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Understanding Pragmatics ‘This is easily the most useful, and engaging introduction to pragmatics that is currently available. Senft discusses the canonical topics of the discipline but he discusses them, always in an exemplary and rigorous manner, against their wider intellectual backgrounds. This combination of sympathetic, critical and illuminating exposition of the central topics and their relationships makes this book a terrific companion for all undergraduate and postgraduate students (and some of their teachers too).’ Ken Turner, University of Brighton, UK ‘Gunter Senft’s Understanding Pragmatics is highly systematic and orderly, with a new principled approach to the major themes of pragmatics and the central topics that have paraded under that banner. Arrayed against the familiar texts in the field, the book is more heavily grounded in anthropological fieldwork and splendidly provided with suggested and potentially thought-provoking exercises for ambitious students at all levels. I am eager to try it out with some of my own.’ John Haviland, University of California, San Diego, USA Understanding Pragmatics takes an interdisciplinary approach to provide an accessible introduction to linguistic pragmatics. This book discusses how the meaning of utterances can only be understood in relation to overall cultural, social and interpersonal contexts, as well as to culture-specific conventions and the speech events in which they are embedded. From a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective, this book: x debates the core issues of pragmatics such as speech act theory, conversational implicature, deixis, gesture, interaction strategies, ritual communication, phatic communion, linguistic relativity, ethnography of speaking, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, languages and social classes, and linguistic ideologies x incorporates examples from a broad variety of different languages and cultures x takes an innovative and transdisciplinary view of the field showing that linguistic pragmatics has its predecessor in other disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, ethology, ethnology, sociology and the political sciences. Written by an experienced teacher and researcher, this introductory textbook is essential reading for all students studying pragmatics. Gunter Senft is senior investigator at the MPI for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen and extraordinary professor of general linguistics at the University of Cologne, Germany. His main research interests include Austronesian and Papuan languages, anthