In the two examples above, the speaker implies that cost of the

utterance is to him (self). Meanwhile, the utterance implies that benefit is for

the hearer (other). The speaker (self), here, is so generously kind to the hearer

(other) that he is willing to give freely what he could offer.

Approbation Maxim

In its general sense, approbation means approval, agreement or

praise. The Approbation Maxim is focused on other (hearer). It states:

Minimize (the expression of beliefs which express) dispraise of other;

Maximize (the expression of beliefs which express) praise of other’. It is

preferred to praise others and if this is impossible, to avoid saying unpleasant

things about them, or to give some sort of minimal response (possibly

through the use of euphemisms), or to remain silent. A compliment like:

What a marvellous meal you cooked! is highly valued and appreciated,

according to this maxim, than: What an awful meal you cooked, which is

not141.

It is important to note that the first part of the maxim avoids

disagreement; while the second part intends to make other people feel good

by showing solidarity142. This is very clear in these two examples:

1. I heard you singing at the karaoke last night. It sounded like you were

enjoying yourself!143

2. Tony, I know you’re a genius - would you know how to solve this

math problem here?

141 Leech, 1996: 135.

142 wikipedia.org/wiki/Politeness_maxims

143 Karaoke is a machine that plays music of popular songs so that people can sing the words.

137

According to this maxim, dispraise of the hearer (other) or a third

party is considered impolite. In this case, various strategies of indirectness

are used to mitigate the effect of criticism:

A: Her performance was magnificent, wasn’t it?

B: Was it?144

In the above conversation, B is unwilling to agree and give a clear

answer (yes), and thus implicates an unfavourable opinion by questioning

A’s statement. B implicates that he is not sure that A’s opinion is correct, but

he doesn't express that directly. He indirectly mitigates (makes it less serious

and direct) the tone of his doubt or disapproval by raising a question.

Modesty Maxim

The Modesty Maxim is focused on self. It states: Minimize (the

expression of) praise of self; Maximize (the expression of) dispraise of self.

Following this maxim, the speaker always tries to be extremely polite and

humble, with understatement of one's importance, abilities or generosity,

when addressing the other (hearer). Study the following examples:

1. Oh, I’m so stupid - I didn’t make a note of our lecture! Did you?

2. Please accept this small gift as prize of your achievement.”

3. It was clever of you to do that.

Agreement Maxim

The Agreement Maxim is focused on self and other. It states:

Minimize (the expression of) disagreement between self and other; Maximize

(the expression of) agreement between self and other. However, it is not

144 Leech, 1996: 135.

138

being claimed that people totally avoid disagreement. Generally, we do not

expect hearers to be always in full agreement with speakers. They often tend

to mitigate or soothe the tone by using partial agreement:

1. A: I don't want my daughter to do this, I want her to do that.

B: Yes, but ma'am, I thought we resolved this already on last visit.

2. A: English is a difficult language to learn.

B: True, but the grammar is quite easy.

B, in 1 and 2 above, actually does not fully agree with A’s remarks. But in

order to be more polite, she/he does not overtly express her/his disagreement.

She/He minimizes disagreement by using partial agreement, “but…/true,

but…”

Sympathy Maxim

The Sympathy Maxim is also focused on self and other. It states:

Minimize antipathy (strong feeling of dislike) between self and other;

Maximize sympathy between self and other. This includes a small group of

speech acts such as congratulation, expression of sympathy and condolences,

all of which attend to the hearer’s interests, wants and needs and express

solidarity between the speaker and the hearer. Consider the following

example, in which the speaker expresses his condolences on the occasion of

his friend's father's death, but without mentioning it (the word death) in a

way that maximizes sympathy and minimizes antipathy on the occasion of

this sad event: I am terribly sorry to hear about your father. Instead of

saying: I’m sorry to hear about your father’s death (which is considered

inappropriate and tactless).

139

In conclusion, we can say that the six maxims are asymmetric145.

Tact Maxim and Generosity Maxim go in pair, both of which fall into cost-

benefit scale; and Approbation Maxim and Modesty Maxim go in pair both

of which fall into praise-dispraise scale. The Agreement Maxim deals with

the scales of disagreement, and Sympathy Maxim deals with the scale of

sympathy. According to Leech, the Tact Maxim is more powerful and

important. This means that other (hearer) is more important than self

(speaker) in politeness measures.

145 asymmetric = having two sides/parts that are not the same in size or shape

140

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following topics:

- Paul Grice is considered as the father of pragmatics.

He proposed the Cooperative Principle (CP) and the four maxims

of conversation:

- Maxim of Quantity: Be exact and accurate. Give the right

information when you talk. Give what is required, no more or less.

- Maxim of Quality: Be truthful. Tell the truth. Don’t give false

information. Tell what you really know.

- Maxim of Relevance: Be relevant. Give a reply that fits the

question or provides the needed bit of information.

- Maxim of Manner: Be clear and orderly. Avoid ambiguity,

obscurity of expression and unnecessary prolixity.

- Geoffrey Leech formulated the Politeness Principle (PP). This

principle include six maxims:

- Tact Maxim: Minimize cost to other; maximize benefit to other.

- Generosity Maxim: Minimize benefit to self; maximize cost to self.

- Approbation Maxim: Minimize dispraise of other; maximize praise

of other.

- Modesty Maxim: Minimize praise of self; maximize dispraise of

self.

- Agreement Maxim: Minimize disagreement between self and

other; maximize agreement between self and other.

141

- Sympathy Maxim: Minimize antipathy between self and other;

maximize sympathy between self and other.

- Flouting: A violation of any maxim.

In this chapter, we have introduced the means of effective

communication which include both the four maxims of conversation and the

six maxims of politeness. The next chapter will deal with speech acts and

communication.

142

Study Section

Questions

1. For an effective communication to be successfully achieved, two

conditions should be met. What are they?

2. Who is Paul Grice? What is he considered?

3. What did he propose?

4. Who is Geoffrey Leech? What did he formulate? Why?

5. How is politeness defined according to Leech?

6. What are the four maxims that underlie the cooperative principle?

7. What does the maxim of quantity state?

8. What does the maxim of quality state?

9. What does the maxim of relevance state?

10. What does the maxim of manner state?

11. How many maxims does the PP include?

12. What does the tact maxim state?

13. What does the generosity maxim state?

14. What does the approbation maxim state?

15. What does the modesty maxim state?

16. What does the agreement maxim state?

17. What does the sympathy maxim state?

18. It is said that the maxims of PP are asymmetric. Explain.

Exercises

Exercise 1: State whether the following sentences are true or false, and

correct the false information146.

1. ‘Do not say what you believe to be false’ refers to the maxim of relevance.

2. ‘Be clear and orderly’ belongs to the maxim of manner.

3. ‘Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of

the exchange)’ belongs to the maxim of quality.

146 www.kwary.net/linguistics/itl/Semantics

143

4. B’s reply violates the maxim of quality in the dialogue below:

A: Where do you live?

B: In.

5. ‘Avoid ambiguity, obscurity of expression and unnecessary prolixity' refers to

the maxim of quality.

6. ‘Be truthful. Tell the truth. Don’t give false information’ belongs to the maxim

of relevance.

Exercise 2: Show whether each of the maxims of conversation in the

sentences below is observed or violated. Point out the implicature in case of

violation. Study the following example and do the same.

John: Where’s Meredith?

Elizabeth: In the control room or the science lab.

Maxim Violated: Quantity; Elizabeth doesn’t give as much information as what John wants

(Meredith’s exact location), but instead she gives a weaker statement (giving two possible

options).

Implicature: Elizabeth doesn’t know which of the two places Meredith is.

1. Simon: When are you coming home?

Elizabeth: I will codify that question to my superiors and respond at such a

time as an adequate answer is preparable.

2. Tom: What do you have for dinner?

Charles: Chips and fish.

Alfred: Books are not cheap.

3. Meredith: You really love me?

John: I like Ferris wheels, and college football, and things that go really fast.

4. Elizabeth: A lot of people are depending on you.

Meredith: Thanks, that really takes the pressure off.147

5. A: Did you pass the exam?

B: It’s raining again.

6. A: Did you pass the exam?

B: Yes, with distinction.

7. A: Who is that young man?

B: Mr Smith, the new manager.

8. A: Do you like my new haircut?

B1: Yes, it looks great.

147 www.laurahughes.com/art/grice.doc

144

B2: Oh yes, my mother had such a haircut in the 1970s.

9. A: Did you buy a new car?

B: It’s cloudy and windy today.

10. A: When is our meeting?

B: Sometime next week.

Exercise 3: Decide which reply (B1 or B2) is described as polite or impolite,

and specify the politeness maxim that accounts for each case and how it is

violated.148

1. A: How do you like my new handbag?

B1: It's amazing.

B2: It's too big for anyone to carry.

2. A: I enjoyed watching your film on TV last night.

B1: Many others have also praised my acting.

B2: Actually, the director contributed a great deal towards its success.

3. A: It was an outstanding exhibition, wasn't it?

B1: True, but the lighting could have been better.

B2: No, the rooms were too dim.

4. A: Well, this is a new dress I'm wearing today.

B1: You look beautiful.

B2: You look awful.

5. A: Satellite TV channels are quite beneficial.

B1: No, I disagree absolutely.

B2: True, but some of the violent programs are not censored.

6. A: We have four days off for the feast.

B1: Come and spend them with us in our flat in Sharm.

B2: We will invite ourselves to your chalet in Sharm.

7. A is a passenger on a train. He is reading a newspaper.

B1: Please lend me your paper.

B2: Have you finished reading your paper?

148Adapted from: faculty.ksu.edu.sa/.../Exercises

145

Chapter Nine:

Speech Acts and

Communication

146

9 Speech Acts and Communication

Starter

In this chapter we deal with the following topics:

- Speech Acts: Structure

- Speech Acts: Function

- Locution/Locutionary Act

- Illocution/Illocutionary Act

- Perlocution/Perlocutionary Act

- Performatives and Constatives

- Performative Hypothesis/Formula

- Felicity Conditions

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below and answer these questions:

1. What is the figure about?

2. What definition is given in the figure?

3. Does it match the definition in your book?

4. What example is given in the figure?

Figure: 9.1

147

Speech Acts: Structure

Pragmatics includes the study of how speakers use and understand

speech acts. Speech act theory was proposed by John Austin (1962) and later

developed by John Searle (1969). A speech act is an action performed by a

speaker with an utterance149. It is an utterance which involves some kind of

action or effect. When a speaker uses language, he/she actually intends to

communicate or perform certain functions or actions, and these are

recognized by the recipient (hearer). Speech acts describe actions, such as

promises, greetings, requests, statements, commands, questions, etc. When

you say, I’ll be waiting there at four, you are not just speaking, you are

performing the speech act of promising.

As regards their structure, speech acts can be divided into three

types150: declarative (expressing statement: You speak English),

interrogative (expressing question: Do you speak English?), imperative

(expressing command or request: Speak in English/Please speak in English).

Concerning the relationship between the structure of the speech act

and its function, there are two types; direct and indirect. A direct speech act

is one in which there is a direct relationship between the structure and the

function it serves; it is one which is expressed overtly by obvious linguistic

means, i.e., it is clear from the syntactic structure, e.g.:

1. What’s your phone number? (question)

2. It’s cold outside. (statement)

3. Close the door. ( command)

4. Close the door, please. (request)

149 Aitchison, 2003:133.

150 Yule, 2000: 54.

148

An indirect speech act is one in which there is an indirect

relationship between the structure and its function; it is one which is

expressed covertly in that its syntactic structure is associated with another

act. The speech act is implied in the syntactic structure, e.g.:

1. Isn’t it your bedtime? (indirect command for: go to bed)

2. You left the door open. (indirect request for: please close the door)

3. What about going to the cinema? (indirect suggestion for: let's go to the

cinema)

It is worth noting that the same structure of the utterance can be

used to perform different functions or acts. This depends on the context or

situation in which the structure is used. Consider example (2) above ‘You left

the door open’. It is clear that the utterance has a declarative structure, and as

a speech act it is used to make a statement. But when the same utterance is

said to a person who has just come from outside, where it is cold, you

indirectly want that person to close the door, but you don’t say it directly as:

Please close the door. You say it indirectly by using a declarative structure to

make a request.

Note: Do exercise (1) in the Study Section.

Hint: 2

Watch this video (9.1), and answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the video?

2. What does a philosophy of language try to do?

3. Who developed the speech act theory?

4. How many speech acts are there according to this theory?

What does each one express?

5. Are they the same as the types in your textbook?

6. Try to give examples for the five speech acts. (you can check your book)

149

Speech Acts: Function

According to their function, speech acts can be classified into five

types151:

1. Declaratives/Declarations: They are speech acts which can change the

state of affairs or the world via (by means of) their utterance, i.e., they make

a change in status due to the authority or power of the speaker. Consider the

following examples in which the speaker has a special institutional role, in a

particular context, in order to perform a declaration/declarative properly:

Priest: l now pronounce you husband and wife.

Jury Foreman: We find the defendant innocent.

Police Officer: You are under arrest.

2. Representatives: They are speech acts that state what the speaker believes

to be the case or not. They are acts that describe states or events in the world.

The following are examples in which the speaker expresses his/her views

(through statements, assertions, conclusions or descriptions) either positively

or negatively by making his/her words fit the world of beliefs:

The sun rises from the east.

This is not a German car.

It was a cloudy rainy day.

3. Expressives: They state or express what the speaker feels. They express

feelings, attitudes or psychological states such as pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow,

likes, dislikes, etc. Here, the speaker makes words fit the world of feeling:

I’m really pleased to meet you.

Congratulations! You passed.

151 ibid, 53-54; Richards et al, 1993: 343; Pratt, 1977: 81.

150

I’m terribly sorry.

4. Directives: They are speech acts that the speaker uses to make someone

else do something by giving certain instructions. They have the function of

getting the listener or addressee to do something. They express what the

speaker wants or desires through commands, requests or suggestions, either

positively or negatively:

Give me that pen.

Could you pass me the salt-cellar, please?

Don’t park here.

Let's go to the party.

5. Commissives: They are speech acts that speakers use to commit

themselves to doing some future action. They express what the speaker

intends to do. They are promises, threats, refusals, etc., which can be

performed by the speaker alone or by the speaker as a member of a group:

No, l can't accept such an excuse.

I’ll be back soon.

I’m going to check it myself next time.

You’ll be fired if you do it again.

Locution, Illocution and Perlocution

According to Austin’s speech act theory (1962), a distinction is

made between three different types of speech acts; locution, illocution and

perlocution.

151

Locution/Locutionary Act

A locution or a locutionary act is the act of saying something

which is meaningful and can be understood152. It is the basic act of utterance

which produces a meaningful linguistic expression153. For example, when

uttering the sentence Shoot the snake, it is considered a locutionary act if

hearers understand the meaning of the words: shoot, the, snake, and can

identify the particular snake referred to.

Illocution/Illocutionary Act

Generally speaking, an illocution is performing an act in saying

something154. It is an utterance used to perform some kind of function or

action. It reflects the speaker’s intention to perform an act of promise,

command, criticism, agreement, greeting, statement, etc. It is an act

performed via the communicative force of an utterance, which is also known

as the illocutionary force.

It is important to note that the same utterance can have quite

different illocutionary forces. For example the utterance: I see you later can

be used to show the following illocutionary forces:

1. Prediction: (I predict that I see you later)

2. Promise: (I promise you that………….)

3. Warning: (I warn you that…………….)

152 Richards, et al, 1993:217.

153 Yule, 2000:48.

154 Leech, 1996:199.

152

Perlocution/Perlocutionary Act

Perlocution or Perlocutionary act refers to the results or effects that

are produced by saying something; the effect of an utterance used to perform

a speech act. It is the act of causing a certain effect on the hearer and others.

For example, if I say There is a snake behind you, this will cause you panic,

to scream and you may run away. Causing such emotions and actions is the

result or effect of my utterance or the perloctionary act I perform by making

that utterance155. This is also referred to as perlocutionary effect156.

Note: For more practice, do exercise (2) in the Study Section.

Hint:3

Watch video 9.2, and then answer these questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. Who developed the speech act theory?

3. What distinction did he make between speech acts?

4. What are constatives?

5. What are performatives?

6. What definition does the video give for a speech act?

7. What do the actions include?

8. Give examples (from the video) for some speech acts.

9. What are felicity conditions?

10. How should performatives be? (Check the video)

Performatives and Constatives

When dealing with speech acts, a distinction is to be made between

two types; performative and constative157.

155 Hurford, et al, 2007:271-272.

156 Yule, 2000:49.

157 See Austin, 1962, Yule, 2000, Sadock, 2006 and Hurford, et al, 2007.

153

Performatives

The term performative is applied to those utterances which are

used to perform an act instead of describing it158. It is a speech act that does

something. It is an utterance which performs an act by changing the (social)

reality it is describing. Performative utterances often take the form of

declarative sentences with which the speaker performs the action denoted by

some performative verbs (e.g. promise, declare, admit, etc.). A performative

verb159 is one that can explicitly name or convey the kind of speech act being

performed. Performative utterances contain the first person pronoun '' I ''

followed by a performative verb in the present tense. For example, when

saying I promise to repay you tomorrow, it is a performative act because in

saying it the speaker actually does what the utterance describes, i.e., he

promises to repay the hearer the next day, and therefore, changes the situation

(social reality or world) by achieving something (repaying the money owed).

By uttering I apologize for my behaviour, the speaker actually makes an

apology, he does not describe himself apologizing for his behaviour.

A performative speech act can be of two types: explicit and

implicit. An explicit performative is one which contains performative verbs,

such as state, admit, promise, name, bet, agree, swear, sentence, pronounce,

order, predict, warn, insist, deny, congratulate, christen, declare, refuse etc.,

which name the speech act or illocutionary force, e.g., I (hereby) order you to

clean up all this mess, where the order is explicitly expressed160.

158 The term "Performative" was introduced by John Austin (1911 –1960) in his

philosophical lectures How to do things with words (1962), which was published two

years after his death.

159 A short list of performative verbs is given in the appendix at the end of the book.

160 It is to be noted that the use of hereby is optional.

154

On the contrary, an implicit/primary performative is a speech act

which does not contain a performative verb, e.g., Clean up this mess, where

the order is implicit (implied not clearly expressed).

Note: Now do exercise (3) in the Study Section.

Constatives

A constative speech act is an utterance which asserts something or

describes a state of affairs which may be true or false. Constatives are speech

acts which do not denote actions and do not contain a performative verb.

Constatives are mostly expressed by using declarative sentences, e.g., snow is

white (true), snow is red (false)161.

It has been suggested that there is no real difference between

constatives and implicit performatives, because when saying Chicago is in

the U.S.A, for example, it can be understood to mean (I state that) Chicago is

in the U.S.A, with the performative verb state implicitly indicated162.

Note: Now do exercise (4) in the Study Section.

Performative Formula/Hypothesis 163

Austin’s performative formula attempts to define performative

utterances in terms of a grammatical formula. It is a proposal that, underlying

every utterance, there is a clause with a verb that identifies the speech act.

The purpose is to make explicit the illocutionary act that the speaker intends

to carry out in uttering the sentence. This is also known as performative

161 Petrey, 1990:4.

162 Richards, et al, 1993: 270-271.

163 See Yule, 2000 and Sadock, 2006.

155

hypothesis. The basic format for the formula/hypothesis is as follows164:

I (hereby) VP you (that) U

The formula begins with the first person singular subject '' I '' and

an active performative verb "VP" in the simple present tense that makes

explicit the illocutionary act. In addition, the formula may contain the adverb

"hereby". There is also an indirect object in the second person singular ''you''

(which may be replaced by another indirect object) followed by the

conjunction ''that'' (which is optionally used), and ends with an underlying

clause "U" that makes explicit what is implicit. Such forms are called explicit

performatives. Therefore, the following sentences follow the performative

formula and are explicit performatives (with the italicized performative

verbs), performing illocutionary acts:

1. I (hereby) order you that you clean up this mess.

2. I christen this child Anthony.

3. I pronounce you, husband and wife.

4. I sentence you to 2 years imprisonment.

5. I must hereby renounce at your services.

It may happen that there are certain sentences that differ from the

formula, but may be considered as performatives. Look at the following

sentences:

1. You are sentenced to two years imprisonment.

2. The court sentences you to two years imprisonment.

3. Trespassers should hereby be warned that they will be prosecuted.

4. You are fired.

164 Yule, 2000:51-52.

156

All the above sentences may serve as performatives without the formula as in

(1, 2, 4) or with some modification in the formula as in (3), where the passive

is used instead of the active. It is, therefore, concluded that the performative

formula is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for recognizing those

sentences we may call performatives165.

Felicity Conditions

In general, felicity means great happiness or the quality of being

well chosen or suitable. The term Felicity Conditions refers to the conditions

which must be fulfilled for a speech act to be satisfactorily performed or

realized166. They are conditions necessary to the success of a speech act.

They are the appropriate circumstances for the performance of a speech

act167. The performance will be infelicitous (inappropriate) if the speaker is

not a specific person in a special context. If you say, for example, I sentence

you to six months imprisonment, this utterance is considered inappropriate

(infelicitous) unless you are a judge in a courtroom.

Another example, if you say: I promise the sun will set today, this

cannot be considered as a true promise, because we can only make promises

about future acts which are under our control. The felicity conditions

necessary for promises are:

1. The speaker has the ability to do the act.

2. The hearer prefers the speaker to do the act rather than not to do it.

3. The speaker intends to do the act.168

165 Sadock, 2006.

166 Richards, et al, 1993:137.

167 Yule, 2000:50.

168 Richards, et al, 1993:137-138.

157

The felicity condition for the illocutionary act of ordering is that the

speaker must be superior to, or in authority over the hearer. If, for instance, a

servant says to his master open the window, this is considered as

inappropriate or infelicitous. But if the master says the same utterance to the

servant, there is no infelicity169.

It is claimed that speaking a language is performing actions

according to specific rules, and that in everyday contexts there are

preconditions on speech acts which involve different types of felicity

conditions: general, content, preparatory, sincerity and essential

conditions170.

General Conditions

General conditions must apply to all types of illocutions. They are

preconditions on performing a speech act. The addresser must not be acting

nonsensically or pretending to be someone else and the addressee must be

capable of understanding the locution. In the example I warn you not to

smoke both the addresser and addressee are normal people. They are able to

understand each other.

Content Conditions

These are conditions whereby (by which) the content of the

utterance must be about a future event. They have to do with a proposed

future act performed by the addressee. In the example, I warn you not to

smoke, the propositional content is clearly stated “You should not smoke.” in

the future (warning).

169 Hurford, 2007:282.

170 Searle, 1969: 36.

158

The content condition involves that the performative utterance

components should fulfill the performed act, e.g., l promise to be on time for

the next meeting. The following content conditions are suggested for the act

of promising:

1. The speaker should express the promise in his utterance.

2. In expressing the promise, the speaker should predicate (state or indicate) a

future action171.

Preparatory Conditions

They are specific requirements prior to an utterance in order for it to

be considered as a particular speech act. This requires that the authority of the

speaker and the circumstances of the speech act are appropriate to its being

performed successfully. The preparatory condition of performative utterances

means that these utterances have clear purposes behind uttering them. For

example, we cannot say that we are ordering someone to do something, when

it is obvious that this person is already doing or is about to do this action172.

Similarly, the preparatory rules specify conditions which are prerequisites to

the performance of the speech act173. For instance, for the act of thanking, the

speaker must be aware that the addressee has done something of benefit to

him/her: Thanks a lot for the help you offered yesterday.

Achieving the preparatory conditions means that the participants

have the appropriate rights or authorities to perform speech acts. For

instance, to perform an act of ‘ordering’, speakers should be in superior status

171 ibid, 1980: 321.

172 Searle, 1980: 322-323.

173 Thomas, 2005: 95.

159

than their addressees174. A soldier, for example, cannot say to his officer

Quick march! This means that the authority of the speaker and the

circumstances of the speech act are appropriate to its being performed

successfully.

Sincerity Conditions

Sincerity conditions involve that both of the speaker and hearer tend

to do the desired speech act correctly, and that the speech act is being

performed seriously and sincerely. They are requirements on the genuine

intentions of a speaker in order for an utterance to count as a particular

speech act.

The sincerity condition for the act of promising implies that the

speaker should intend to do the act promised. Here, a distinction is to be

made between sincere and insincere promises. In the case of a sincere

promise the speaker intends to do the act promised, while in the case of an

insincere promise he does not intend to do the act175.

Sincerity conditions specify conditions which must be applied if

the speech act is to be performed sincerely. For instance, the sincerity

condition for the act of apology requires that the speaker must be sorry for

what has been done176:

l am deeply sorry for being rude during the meeting.

Additionally, the sincerity conditions for a warning mean that the

speaker should genuinely believe that this warned act will not have a

174 Lyons, 1977: 733.

175 Searle, 1980: 323; Harman: 1971: 67.

176 Leech and Thomas, 2005: 95.

160

beneficial effect on the hearer. For example, John says to his friend I warn

you that if you do not revise your lessons, you will not pass the exams. Here,

John’s utterance is a sincere one because he genuinely believes that his friend

cannot succeed unless he revises his lessons.

Essential Conditions

The essential conditions in performing speech acts require the

commitment of speakers and hearers to do the actions which are expressed by

their utterances. Similarly, the essential feature for the act of promising is the

undertaking of an obligation to perform a certain promise. Thus, the utterance

changes the state from non-obligation to obligation177.

Moreover, it is believed that the essential condition in performing

questions is the assumption that the speaker tries to elicit information from

the addressee178.

It is worth mentioning that the essential condition in performing

speech acts is a combination of what should be in the utterance content, the

nature of contexts and the speaker’s intentions to do these actions. Thus, it is

suggested that the essential condition to achieve a felicitous act of warning: I

warn you not to smoke is that the utterance changes the speaker’s state from

uttering general expressions to inform that there will be some bad events

expected in the future179.

Note: For more practice on felicity conditions, do exercise (5) in the Study

Section.

177 ibid; Searle (1980: 323); Yule, 2000: 51.

178 Pratt (1977: 82)

179 Yule, 2000: 51.

161

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following topics:

- Speech Act: An action performed by a speaker with an utterance.

- As regards their structure, speech acts can be divided into three

types:

- Declarative (expressing statement: You speak English), Interrogative

(expressing question: Do you speak English?), Imperative (expressing

command or request: Speak English).

- Concerning the relationship between the structure of the speech act

and its function, there are two types; direct and indirect.

- Direct Speech Act: One in which there is a direct relationship

between the structure and the function it serves:

What’s your phone number? (question)

It’s cold outside. (statement)

- Indirect Speech Act: One in which there is an indirect relationship

between the structure and its function:

Isn’t it your bedtime? (indirect command for: go to bed)

- According to their function, speech acts can be classified into five

types:

- Declaratives: They are speech acts which can change the world via

their utterance, i.e., they make a change in status due to the authority

or power of the speaker: Priest: l now pronounce you husband and wife.

- Representatives: They are speech acts that state what the speaker

believes to be the case or not: The sun rises from the east.

- Expressives: Speech acts in which the speaker expresses feelings or

162

attitudes: Congratulations! You passed.

- Directives: They are speech acts that the speaker uses to make

someone else do something: Don’t park here.

- Commissives: They are speech acts that speakers use to commit

themselves to some future action: I’m going to check it myself next time.

- Locution/Locutionary Act: The saying of something which is

meaningful and can be understood.

- Illocution/Illocutionary Act: An utterance used to perform some

kind of function: I promise to see you later.

- Perlocution/Perlocutionary Act: It refers to the results or effects

that are produced by means of saying something:

There is a snake behind you. (This will cause you panic, scream and run

away)

- Performatives: Those utterances which are used to perform an act

instead of describing it. It is a speech act that does something.

They can be of two types:

- Explicit Performative: A speech act which contains performative

verbs, such as promise, name, bet, agree, swear, order, predict,

warn, insist, deny, admit, congratulate, declare, refuse:

I promise to repay you tomorrow.

- Implicit Performative: A speech act which does not contain a

performative verb: Clean up this mess.

- Constatives: Speech acts which assert something or describe a state

of affairs which may be true or false: Snow is white. (true) , Snow is red.

(false)

- Performative Hypothesis/Formula: A proposal which attempts to

define performative utterances in terms of a grammatical formula:

I (hereby) VP (you) (that) U

163

I (hereby) order you that you clean up this mess.

- Felicity Conditions: The conditions which must be fulfilled for a

speech act to be satisfactorily performed or realized. They are five

types:

- General Conditions: They are preconditions on performing a

speech act.

- Content Conditions: They are conditions whereby the content of

the utterance must be about a future event: I warn you not to smoke (the

prepositional content is clearly stated “You should not smoke.” in the

case of warning).

- Preparatory Conditions: They are specific requirements prior to an

utterance in order for it to count as a particular speech act.

- Sincerity Conditions: They are requirements on the genuine

intentions of a speaker in order for an utterance to count as a

particular speech act. Both of the speaker and hearer tend to do the

desired speech act correctly: I warn you that if you do not revise your

lessons, you will not pass the exams.

- Essential Conditions: Speech acts that require the commitment of

speakers and hearers to do the actions which are expressed by their

utterances: I warn you not to smoke.

This chapter has introduced some basic ideas about speech acts,

their types and the necessary conditions for speech acts to be successfully

performed. The next chapter will deal with politeness and face theory.

164

Study Section

Questions

1. Define a speech act. What types is it? Give examples.

2. What do speech acts describe?

3. What types are speech acts according to their structure? Give examples.

4. Point out the differences between direct and indirect speech acts. Give

examples.

5. What types are speech acts according to their function?

6. What are declaratives? Exemplify.

7. What are representatives? Exemplify.

8. What are expressives? Exemplify.

9. What are directives? Exemplify.

10. What are commissives? Exemplify.

11. Define locutionary act. Give an example.

12. Define illocutionary act. Give an example.

13. Define perlocutionary act. Give an example.

14. Make a distinction between performatives and constatives. Exemplify.

15. What is the difference between explicit and implicit performatives?

16. What is meant by the performative formula? Elaborate with examples.

17. What do felicity conditions refer to?

18. Mention the felicity conditions necessary for promises.

19. Felicity conditions can be of different types. What are they? Give

examples.

Exercises

Exercise 1: Indicate and explain why each of the following is a direct speech

act (DSA) or an indirect speech act (ISA).

1. It is a warm day.

2. I order you to revise your lessons!

3. I warn you that if you cheat in the exam you will get zero.

4. What about going to the cafeteria?

5. I suggest we go to the cafeteria.

165

6. It’s very hot in here.

7. A child says to his mother “I am hungry”.

8. Go to bed.

9. Isn’t it past your bedtime?

10. You should have been in bed long ago.

Exercise 2: State and explain whether each of the following is a locution (L),

an illocution (IL) or a perlocution (PL).

1. I see you later.

2. I predict that I see you later.

3. He said to me ' Shoot her!'

4. He urged/advised/ordered me to shoot her.

5. He persuaded me to shoot her.

Exercise 3: Indicate and explain why each of the following is explicit or

implicit performative.

1. I shall be there tomorrow.

2. I promise I shall be here tomorrow.

3. I find, pronounce, deem you to be guilty.

4. Study hard or you’ll fail.

5. I warn you to study or you’ll fail.

6. I admit I am mistaken.

7. I am mistaken.

Exercise 4: Are the following utterances performatives (P) or constatives

(C). Give clear explanation.180

1. I name this baby Ahmed.

2. I believe in human rights.

3. I admit I was guilty.

4. I think I was wrong.

5. I hereby inform you that you are sacked (fired).

6. I give supper every night.

7. I warn you not to do that again.

8. I’m trying to open this box.

9. I pronounce you wife and husband (said by a schoolmaster).

10. I pronounce you wife and husband (said by a priest).

180 Adapted from Hurford, 2007: 264.

166

Exercise 5: Indicate the correct felicity conditions (a, b, c, d). In each case

only two felicity conditions are correct181.

1. Promising

a. The speaker must intend to carry out the thing promised.

b. The speaker must be inferior in status to the hearer.

c. The thing promised must be something that the hearer wants to happen.

d. The thing promised must be normally wrong.

2. Apologizing

a. The speaker must be responsible for the thing apologized for.

b. The thing apologized for must be unavoidable.

c. The thing apologized for must be normally wrong.

d. The hearer must not want the thing apologized for to happen or to have

happened.

3. Greeting

a. The speaker and the hearer must be different sex.

b. The speaker and the hearer must not be in the middle of a conversation.

c. The speaker must believe the hearer to have recently suffered a loss.

d. The speaker feels some respect and/or sense of comity with the hearer.

4. Naming

a. The thing or person named must not already have a recognized name known to

the speaker.

b. The speaker must be recognized by his community as having authority to name.

c. The thing or person named must belong to the speaker.

d. The thing or person named must be held in considerable respect by the

community.

5. Protesting

a. The speaker and the hearer must have recently been in conflict with each other.

b. The speaker must disapprove of the state of affairs protested at.

c. The state of affairs protested at must be disapproved of by the community

generally.

d. The hearer must be held to be responsible (by the speaker) for the state of affairs

protested at.

181 ibid, 282-283.

167

6. Ordering

a. The speaker and hearer must be of equal position or authority.

b. The hearer must be inferior to the speaker.

c. The speaker must be superior to, or in authority over, the hearer.

d. The hearer must be superior to the speaker.

168

Chapter Ten:

Politeness and

Interaction

169

10 Politeness and Interaction

Starter

In this chapter we deal with the following topics:

- Politeness

- Face Theory

- Positive/Negative Face

- Face-Threatening Act (FTA)

- Face-Saving Act (FSA)

- Politeness: Positive/Negative

- Impoliteness: Positive/Negative

Hint: 1

Look at the figure below and answer these questions:

1. What is the figure about?

2. Which words in the figure are found in the Starter?

3. Is politeness important in social interaction? Why?

4. What is the connection between politeness and one’s face?

Figure: 10.1

Hint: 2

Watch this video (10.1), and then answer the questions below:

170

1. What is the video about?

2. What type of language is the girl using? How?

3. What is the man teaching her? How?

4. When do we use such expressions?

5. Is the man in dialogue 2 using a polite language? Why?

6. Why is the second man angry?

7. Is the first man using these polite requests in their correct contexts?

Politeness: Background and Definition

Social interaction is governed by two main factors; external and

internal. External factors involve the relative status of participants based on

social values tied to age and power. This situation requires participants to use

polite address forms such as titles and last name: Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Smith,

etc., to lessen the effect of direct and familiar expressions: Hilary, Peter.

Internal factors involve the amount of imposition and degree of friendliness

that depend on social distance. These factors result in either dropping polite

forms and using the first name or nickname (in case of closeness) or using

titles and last names (in case of distance).

Generally, politeness means showing awareness and consideration of

another person’s face or public self-image182. As a fixed concept, politeness

is seen as polite social behaviour or etiquette within a culture. It has to do

with ideas like being tactful, modest, generous, sympathetic and nice to other

people. Politeness is seen as a way of using communicative strategies to

create and maintain social harmony183. This can be done in various ways:

showing regard for others, in manners, speech and behaviour, being

courteous, being contextually appropriate, following social and cultural

182 Yule, 2010:135.

183 Culpeper, 2009.

171

norms and being socially positive by addressing face needs. Politeness in

language is studied to enhance our general understanding of social order and

human cooperation within society.

Politeness is one of the constraints of human interaction, whose

purpose is to consider other's feelings, establish levels of mutual comfort, and

promote friendly relationship184. It is what we think is appropriate behaviour

in particular situations in an attempt to achieve and maintain successful social

relationships with others.185 Linguistically, politeness refers to the use of

expressions that are both contextually appropriate and socially positive as

understood by the addressee.

For communication to proceed smoothly, language users have to be

skilful and cautious in the choice of their words in a way that avoids

criticism, embarrassment and loss of self-respect, and at the same time

maintain cooperation, interaction and self-image.

There is a relationship between politeness and indirectness; the more

indirect a suggestion or a request, the more polite the utterance is perceived

to be, and therefore this ‘saves face’ more than a direct request186. For

example, the indirect request: Would you kindly pass me that book? is

considered more polite than the direct request: Pass me that book, please.

Humans tend to be polite in similar ways, based on two requirements:

No criticism and No interference. Humans want to be approved of (not

criticized), and they do not want to be imposed upon187 (not interfered with).

Consequently, anyone with some knowledge of polite social behaviour or

184 Hill, et al, 1986: 282.

185 Lakoff, 1972: 910.

186 Leech, 1996.

187 Aitchison, 2003:133.

172

etiquette will minimize criticism of others and will avoid interfering with

their liberty, and show awareness and consideration of another’s face.

Hint: 3

Watch this video (10. 2), and then answer these questions:

1. What is the video about?

2. Who developed this theory?

3. What is politeness according to the speaker? Why?

4. What does the term 'face' refer to?

5. What is positive politeness?

6. What is meant by negative face?

7. What is negative politeness associated with? Give an example.

8. How many ways are there to engage in FTAs? Give examples.

9. What formula did Brown and Levinson provide?

Face Theory and Politeness

Face Theory is based on the term face in the expression “to lose

face” and “to save face”, meaning self-respect or dignity188. This theory was

proposed by Goffman (1955) and later developed by Brown and Levinson

(1987). The term face is defined as the public self-image every adult

represents, which must be attended to in interaction189. Briefly stated, it refers

to a person’s public self-image. It is that emotional and social sense of self

that everyone has and expects others to recognize190. Practically, when people

communicate with each other, all participants are in charge of maintaining

not only their own face, but also other people’s face.

188 Brown and Levinson, 1987.

189 ibid.

190 Yule, 2000:60.

173

As for the relationship between face and politeness, politeness can be

seen as a tool to save face, both for the speaker and the hearer191. Politeness

in interaction can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of

another person’s face. In this sense politeness can be accomplished in

situations of social distance or closeness. Showing awareness for another’s

face when that other seems socially distant is often described in terms of

respect or deference. An example of this case is found in a student’s question

to his teacher: Excuse me Mr. Peterson, but can I talk to you for a minute?

(formal and polite). Whereas, showing the equivalent awareness when the

other is socially close is often described in terms of friendliness, camaraderie

(feeling of friendship and trust) or solidarity. An example of this case is

found in a friend’s question to the same person: Hey, Pete, got a minute?

(informal and familiar)192. These and similar examples show that politeness is

governed by the relative degree of social distance or closeness among

participants involved in social interaction.

There are two aspects of face: positive and negative. Positive face is

the desire to be approved, appreciated, liked and accepted. It is the need to be

treated as a member of the same group, and to know that one’s wants are

shared by others. It is the need to be connected with others193. In this sense, a

person with a positive face is one who belongs to the group by being

approved of (by using polite and euphemistic expressions), and having the

desire to be positively regarded in social context194.

191 Brown and Levinson (cited in Brown and Attardo, 2005: 83)

192 Yule, 2000:60.

193 Brown and Levinson (1987: 13) and Yule, 2000: 62.

194 Mansoor and Rifaat, 2014.

174

Negative face is the need or desire to have freedom of action, to be

independent and not to be imposed upon by others. Negative face is

concerned with the participant’s desire to be autonomous or independent and

free from imposition in a way that saves self-image.195 Negative face refers to

the want of every competent adult member that his/her actions be unimpeded

by others.

In everyday social interaction, people generally behave in ways which

display two types of face acts: face threatening act and face saving act. A

Face-Threatening Act (FTA) is an utterance or action which threatens a

person’s public self-image. It refers to something said by the speaker that

represents a threat to another person’s expectations regarding self-image196. It

is an act which deliberately threatens the face needs of others, and damages

the face of the addressee or speaker by acting in opposition to the wants and

desires of the other197. For example, if you directly say to someone: Give me

that book, you are speaking in a way that shows threat to the addressee; you

are behaving as if you have more social power than that person. If you are not

in a higher position (such as an officer or a prison warden), then you are

performing a face-threatening act. FTAs are those acts that by their nature run

contrary to the face wants of the addressee and/or of the speaker’s.

Conversely, a Face-Saving Act (FSA) is an utterance or action which

avoids possible threat to a person’s public self-image. It is saying something

to lessen the possible threat to another’s face. It is an action that saves the

addressee’s face by using a less direct and more polite speech act. If you say:

195 Brown and Attardo, 2005: 83.

196 Yule, 2000:61.

197 Brown and Levinson, 1987.

175

Could you pass that book?, then you are removing the possibility of any

threat to the addressee’s face by respecting his/her face wants, and thus

performing a face-saving act.

Note: Now do exercise (2) in the Study Section.

Hint: 4

Watch this video (10.3), and then answer these questions:

1. What is the title of the video?

2. What is meant by the politeness principle?

3. What does the term 'face' refer to?

4. How many faces do we have? What are they?

5. What strategies are used to be polite with one another and make sure we are not

threatening faces? Give examples.

Positive and Negative Politeness

Positive Politeness is showing solidarity with another198. It appeals to

the addressee’s positive face, his/her desire that his/her wants should be

thought of as desirable. This includes satisfying that desire by

communicating that the speaker’s own wants are in some respects similar to

the addressee’s wants. It is one that saves or maintains the other person’s

self-image. Positive politeness means communication, solidarity, familiarity,

symmetry (similarity), balance and a highly sociable environment.

It is usually seen in groups of friends or when the people involved try

to minimize the social distance through expression of friendliness, or where

people in the given social situation know each other fairly well. Positive

politeness indicates appreciation of the other’s desires in general or expresses

similarity between self and other: Open the window, darling/mate.

198 Yule, 2000:132.

176

Positive politeness strategies address the other’s positive face wants.

They seek to minimize the threat to the hearer’s positive face. They are used

to make the hearer feel good about himself/herself, his/her interests or

possessions are most usually used in situations where the audience knows

each other fairly well199 . Consider the following examples which illustrate

some aspects of positive politeness strategies200:

- Attend to the hearer’s interests, needs, wants:

You look sad. Can I do anything?

You must be hungry; it’s a long time since breakfast. How about some lunch?

- Use solidarity in-group identity markers:

Heh, mate, can you lend me a dollar?

Hey brother, what’s going on?

- Be optimistic:

I’ll just come along, if you don’t mind.

You’ll lend me your apartment-key for the weekend, I hope.

- Include both speaker (S) and hearer (H) in activity:

If we help each other, I guess, we’ll both manage to do it.

Let’s have break! Let’s have a drink!

- Offer or promise:

If you wash the dishes, I’ll vacuum the floor.

I’ll try to get it next week!

- Exaggerate interest in H:

That’s a nice haircut you got; where did you get it?

You are a fantastic cook, the lunch was great!

What a beautiful dress! Where was it bought?

199 Foley, 1997 cited in Wikipedia.

200 Brown and Levinson, 1987; see also: eclass.uoa.gr/positive/negative politeness strategies.

177

- Avoid disagreement/seek agreement:

Yes, it’s rather long; not short certainly.

It’s really beautiful in a way.

Negative politeness means that people are aware of others’ need for

privacy, and their desire not to be imposed upon. The addressee wants to

have his/her freedom unhindered and his attention unimpeded. Negative

politeness means to respect the social distance (between speaker and hearer),

the avoidance of suppositions connected to the interlocutor (hearer),

avoidance behaviour or that of redressing a difficult situation etc., and the

decrease of one’s personality simultaneously with the exaggeration of the

other’s value. Negative politeness appeals to negative face. It can be

considered as a strategy for self-protection for both speaker and hearer.

Negative politeness strategies attempt to demonstrate awareness of

another’s right not to be imposed on. They address negative face by showing

distance and impersonality. They are oriented towards the hearer’s negative

face and emphasize avoidance of imposition on the hearer. These strategies

presume that the speaker will be imposing on the listener and there is a higher

potential for awkwardness or embarrassment than positive politeness

strategies201. Below are some aspects of negative politeness strategies202:

- Be indirect:

I'm looking for a pen. (instead of asking for it)

By the way, where did you find this book?

- Minimize imposition:

I just want to ask you if I could use your computer.

Could I have a taste of that cake? (instead of a slice)

201 Brown and Levinson, 1987.

202 eclass.uoa.gr/Positive/negative politeness strategies.

178

- Be pessimistic:

You wouldn’t lend me your notes, would you?

I don’t suppose there’d be any possibility of you bringing the money.

-

Give deference (behaviour of respect):

We look forward very much to seeing you again.

Yes, sir, I thought perhaps you wouldn´t mind and.….

- Apologize:

I’m sure you must be very busy but …….(can l ask you a question?)

I hate to intrude/impose but …….

I’m sorry to bother/interrupt you, but …….

Note: Now do exercise (3) in the Study Section.

Impoliteness

Impoliteness, as a social phenomenon, is defined as a discourteous

manner that ignores accepted social usage and behaviour. It is an impolite

manner that is vulgar, rude, insulting and lacking tact or refinement203. It is a

kind of behaviour that is characterized by rudeness, discourtesy and the use

of strategies that are designed to cause social disruption instead of

maintaining social harmony204. Generally, impoliteness involves language or

behaviour which is negatively evaluated in a particular context. It is

negatively evaluated because it attacks somebody’s identity or rights. It

causes specific emotional reactions (e.g. hurt, anger, embarrassment).

Impoliteness is the use of strategies which are designed to attack the hearer’s

face and thereby cause social conflict and disharmony205. In fact, there are

203 www.the freedictionary.com.

204 Culpeper, 1996; Brown and Levinson, 1987.

205 Culpeper et al, 2003:1550.

179

certain rules that govern social interaction and any break of those rules

creates impoliteness.

As a linguistic phenomenon, impoliteness refers to a strategy which

lacks tactful, polite and courteous style and diction. In this sense, it is closely

related to dysphemism in that impoliteness involves the use of tactless,

unrefined and vulgar language206.

There are some frequent and direct ways in which somebody is

impolite. These include the use of the vocatives (the use of first name without

titles: John instead of Mr. Smith) and impolite names, words and expressions:

moron/plonker/dickhead (very stupid) rotten/dirty/fat/pig/shit/liar/bastard/

shut up/gonna smash your face/box your ears, etc.

There are also some indirect ways of being impolite. Consider the

following situation at the pub207:

As I walked over to the table to collect the glasses,

Sally said to Aiden: “Come on Aiden lets go outside”.

This is a clear example of indirect impoliteness. Asking Aiden to go outside

the moment I entered the pub, implies Sally didn’t want me there. So, I just

let the glasses go and walked away.

Just like politeness, impoliteness can be positive and negative.

Positive impoliteness involves attacking one’s want to be approved of. It is

designed to damage the addressee’s positive face wants, the desire to be

appreciated or approved of. The positive impoliteness strategy includes many

things such as: ignoring the other, excluding the other from an activity, being

206 Mansoor and Rifaat, 2014: 9.

207 Adapted from Culpeper, 2005.

180

disinterested, unconcerned, unsympathetic, using obscure or secretive

(tending to hide feelings, ideas, etc.) language, seeking disagreement, using

taboo, swear words and derogatory (insulting) remarks, calling the other bad

names, selecting a sensitive topic, making the other feel uncomfortable,

etc.208.

Negative impoliteness involves attacking freedom of action and the

addressee’s negative face. It also involves the use of strategies deployed to

damage the hearer’s negative face wants. Examples of such strategies

include: scorn or ridicule, emphasize one’s relative power, being

contemptuous (scornful), not treating the other seriously, belittling the other

(e.g. use diminutives), personalizing: using the pronouns “I” and “you”,

hindering or blocking the other physically or linguistically209.

Note: Now do exercise (4) in the Study Section.

208 Culpeper, 1996: 357.

209 ibid.

181

Reminder

In this chapter we have focused on the following topics:

- Social interaction is governed by a number of factors; external and

internal.

- External Factors: The relative status of participants based on

social values tied to age and power.

- Internal Factors: The amount of imposition and degree of

friendliness that depend on social distance.

- Generally, politeness means showing awareness of another

person’s public self-image. It has to do with ideas like being tactful,

modest, generous, sympathetic and nice to other people.

As a fixed concept, politeness is seen as polite social behaviour or

etiquette within a culture to create and maintain social harmony.

- Face Theory is based on the term face in the expression “to lose

face” and “to save face”, meaning self-respect or dignity.

- Face: A person’s public self-image.

- Positive Face: The need or desire to be approved, appreciated,

liked, accepted and belong to a group.

- Negative Face: The need or desire to have freedom of action, to be

independent and not to be imposed upon by others.

- Face-Threatening Act (FTA): An utterance or action which

threatens a person’s public self-image.

- Face-Saving Act (FSA): An utterance or action which avoids

182

possible threat to a person’s public self-image.

- Positive Politeness: Showing solidarity with another.

- Positive Politeness Strategies: An appeal to solidarity with

another. They address the other’s positive face wants. They seek to

minimize the threat to the hearer’s positive face.

- Negative Politeness: Awareness of another’s right not to be

imposed on. It means that people are aware of others’ need for

privacy, and their desire not to be intruded upon.

- Negative Politeness Strategies: They attempt to demonstrate

awareness of another’s right not to be imposed on.

- Impoliteness: A discourteous manner that ignores accepted social

usage and behaviour. It is an impolite manner that is vulgar, rude,

insulting and lacking tact or refinement

- Positive Impoliteness: Attacking one’s want to be approved of. It

is designed to damage the addressee’s positive face wants.

- Negative Impoliteness: The use of strategies employed to damage

the hearer’s negative face wants.

This chapter has introduced the concept of (im) politeness, and its role

in social interaction. Face theory has also been introduced due to its

relevance to the issue.

183

Study Section

Questions

1. What do external factors involve? Explain.

2. What do internal factors involve? Explain.

3. How is politeness seen as a fixed concept?

4. Politeness is defined as using communicative strategies to create and

maintain social harmony? How can this be done?

5. Why do we study politeness in language?

6. What is the purpose of politeness?

7. Linguistically, what does politeness refer to?

8. What do language users need to have for communication to proceed

smoothly?

9. Is there relationship between politeness and indirectness? How?

10. What two requirements do humans need to be polite?

11. What is face theory based on?

12. Define face. What does it refer to?

13. How does social distance or closeness affect awareness of another

person’s face?

14. What is the difference between positive and negative face?

15. Mention the two types of face acts. What does each one refer to?

16. Make a clear-cut distinction between positive and negative politeness.

17. What are positive politeness strategies? What do they seek, and what are

they used for?

18. Cite examples of positive politeness strategies.

19. What are negative politeness strategies? Give examples.

20. How is impoliteness defined?

21. What is impoliteness characterized by?

22. What does impoliteness, as a linguistic phenomenon, refer to?

23. What are some ways in which somebody is impolite?

24. Cite examples of indirect ways of being impolite.

25. What does positive impoliteness refer to?

26. Positive impoliteness involves the use of a strategy to damage the

hearer’s positive face wants. What does this strategy include?

184

27. What does negative impoliteness involve?

28. What do impoliteness strategies involve?

Exercises

Exercise 1: Which one of the following utterances is considered polite (P) or

impolite (IP). Say why?

1. Pass the salt.

2. Could you pass the salt?

3. Stop drinking.

4. I wonder if we should keep our heads clear for tomorrow’s meeting.

5. l think it’s your bed time.

6. You ought to go to bed now. Do you want to stay up to the morning?

7. Shut up you silly idiot?

8. Will you stop talking, please?

Exercise 2: Which of the following pairs of utterances in the situations below

is described as FTA and which one as FSA?

1. Situation: A neighbour is playing music very loud and a couple are trying to sleep.

Husband: I’m going to tell him to stop that terrible noise right now.

Wife: Perhaps you could just ask him to stop soon because it’s getting a bit late and

people need to get to sleep.

2. Situation: You’re a teacher and one of your students got a bad mark in the exam.

A: Your performance was terribly bad in the exam. You’re going to fail this semester.

B: I think your performance in the exam was not satisfactory.

I hope you do much better the next time.

3. Situation: An office manager; and his secretary has come late to the office.

A: Janet, consider your responsibility as a secretary. Punctuality is highly recommended.

B: If you do it again, you’ll be fired.

4. Situation: A colleague made a bad presentation at the seminar.

A: A way from the technical part, it was not well presented.

B: The presentation was a horrible one. You’d better not do it again.

5. Situation: A son has behaved impolitely in front of the guests.

Father: Why didn’t you behave gently with our guest last night?

Mother: You were totally rude with the guests.

6. The bank requests customers to extinguish their cigarettes.

A: Customers are requested not to smoke. It is not allowed. No smoking.

B: Customers are respectfully requested not to smoke. No smoking please.

185

Exercise 3: Which of the following utterances shows positive politeness (PP),

and which one shows negative politeness (NP)? Say why?

1. What a beautiful dress! Where was it bought?

2. You are an excellent actor, the performance was great!

3. We will shut the door, ma’am. The wind is coming in.

4. Yesterday I’d washed the dishes, so today it’s your turn!

5. You couldn’t give me a cigarette, could you?

6. I hope this isn’t going to bother you too much.

7. Heh, mate, can you lend me a dollar?

8. I’m sorry; it’s a lot to ask, but can you lend me a thousand dollars?

9. I don't mean to bother you, but can I ask a quick question?

10. I don’t suppose there would be any chance of a cup of tea?

Exercise 4: Which of the following strategies shows positive impoliteness

(PIP), and which one shows negative impoliteness (NIP)?

1. Scorn or ridicule the other.

2. Ignoring the other, excluding the other from an activity.

3. Emphasize one’s relative power.

4. Being disinterested, unconcerned and unsympathetic.

5. Using taboo, swear words and derogatory remarks.

6. Belittling the other (e.g. use diminutives).

7. Calling bad names, selecting a sensitive topic and making the other feel

uncomfortable.

8. Personalizing: using the pronouns “I” and “you”.

186

Glossary

Agent: A semantic role that refers to the doer of the action (that initiates or

performs the action).

Agreement Maxim: A maxim of politeness which minimizes disagreement

between self and other and maximizes agreement between self and other.

Ambiguity: The state of having more than one possible meaning or

interpretation.

Anaphor: A word, typically a pronoun, used to refer to someone or

something mentioned earlier, e.g., The taxi driver was a good man.

(antecedent)/ He helped us a lot. (anaphor)

Anomaly: A term used to refer to strange or unusual meaning that violates

semantic rules.

Antecedent: The first mention of a word or a phrase for which an anaphor is

used later, He refers to taxi driver.

Antonyms: Two words of opposite meaning, e.g., old/young (new)

Antonymy: Lexical relationship of having words of opposite meaning.

Aphasia: An impairment of language function due to localized brain damage

that leads to difficulty in understanding and/or producing language.

Approbation Maxim: A maxim of politeness which minimizes dispraise of

other and maximizes praise of other.

Associative Meaning: All associations a person might think of when hearing

a word or a sentence.

Collocation: The company words keep in the language, i.e. words that

naturally go together, e.g., bread and butter, ladies and gentlemen.

Commissives: Speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to some

future action.

Conceptual Meaning: It covers those basic components of meaning that are

conveyed by the literal use of words (as found in dictionaries).

Conceptual Metaphor: An underlying association that is systematic in both

language and thought.

Content Conditions: Conditions by which the content of the utterance must

be about a future event.

187

Context: A situation in which something happens, and that helps to

understand it.

Connotation: The associations made between the basic or conceptual

meaning and an additional non-literal or metaphorical meaning.

Connotative Meaning: The additional meaning that a word or a phrase has

beyond its central or core meaning.

Constant Reference: Words in language which have unique or unchangeable

identity, such as: the moon, the sun, the north/south pole, London, Paris,

Japan, Europe, the Eiffel Tower, etc.

Constative Speech Act: An utterance which asserts something or describes a

state of affairs which may be true or false.

Converse Antonyms: Two-way contrast that is interdependent in that the

existence of one member presupposes the existence of the other, e.g.,

buy/sell, give/take.

Cooperative Principle: An underlying assumption of conversation which

states that humans communicate efficiently because they are by nature

helpful to each other.

Declaratives: Speech acts which can change the world via their utterance,

i.e., they make a change in status due to the authority or power of the

speaker.

Declarative Speech Act: A speech act expressing statement: You speak

English.

Degree of a Predicate: A number indicating the number of arguments in

simple sentences.

Deixis: A word or a phrase which directly relates an utterance to time, place

or people.

Denotation: The actual, conceptual or literal meaning of words as explained

in the dictionary.

Denotative Meaning: The central or core meaning of a lexical item

(dictionary definition/meaning).

Direct Speech Act: One in which there is a direct relationship between the

structure and the function it serves: Close the door.

188

Directives: Speech acts that the speaker uses to make someone else do

something: Don’t park here.

Entailment: A logical relationship between two sentences where the truth of

one requires the truth of the other.

Equative Sentence: A sentence used to assert the identity of two referring

expressions, i.e., to assert that the two referring expressions have the same

referent.

Essential Condition: Speech acts which require the commitment of speakers

and hearers to do the actions which are expressed by their utterances.

Explicit Performative: A speech act which contains a performative verb,

such as promise, name, bet, agree, etc.

Expressives: Speech acts in which the speaker expresses feelings or

attitudes: Congratulations! You passed.

Face: A person’s public self-image.

Face Theory: A theory based on the term face in the expression “to lose

face” and “to save face”, meaning self-respect or dignity.

Face-Saving Act (FSA): An utterance or action which avoids possible threat

to a person’s public self-image.

Face-Threatening Act (FTA): An utterance or action which threatens a

person’s public self-image.

Felicity Conditions: The appropriate conditions which must be fulfilled for a

speech act to be satisfactorily performed or realized.

Flouting: A violation of any maxim.

General Conditions: Conditions that apply to all types of illocutions. They

are preconditions on performing a speech act.

Generosity Maxim: A maxim of politeness which minimizes benefit to self

and maximizes cost to self: You relax and let me do the dishes.

Goal: A noun that is aimed at. It is also known as direction; where the action

is directed towards: He jumped into the river.

Gradable Antonyms: Opposites which can be measured in terms of a scale

or degree, e.g., small/big, old/young.

189

Grammatical Collocation (Colligation): A type of collocation which is

chiefly determined by a grammatical word or structure like a preposition

which collocates with the headword: tired of, depend on.

Homophones: Words with the same pronunciation, but with different

spelling and meaning, e.g., see, sea.

Homophonic Pun: Word pairs which sound alike (homophones) but are not

synonymous: To keep the Russians in Czech/check /tʃek/.

Homonyms: Words of the same spelling and same pronunciation, but have

different (unrelated) meanings, e.g., head, bank.

Hyponymy: A lexical relationship in which the meaning of one word is

included in the meaning of another.

Hyponyms: Pairs of words in which the meaning of one word is included in

the meaning of another, e.g., dog is a hyponym of animal.

Idiom: A group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of

the individual words.

Illocution/Illocutionary Act: An utterance used to perform some kind of

function.

Imperative Speech Act: A speech act expressing command or request:

Speak in English.

Implicature: An additional conveyed meaning. It refers to what is suggested

in an utterance, even though neither expressed nor strictly implied by the

utterance.

Implicit Performative: A speech act which does not contain a performative

verb: Clean up this mess.

Impoliteness: A discourteous manner that ignores accepted social usage or

norms.

Indirect Speech Act: A speech act in which there is an indirect relationship

between the structure and its function: Isn’t it your bedtime?

Inference: The act of forming an opinion based on what one already knows:

Can I use your Chomsky/Shakespeare?

Instrument: A noun by means of which the action is carried out, e.g., He

opened the door with a key.

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Interrogative Speech Act: A speech act expressing question: Do you speak

English?

Irony: The use of words that say the opposite of what you really mean, often

as a joke.

Lexical Collocations: Two lexical items that collocate, i.e. the components

are lexical not grammatical, e.g., make a mistake, do a favour.

Lexical Relations: Relations of meaning between words which constitute a

general pattern.

Linguistic Context: Set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence

in a written text or an utterance.

Literal Meaning: Straightforward or factual meaning (dictionary definition/

meaning).

Location: The place where the action occurs: They played in the park.

Locution/Locutionary Act: The saying of something which is meaningful

and can be understood.

Manner: The way in which an action is carried out (how it is done).

Maxim: One of the four sub-principles of the cooperative principle, and the

six components of politeness principle.

Maxim of Manner: A maxim of conversation which involves being, brief,

clear and orderly.

Maxim of Relevance: A maxim of conversation which involves being

relevant.

Maxim of Quality: A maxim of conversation which involves being truthful.

Maxim of Quantity: A maxim of conversation which involves being exact

and accurate.

Meronymy: A part-whole relationship between lexical items, e.g., wheel,

engine, oil pump, brake are meronyms of car.

Metaphor: An imaginative use of language in which there is indirect

comparison between two different objects that share something in common:

She has a heart of stone.

Metonymy: The act of referring to something by the name of something else

that is closely connected with it: crown/monarch for king/queen.

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Modesty Maxim: A maxim of politeness which minimizes praise of self and

maximizes dispraise of self.

Multi-Word Chunks: Vocabulary items consisting of a sequence of two or

more words which semantically and/or syntactically form a meaningful and

inseparable unit: Collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms, proverbs.

Negative Face: The desire and need to have freedom of action, to be

independent and not to be imposed upon by others.

Negative Impoliteness: The use of strategies deployed to damage the

hearer’s negative face wants.

Negative Politeness: Awareness of another’s right not to be imposed on.

Non-Gradable/Binary Antonyms: Antonyms which are not used in the

comparative, and the negative of one member in the pair does imply the

other: dead/alive, married/single.

Opaque Context: That part of a sentence which could be made into a

complete sentence by the addition of a referring expression.

Paraphrase: A restatement of speech or writing that retains the basic

meaning while changing the words.

Patient: A noun that receives an action; upon which the action is carried out:

The boy ate the apple.

Performative: A speech act that does something. It is an utterance which

performs an act by changing the (social) reality it is describing: I promise to

repay you tomorrow.

Performative Hypothesis/Formula: It is a proposal that, underlying every

utterance, there is a clause with a verb that identifies the speech act:

I (hereby) VP you (that) U

Performative Verb: A verb that explicitly names the speech act, e.g.,

promise, warn, announce, state, etc.

Perlocution/Perlocutionary Act: The results or effects that are produced by

means of saying something. The effect of an utterance used to perform a

speech act: He prevents me from doing that next time.

Person Deixis: Forms used to point to people (he, she, this girl).

Phrasal Verb: The combination of a verb + a particle (preposition or adverb)

resulting in a new unit: go off ; run into.

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Politeness: Showing awareness of another person’s public self-image.

Polysemy: The case of having one form or word with multiple and related

meanings: head, foot.

Positive Face: The desire and need to be approved, appreciated, liked,

accepted and belong to a group.

Positive Impoliteness: Attacking one’s want to be approved of. It is designed

to damage the addressee’s positive face wants.

Positive Politeness: Showing solidarity with another.

Positive Politeness Strategy: An appeal to solidarity with another.

Pragmatics: The study of meaning in context or speaker meaning.

Pragmatic Competence: The ability to understand another speaker's

intended meaning.

Predicate: Any word which can function as the predicator of a sentence.

Predicator: A word which does not belong to any of the referring

expressions (in a simple declarative sentence), and carries the most specific

information or meaning: John loves Mary.

Preparatory Conditions: Specific requirements prior to an utterance in

order to count as a particular speech act.

Presupposition: Something the speaker assumes to be the truth before

making an utterance. It refers to what a speaker or writer assumes that the

receiver of the message already knows: When did you give up smoking?

Proverb: A well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says

something that is generally true: Birds of a feather flock together.

Prototype: A typical type or example of a category or a group: Carrot is a

prototype of the category vegetable which includes cucumber, carrot, okra,

potato, tomato, etc.

Proposition: A declarative sentence which describes a state of affairs.

Purpose: The reason for which an action is performed: He studied hard to

pass.

Pun: A clever or humorous use of a word that has more than one meaning:

Short Sharp Lecture in Karate.

Recipient: A noun that receives something: John sent an email to Tara.

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Reference: The relationship between a word or a phrase and an entity in the

external world (outside language).

Referring Expression: An expression (a word) that refers to somebody or

something with a particular referent in mind.

Representatives: Speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the

case or not: This is not a German car.

Sarcasm: A remark or an insult made with the intent to mock or hurt

somebody: What a genius you are! (said to someone who is unintelligent or

slow on the uptake).

Semantics: The study of the meaning (of words, phrases and sentences) in

language.

Semanticist: A linguist who is concerned with the study of meaning or a

specialist in semantics.

Semantic Features: A set of defining qualities or properties that can be used

to describe and analyse the meaning of words.

Semantic Theory: A part of a larger theory (linguistic theory) which

includes the study of syntax, phonetics and semantics.

Sentence: A string of words put together by the grammatical rules of

language.

Sentence Meaning: What a sentence means literally.

Sincerity Conditions: Requirements on the genuine intentions of a speaker

in order for an utterance to count as a particular speech act. Both of the

speakers and hearers tend to do the desired speech act correctly.

Social Deixis: Forms used to indicate relative social status.

Source/Origin: A thematic relation that refers to where the action originated:

She walked away from the library.

Spatial Deixis: Forms used to point to a location (here, there, near that).

Speaker Meaning: The kind of meaning that an individual person wants to

convey when he/she uses language.

Sense: The relationships between elements or words inside the language

system, whose meaning is dependent on other elements or words in the

system.

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Speech Act: An action performed by a speaker with an utterance. It is an

utterance which involves some kind of action or effect.

Synecdoche: A word or a phrase in which a part is used to represent a whole:

A hand that can be clasped no more (hand part of a body).

Synonyms: Words with the same or nearly the same meaning: big/large;

difficult/hard.

Synonymy: A relationship in which two or more words have the same, or

nearly the same meaning.

Sympathy Maxim: A maxim of politeness which minimizes antipathy

between self and other and maximizes sympathy between self and other.

Tact Maxim: A maxim of politeness which minimizes cost to other and

maximizes benefit to other.

Temporal Deixis: Forms used to point to time (now, then, last week,

tomorrow, next month).

Thematic Relations: The role that a noun phrase plays with respect to the

action or state described by a sentence verb.

Theory: The basic principles on which a particular subject is based.

Time: A thematic relation that refers to when the action occurs: They

travelled to London two months ago.

Utterance: A stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is

silence on the part of that person.

Variable Reference: Words whose reference is determined by the context in

which they are used, e.g., I, she, John, the book, etc.

Word Meaning: What a word means literally.

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Answers to the Hint Section

Chapter One

Hint: 1

1. What is Semantics?

2. The study of meaning that is used to understand human expression through language.

3. Answers vary.

Hint: 2

1. It is about denotation and connotation.

2. Two definitions: denotation and connotation.

3. The first one means the literal meaning of the word. It is the dictionary definition of a

word.

4. The second one means the emotional reaction a word may involve. It is the associations

with that word.

5. A reader or a listener needs to differentiate between denotative and connotative meaning.

The context clues can help them to do so.

Hint: 3

1. Ms. Erin. She is talking about the meaning of non-literal phrases.

2. It means done word for word (exact).

3. They are: shake a leg/cat got your tongue/He has cold feet.

4. ‘Shake a leg’ means hurry up.

‘Cat got your tongue’ means why so quiet or silent.

‘He has cold feet’ means feeling nervous.

5. It’s raining cats and dogs.

6. It means: It’s raining so hard (heavily).

Chapter Two

Hint: 1

1. Sentence, Utterance, Proposition

2. Yes, they are.

3. Check your textbook.

Hint: 2

Check the PP slides to get the answers.

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Hint: 3

1. It is sense and reference.

2. Get the definition from the slide.

3. Answer is on the slide.

4. Answer is on the slide.

5. They are about sameness of meaning (synonyms).

6. Answer is on the slide.

7. Answer is on the slide.

Hint: 4

1. What is a predicate?

2. It is the part of a sentence that contains the verb.

3. It does not exactly match the information in the textbook.

4. The difference is that the video presents the information from a syntactic (grammatical)

perspective, while in the textbook it is presented from a semantic perspective.

5. It is syntactically (grammatically) oriented.

Chapter Three

Hint: 1

1. What’s lexical relations?

2. This definition: A lexical relation is a culturally recognized pattern of association that

exists between lexical units in a language.

3. They are synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy.

Hint: 2

1. It’s about synonyms and antonyms.

2. It’s a word that means the same as or similar to another word.

3. Smart = clever, necessary = essential, to shut = to close, difficult = hard

4. It’s a word that means the opposite of another word.

5. closed-open, buy-sell, awake-asleep, difficult-easy

6. A antonym (wrong) - should be an antonym.

7. Answers vary.

Hint: 3

1. It’s about lexical relations: homophones, homonyms and polysemes.

2. They are words with different spelling and meaning.

They have the same pronunciation.

3. sewing (v.)= joining pieces of cloth using needle and thread

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sowing (v.)= planting seeds in the ground

mail (n.)= letter or parcel sent by post

male (adj.)= not female

4. They are words with the same spelling and pronunciation. They have two or

more different meanings.

5. ring (n.)= piece of jewelry worn on the finger.

ring (v.)= make a sound like a bell to call for sb.

6. They are words with the same spelling and pronunciation. They have related meanings.

7. neck (n.)= part of the body by which the head is joined to the shoulders. (upper part):

neck (n.)= narrow part that sticks from a broader part (upper part): neck of a bottle

8. Yes, they do.

9. Answers vary.

Chapter Four

Hint: 1

1. It’s about Case Grammar, Semantic Roles and Semantic Features.

2. Semantic Roles and Semantic Features.

3. I (agent), door (patient), key (instrument)

Hint: 2

1. It’s about ambiguity and vagueness.

2. Ambiguity means when a sentence has more than one meaning. It expresses more than one

proposition.

3. Two main types: lexical and syntactic.

4. It occurs when one word has more than one meaning. l am going to the bank (small grassy

hill/building where money is exchanged)

5. It occurs due to the grammar of the sentence: Alex is a blind animal lover (Alex is blind

and loves animals/Alex loves animals which are blind)

6. It is the state of having unclear meaning due to a word or a phrase lacking a clear

definition: “This bottle poses a health threat.” What kind of threat? To people who are

allergic or children? (it’s vague).

Hint: 3

1. It is verbal irony and sarcasm.

2. When a writer/speaker says one thing but means another.

3. Not exactly, but to some extent.

4. It is a type of verbal irony that is delivered with hurtful intentions.

5. They bear the same meaning but in different paraphrase.

6. Examples are to be extracted from the video.

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7. Answers are to be extracted from the video.

8. 1. In “Julius Caesar”, Mark Antony (in his speech) referred to Brutus as an honourable

man, while in fact he doesn’t mean it (he means the opposite) because Brutus was the man

who gave Caesar the deadly stab.

2. In “Pride and Prejudice”, Mr. Bennett calls Wickham his favourite son-in-law, while in

fact he is not.

Chapter Five

Hint: 1

1. Collocations

2. Lexical collocations

3. Collocate Headword

strong tea/coffee

heavy rain

rich taste

big mistake

great fun

sweet dreams

4. powerful tea/coffee; high tree; large mistake; big fun

Hint: 2

1. It’s about some English collocations.

2. It is two or more words that typically or naturally go together.

3. Yes, it is. To make your English sound fluent and natural.

4. Some common collocations with the adjectives: big, great, large, deep, strong and heavy.

5. Collocations with happenings and events: big failure/accomplishment/decision/

disappointment

6. Collocations with feelings or qualities: great admiration/excitement/fun/joy/wisdom

7. Collocations with numbers and measurements: large amount/number of/quantity/

population

8. Collocations with facts and opinions: strong agreement/commitment/criticism/

denial/feeling

9. Collocations with strong feelings: deep devotion/depression/sleep/thought

10. Collocations with some weather conditions (heavy rain/fog/snow) and bad habits (heavy

smoker/drinker)

Hint: 3

1. It’s about some English proverbs.

2. They are wise sayings that give advice about life.

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3. Yes, if you want to take your English to a higher level, do an exam like TOFEL or IELTS.

4. Six: a. Love is blind

b. Time is money

c. Haste makes waste

d. Ignorance is bliss.

e. Better late, than never.

f. Easy come, easy go.

5. a. When you are in love, you see everything fine and good, even mistakes.

b. Time is a valuable resource just like money.

c. Trying to do things fast, you are going to make many mistakes and waste so many

things like money, effort, etc.

d. Not knowing something is sometimes great happiness (easier and happier than

knowing it).

e. If something happens late, it is better than not to happen at all.

f. If something comes easily to you, you are going to lose it easily too.

6. Answers vary.

Chapter Six

Hint: 1

1. An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics.

2. Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Pragmatics is the study of meaning in

context or speaker meaning.

3. Semantics is the literal meaning of an idea whereas pragmatics is the implied meaning of

the given idea.

Hint: 2

1. It’s about language interfaces: Pragmatics.

2. It is how people use context and other information to understand language?

3. No, it doesn’t. It is defined as speaker meaning or meaning in context.

4. It is the Cooperative Principle. It means that people work together to advance (give)

information and meaning truthfully and clearly.

5. It means 'help me'. No, we shouldn't because it is impossible to transfer your hand to

another person.

Hint: 3

1. It’s about connotation and denotation.

2. It’s about some words and their meaning, whether suggested/associated (connotative) or

literal (denotative).

3. They are emotional associations with words.

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4. They are literal definition of words.

5. a. shrimpy (N.C)/slender (PC)/thin (D)

b. ugly (N.C)/unsightly (PC)/unattractive or unpleasing to look at (D)

c. chatty (N.C)/conversational(PC)/inclined to talk or converse (D)

6. Answers vary.

7. Answers vary.

Chapter Seven

Hint: 1

1. Reference and Inference.

2. The process where additional information is needed to connect what is said to what is

meant. Yes, it does.

3. ‘Can I look at your Chomsky?’ meaning the book written by Chomsky. 'I enjoy listening

to Mozart' meaning music composed by Mozart.

4. Mr. Kwasaki used to refer to a man in the external world.

5. Students check their textbooks and provide the relevant answers.

Hint: 2

1. It’s Inference: Segment 8.

2. It’s a reasonable conclusion based on evidence that has a common point.

A man in a suit is standing at a bus stop. He keeps checking his watch.

Occasionally, he leans over to look down the street.

3. Yes. The evidence is that he is standing at the bus stop and checking his watch from time

to time.

4. The strategy is to visualize or see what is happening when you are reading so that you

actually see the evidence you need.

5. a. Because they stared at each other and smiled.

6. b. Because she has just been at the doctor’s office. (evidence)

c. Because she was worried about what would happen to her kids. (evidence)

Hint: 3

1. It is about deixis and deictic language.

2. It means pointing with language: language which refers to the world outside the text.

3. Three kinds: Person: (refers to person) you, us, they

Spatial: (refers to place) here, there, that

Temporal: (refers to time) now, then, later

4. Primary deixis includes person, spatial and temporal.

Secondary deixis includes a text which refers to another part of itself.

5. Two types: 1. Anaphoric: Jane went to the beach. She built a sandcastle.

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2. Cataphoric: And then he saw it: The largest blueberry muffin he had ever seen.

Hint: 4

1. It’s about implicature.

2. It’s an utterance which conveys meaning beyond its proposition (semantic content).

3. It refers to the semantic content of an utterance.

4. It’s like drawing conclusions from what is said, and therefore, use meaning more than

encoded (said).

5. He is the father of pragmatics.

6. It’s divided into two types: conversational and conventional.

7. It involves the use of cooperative principle, when speakers cooperate and this helps

drawing conclusions from what is said.

8. It involves the use of words of contrast: but, yet, even.

9. It’s subdivided into: (1) Generalized (not depending on context, but by the use of

indefinite articles): The arsonist put a house on fire (this implicates not his house, but any

other house).

(2) Particular (depending on the context):

A: Do you want to go to the cinema tonight?

B: My sister is coming for a visit. (implicates that she can’t go since she’ll be busy

with her)

10. The one on the video has more details.

Chapter Eight

Hint: 1

1. It is about effective communication.

2. Some of them, like; effective communication.

3. They are message and feedback.

Hint: 2

1. It’s about Grice’s cooperative principle (maxims of conversation).

2. It’s generally about cooperation with one another when people cooperate to exchange

meaning.

3. It talks about four maxims.

4. Yes, they are.

5. Quality maxim: Tell the truth.

Quantity maxim: Give maximum information within minimum effort.

Relation maxim: Be relevant and act accordingly.

Manner maxim: Be clear and not obscure.

Generally, they have similar explanations.

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6. They can be violated when the speaker does not stick to the maxim:

Quality: How old are you? ------I’m 145 (false)

Quantity: How old are you? -----Well, my age is 1+1+2+3+4+5…… (too lengthy)

Relation: How old are you? ----- I like cheesecake. (irrelevant)

Manner: How old are you? ------- Am I 20 years old or 243 months old?

And, when does life begin, anyway? (not clear, obscure)

Hint: 3

1. It’s Leech’s six politeness maxims.

2. Agreement Maxim: Minimize disagreement. Maximize agreement (between self and

other).

3. Approbation Maxim: Minimize expressions which dispraise others.

Maximize expressions which praise others.

4. Generosity Maxim: Minimize benefit to self. Maximize benefit to others.

5. Modesty Maxim: Minimize expressions of self-praise. Maximize expressions of self-

dispraise.

6. Sympathy Maxim: Minimize antipathy for others. Maximize sympathy for others.

7. Tact Maxim: Minimize imposition.

8. It is different. In the textbook, it goes like: Minimize cost to other; maximize benefit to

other.

Chapter Nine

Hint: 1

1. It is about speech act.

2. It is the action performed by a speaker with an utterance.

3. Yes, it does.

4. If you say, l'll be there at six, you are not just speaking, you seem to be performing the

speech act of promising.

Hint: 2

1. It is speech acts.

2. It tries to cope with the question how we use language to help us make meaning in our

life, and one of the philosophies of language is the theory of speech act.

3. John Searle developed the speech act theory.

4. There are five:

1. Assertives: They express beliefs, descriptions, statements.

2. Directives: They express desires, orders, commands, requets.

3. Commisives: They express intentions, promises, pledges,vows.

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4. Expressives: They express apologies, thanks, congratulations.

5. Declarations: They are about creation; how to create institutions in life

around us.

5. Yes, they are.

6. Answers are in the textbook.

Hint: 3

1. It is about two different speech acts: constatives and performatives.

2. The British linguist J. Austin did.

3. He made a distinction between two types of speech acts: constatives and performatives.

4. They are sentences that describe something true or false. A constative is something.

5. They are sentences that denote actions. A performative performs (does) something.

6. It is words that denote (perform) actions. It is an utterance which involves some kind of

action or effect.

7. They include ordering, promising, apologizing, warning, christening, marrying, etc.

8. "I name this gazebo: The mayor's pizza palace", said by the mayor who has the power or

authority to name it, and it will be known by this name. But an ordinary person (passer-

by) does not have the power to name it. "No Running/Not Allowed"

9. They are rules under which the performative can be acted.

10. They should be authoritative, understood, clear and able to be executed (performed/

done).

Chapter Ten

Hint: 1

1. It is about politeness and face saving.

2. Politeness and face saving.

3. Yes, in order to strengthen human relations and make conversations go smoothly and

naturally. To achieve and maintain successful social relationships with others.

4. Politeness can show awareness and consideration of another person’s face.

Hint: 2

1. It is about polite and impolite meetings

2. She is using a very impolite language by shouting and saying 'you, you'.

3. He is teaching her how to be polite by using the expressions:

'Excuse me' or 'Pardon me'. What can l do for you?'

4. When we interrupt somebody or get his/her attention.

5. Yes, by using polite expressions like: Excuse me, pardon me, could you tell me, oh, great

thank you, sorry to interrupt.

6. Because the first man is bothering him with so many requests.

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7. No, he isn't.

Hint: 3

1. It is about the politeness theory.

2. Brown and Levinson did.

3. It is a communicative goal because it is valued universally (found in different cultures all

over the world).

4. It refers to our desire to be liked and appreciated.

5. It is a way to meet positive face needs.

6. It means our need to be free from imposition and obligation.

7. It is associated with negative face: I hate to ask you, but…..

8. There are five ways:

(a) To deliver the FTA directly without any polite actions: You really need to take

care of breath (if we find sth wrong with one's breath).

(b) To deliver the FTA directly but without some form of positive politeness: You

know, you are so attractive, but the only thing you have problem with your breath.

Can l give you some mints to help you take care of that?

(c) You can deliver the FTA with some form of negative politeness: No, I know this

is not my business, but you have a problem with your breath, and here are some

mints if you want to care of that.

(d) You can deliver it directly, and take the person aside and explain.

(e) You are not to do anything at all.

9. The formula is that the amount of work we put in being polite depends on the social

distance between the speaker and hearer plus the power the hearer has over the speaker.

Hint: 4

1. It is about the politeness principle.

2. It is a concept which explains how and why we apply to one another.

3. It refers to the speaker's sense of linguistic and social identity.

4. We have two faces: positive and negative. A positive face is our right to be appreciated,

loved and accepted. A negative face is our right not to be imposed upon.

5. a) Bald on-record: We do nothing to minimize threat.

Example: Hey. I want a drink.

b) Positive politeness: We show we appreciate and love the person we are talking to. We

use politeness markers, and we are generally very friendly. We appeal to the positive

face: You know you have such a lovely house. Your kitchen is so lovely. Would you

mind if I just take a drink?

c) Negative politeness: We apologize and use politeness markers:

Excuse me, if you don't mind. I am really sorry. Would you mind if I just took some

drink. Thank you so much.

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d) Off-record (indirect): We either wait for somebody to do the work for us, or we use

hints-paralinguistic features (gesture, laughing, etc.):

Hey, did you try that drink?/You know l haven't had a drink all day, it's rather

hot in here.

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Answers to the Exercises

Chapter One

Exercise: 1

1. SM 2. SM 3. SPM 4. SM 5.SPM

6. SPM 7. SPM 8. SPM 9. SM 10. SM

Exercise: 2

1. N.L 2. L 3. N.L 4. L 5. L

6. N.L 7. N.L 8. L 9. N.L 10. N.L

Chapter Two

Exercise: 1

utterance sentence proposition

1. can be loud or quiet + - -

2. can be grammatical or not + + -

3. can be true or false + + +

4. can be in a particular regional accent + - -

5. can be in a particular language + + -

6.can be described as a physical event + - -

Exercise: 2

1. S 2. S 3.D 4. S 5. D 6. D

Exercise 3

1. reference

2. sense

3. sense

4. sense

5. reference

6. sense

Exercise 4

1. The Nile (R); my car (R); happiness (S); in order to (S); by the way (S); that book (R)

2. because (S); when (S); tree (R); Africa (R); idea (S); the door (R)

3. probably (S); university (R); above (S); the bird on the tree (R); problem (S)

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Exercise 5

1. Japan (CR), country (VR).

2. The president (VR)

3. the moon (CR).

4. My car (VR)

5. You (VR), him (VR).

6. Cairo (CR), Africa (CR)

Exercise 6

1. No 2. Yes 3. Yes 4. No 5. Yes

6. No 7. Yes 8. No 9. Yes 10. No

Exercise 7

2. in 3. between 4.swim 5. genius

6. red 7. cook 8. hungry 9. library 10. secretary

Exercise 8

1. predicator: car mechanic / argument: Tony

2. predicator: show / arguments: John, Mary, new car

3. predicator: pleased / arguments: Ahmed, his success

4. predicator: behind / arguments: My house, hospital

5. predicator: dusty / argument: classroom

6. predicator: between / arguments: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Exercise 9

1. actor (n.) - degree one/argument: Jimmy

2. marry (v.) - degree two / arguments: William, Suzan

3. between (prep.) - degree three / arguments: Baghdad, Basra, Mosul

4. Kim’s mother (n.) - degree one / argument: Jane

5. sell (v.) - degree two / arguments: my father, car

6. give (v.) - degree three / arguments: Ali, his friend, book

7. fool (n.) - degree one / argument: Peter

8. tasty (adj.) - degree one / argument: food

9. jealous (adj.) - degree two / arguments: Sara, Tara

10. behind (prep.) - degree two / argument: office, local cinema

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Chapter Three

Exercise: 1

1. Yes 2. Yes 3. No 4. No 5. Yes 6. No

Exercise: 2

1. Yes 2. Yes 3. No 4. No 5. Yes

6. No 7. Yes 8. Yes 9. Yes 10. No

Exercise: 3

1. G 2. NG 3. G 4. G

5. C 6. C 7. G 8. NG

9. NG 10. G 11. NG 12. C

Exercise: 4

1. HO 2. P 3. HO 4. HY

5. H 6. P 7. HY 8. H

Exercise: 5

1. prototype 2. metonymy 3. metonymy

4. meronymy 5. metonymy 6. metonymy

7. meronymy 8. prototype

Chapter Four

Exercise: 1

1. Ambiguity: It may mean: The chicken as food/meal is ready to eat. Or:

The chicken as a bird is ready to eat something.

2. Ambiguity: We don’t know who is visiting. Is it the aunts who are visiting?

Or: Somebody is visiting them?

3. Anomaly and ambiguity: The word bachelor refers to a university degree not a

marital status.

4. Anomaly: How can ideas be described as green and colourless at the same time?

How could ideas sleep furiously not soundly?

5. Ambiguity: Did she wait by the river bank (side), or near a building where she keeps

her money?

6. Ambiguity: Is the history teacher of an English nationality? Or:

Is he/she a teacher of English history?

7. Ambiguity: Did the boy see the man by using a telephone? Or:

Did he see the man who had a telescope?

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8. Ambiguity and anomaly: Walls do not have ears. Non-literally, it means:

Be careful, other people may be listening.

9. Anomaly: You can slice a loaf of bread/an apple/a lemon, etc., but not an idea!

10. Anomaly: Nothing like this sentence exists in language. It makes no sense.

11. Ambiguity and anomaly: It means a problematic car, one with a defect only after it has

been bought.

12. Anomaly: It makes no sense. How can he be lonely since he is a brother of someone?

Exercise: 2

1. Metaphor: He was very hungry.

2. Metaphor: She is very good and kind.

3. Homophonic pun: Same pronunciation /risi:d/, but with different meaning; recede

(lose hair) / reseed (plant the hair again).

4. Pun: A bachelor (a female university graduate) can be pregnant.

5. Metaphor: He is a doctor who causes the death of his patients, just like a butcher who

slaughters animals (cow, sheep, etc.).

6. Metaphor: It’s like a journey in that it has an end (death).

7. Metaphor: Time is as valuable as money. It should not be wasted in vain.

8. Pun: The two words: died/dyed (when uttered) have same pronunciation /daɪd/.

9. Pun: The nurse means ‘no change in his health’ (may be the coins haven’t be taken out)

not money change.

10. Pun: The two words: board/bored are pronounced /bɔːd/.

Exercise: 3

1. Irony: He means you look horrible not beautiful.

2. Sarcasm: You are totally offended. You mean fuck you or shit.

3. Sarcasm: It is intended as an insult (to mock at her). She is ugly.

4. Irony: Humorously used; how the biggest dog can be (called) Tiny?

Tiny means very small in size.

5. Irony: The opposite is meant. We definitely don’t need it.

6. Irony: Make yourself relaxed and comfortable, but by cleaning my kitchen!

7. Sarcasm: It is intended to insult or mock. You’ve got no personality at all.

8. Sarcasm: Humiliating and offensive tone.

Exercise: 4

Answers vary.

Exercise: 5

Answer: That’ll be nice for the family (irony).

She doesn’t really mean it. She means the opposite (bad for the family).

210

Exercise: 6

Semantic Feature horse cow boar calf bull cat

porcine - - + - - -

bovine - + - + + -

equine + - - - - -

feline - - - - - +

adult + + + - + +

male + - + + + -

female - + - - - +

Exercise: 7

1. The boy: agent / the sandwich: patient / with relish: manner

2. Messi: agent / the ball: patient / the goal: direction / goal

3. The spaceship: agent / the moon: goal

4. The satellite: agent / last year: time

5. Jane: recipient / many presents: patient / from her friends: source/origin

6. The children: patient / to the school: goal

7. We: patient /at the club: location

8. He: patient / the prison: source/origin

Chapter Five

Exercise: 1

1. made 2. do 3. scores 4. raise 5.strong

6. hard 7. do 8. penalty 9. thick 10. give up

Exercise: 2

1. c 2. f 3. h 4. j 5. d

6. g 7. i 8. b 9. e 10. a

Exercise: 3

1. keep away 2. keep down 3. kept on

4. keep off 5. keep back 6. gave out

7. give in 8. give up 9. give up on him 10. gave away

Exercise: 4

1. g 2. h 3.i 4.b 5.d

6. f 7. j 8. a 9.c 10.e

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Chapter Six

Exercise: 1

1. Connotative meaning: the permission or the ok (to do or start with something)

Denotative meaning: having the colour of grass

2. Connotative meaning: evil and dangerous

Denotative meaning: A reptile with a very long thin body, and no legs

3. Connotative meaning: friendly but not sincere smile

Denotative meaning: covered in a lot of oil or grease

4. Connotative meaning: gives the feeling of comfort, security, love

Denotative meaning: dwelling place

5. Connotative meaning: immature young woman

Denotative meaning: a baby bird

Exercise: 2

1. skinny – slim – thin

2. aggressive - pushy - forceful

3. thrifty – stingy – economical

4. handicapped – disabled – physically challenged

5. plain – ugly – unattractive

6. pretty – attractive – fair

7. house – home – dwelling place

8. cunning - clever - crafty

Exercise: 3

1. young woman – chick – immature

2. black – negro – African American

3. crippled – handicapped – differently-abled

4. cunning – clever – intelligent

5. protest – demonstration – riot

6. fighter – rebel – terrorist

7. childish – young – youthful

8. conversational – talkative – chatty

Chapter Seven

Exercise: 1

1. it (anaphor): the orange (antecedent)

2. it (anaphor): a house (antecedent)

212

3. there (anaphor): the party (antecedent)

4. He (anaphor): Ali’s father (antecedent)

5. then (anaphor): 10:30 tomorrow morning (antecedent)

Exercise: 2

1. you: person - over there: spatial

2. that man: person

3. they: person - next week: temporal

4. He: person - today: temporal

5. She: person

Exercise: 3

1. He was an artist.

2. He used to smoke.

3. He used to break his promises.

4. They travelled to London.

5. She was late.

Exercise: 4

1. The boy ate something.

2. Bill was dead.

3. Jim is an unmarried man.

4. My father bought something.

5. l saw a person.

Exercise: 5

1. Yes 2. No 3.Yes 4. No 5. Yes

Exercise: 6

1. B does not love A.

2. B didn't go to the cinema.

3. B does not like A’s new carpet.

4. B thinks the new movie was not good.

5. B does not like A’s new suit.

6. B hasn’t done his homework.

Chapter Eight

Exercise: 1

1. F (maxim of quality).

213

2. T

3. F (maxim of quantity).

4. F (maxim of quantity)

5. F (maxim of manner)

6. F (maxim of quality)

Exercise: 2

1. Manner maxim violated: Elizabeth is using unnecessarily complicated and confusing

words and construction.

Implicature: Elizabeth does not know or does not wish to give a clear answer to the

question.

2. Relation maxim observed: Charles’ reply.

Relation maxim violated: Alfred is changing the topic.

Implicature: Alfred tries to avoid answering Tom’s question may be because he doesn’t

feel hungry.

3. Relation maxim violated: John is changing the topic.

Implicature: Either John doesn’t want to respond to Meredith (perhaps he has problems

discussing his feelings) or the answer is "no.”

4. Quality maxim violated: knowing that “a lot of people are depending on you” does not, in

fact, take the pressure off. Meredith is saying something obviously untrue.

Implicature: Meredith is implying that the opposite is true (sarcasm).

The true meaning being expressed here is probably more like: That really puts a lot of

pressure on me.

5. Relation maxim violated: B is changing the topic.

Implicature: B doesn’t want to discuss the idea of the exam, maybe 'he didn't do well'.

6. Relation maxim observed: B sticks to the topic.

7. Quantity maxim observed: B provides the needed information; no more, no less.

8. Quality maxim observed: B1’s reply

Quality maxim violated: B2’s reply

Implicature: B2 does not like the haircut and answers in an ironic way.

9. Relation maxim violated: B has flouted this maxim.

Implicature: B doesn’t want to talk about this topic (the car) by referring to the weather

instead.

10. Quantity maxim violated: B has flouted the maxim.

Implicature: B doesn’t want to provide adequate information.

Maybe he doesn't know the exact date, or has no desire to attend such a meeting.

Exercise: 3

1. B1 is polite. Maxim of Approbation is applied: The speaker is minimizing dispraise of

other and maximizing praise of other (A). Amazing means surprising especially in a way

214

that makes you feel pleasure or admiration.

B2 is impolite: Maxim of Approbation violated. He/She gives a reply that does not sound

polite (by referring to its defect: too big). B2 is actually maximizing dispraise of other and

minimizing praise of other.

2. B1 is not polite because he is boasting of his success: Maxim of Modesty is violated: The

speaker is maximizing praise of self and minimizing dispraise of self.

B2 is polite. Maxim of Modesty is applied: The speaker is minimizing praise of self and

maximizing dispraise of self. B2 is giving the credit of his success to the director. He is,

therefore, modest.

3. B1 is polite. Maxim of Agreement is applied: The speaker is minimizing disagreement and

maximizing agreement between self and other. He is softening disagreement by partial

agreement through the use of 'but….'.

B2 is rather impolite. Maxim of Agreement is violated. The speaker is maximizing

disagreement and minimizing agreement between self and other by saying: No…..

4. B1 is polite. Maxim of Approbation is applied: The speaker is minimizing dispraise of

other and maximizing praise of other.

B2 is rather impolite. He violates this maxim by describing A as awful.

5. B1 is impolite. Maxim of Agreement is violated. The speaker is maximizing

disagreement and minimizing agreement between self and other by saying: No…..

B2 is polite. The Maxim of Agreement is applied.

Partial disagreement through the use of "True but…." mitigates and softens disagreement.

6. B1 is polite. Maxim of Generosity is applied. The speaker is minimizing benefit to self

and maximizing cost to self by inviting his friends to his flat.

B2 does not sound to be polite. Maxim of Generosity is violated because the speaker is

maximizing benefit to self.

7. B2 is more polite because of the Tact Maxim. The speaker in B2 is minimizing cost to

other by making an indirect request. By making a request in the form of an interrogative

the speaker is giving the hearer the freedom to refuse the request. He is, therefore, more

polite than B1 who is making a direct request.

Chapter Nine

Exercise: 1

1. DSA: statement/declaration

2. DSA: direct order/command)

3. DSA: direct warning

4. ISA: indirect suggestion

5. DSA: direct suggestion

6. ISA: indirect request for: 'switch the air-condition on'

7. ISA: indirect demand for eating

215

8. DSA: direct command

9. ISA: indirect command: 'go to bed'

10. ISA: command: 'go to bed'

Exercise: 2

1. L: producing a meaningful utterance

2. IL: promise

3. L: act of saying

4. IL: act of urging/advice/order

5. PL: the act is performed as a result of persuasion

Exercise: 3

1. implicit: no performative verb

2. explicit: performative verb: promise

3. explicit: performative verbs: find/pronounce/deem

4. implicit: no performative verb

5. explicit: performative verb: warn

6. explicit: performative verb: admit

7. implicit: no performative verb

Exercise: 4

1. P (act of naming)

2. C (only describes belief)

3. P (act of admission)

4. C (only describes mental state: thinking)

5. P (act of informing)

6. C (only describes a state of affairs)

7. P (act of warning)

8. C (only describes a state of affairs)

9. C (only describes a state of affairs: 'he is not a priest')

10. P (act of pronouncing: he has the authority to perform the act)

Exercise: 5

1. a, c 2. a, d 3. b, d 4. a, b 5. b, d 6. b, c

Chapter Ten

Exercise: 1

1. IP: direct command

216

2. P: indirect command/modal verb (could)

3. IP: direct command

4. P: indirect command in the form of suggestion

5. P: indirect command for “go to bed”.

6. IP: direct command with obligation “ought to”

7. IP: using slang and impolite expressions

8. P: modal verb (will) and please

Exercise: 2

1. Husband: FTA Wife: FSA

2. A: FTA B: FSA

3. A: FSA B: FTA

4. A: FSA B: FTA

5. Father: FSA Mother: FTA

6. A: FTA B: FSA

Exercise: 3

1. PP: Exaggerate interest in hearer (H) and his abilities

2. PP: Exaggerate interest in hearer (H) and his abilities

3. PP: Include both speaker (S) and hearer (H) in activity

4. PP: Assume or assert reciprocity

5. NP: Be pessimistic

6. NP: Apologize

7. PP: Solidarity in-group identity markers

8. NP: Apologize

9. NP: Show respect or deference

10. NP: Being pessimistic

Exercise: 4

1. NIP 2. PIP 3. NIP 4. PIP

5. PIP 6. NIP 7. PIP 8. NIP

217

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Videos

1.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYv_0M-BqZ4

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1.2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApdOw2JA3GI

2.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTMntpx6tG4

3.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUuZXEqUEN8

3.2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=35RDpRpSrJA

4.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFHFAgIIk1Q

4.2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=81c44-CDP7E

5.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHWIGfmKDQ4

5.2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUet7Lxb33I

6.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKbp4hEHV-s

6.2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_qn1f-Ukq0

7.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCXgRU2Xtds

7.2 ctle.hccs.edu/.../prepreading/prepreading_topic8.ht..

7.3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUs8GAi_cIw

8.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRMgGCNKijM

8.2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Gm5rBjVBw

9.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl2cZ0Eb1Bk

9.2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgmpbXIGpcc

10.1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPEGZ19XZHA

10.2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUzKA9lrvkE

10.3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4QzTXl3ae8

Figures

Figure: 1.1 (www.google.iq/slidesharecdn.com)

Figure: 2.1 (www.google.docstoc.com)

Figure: 3.1 (www.shrdocs.com)

Figure: 4.1 (www.google.sideshare.net)

Figure: 5.1(www.google.livhambrett.com)

Figure: 6.1 (www.google.iq.barnesandnoble.com)

Figure: 7.1 (www.google.drshadiabanjar.blogspot.com)

Figure: 8.1(www.google.dineshbakshi.com)

Figure: 9.1(www.google.shrdocs.com)

Figure: 10.1(www.google.happymap.com/docstoc.com)

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Appendix

A short list of performative verbs

abolish, accept, acknowledge, acquit, admit, admonish, advise, affirm, agree to, announce,

answer, apologize, ascribe, ask, assert, assess, assume, authorize, baptize, beg, bet, bid,

caution, charge, christen, claim, classify, command, commiserate, compliment, concur,

congratulate, convict, counsel, declare, delegate, demand, deny, describe, diagnose,

disagree, donate, dub, excuse, exempt, fire, forbid, grant, guarantee, guess, hire,

hypothesize, identify, implore, inform, instruct, license, name, notify, offer, order, pardon,

permit, plead, pray, predict, prohibit, promise, pronounce, query, question, rank,

recommend, refuse, reject, renounce, report, request, require, resign, sanction, say,

sentence, state, submit, suggest, summon, suppose, swear, tell, testify, thank, urge, volunteer,

warn, withdraw.

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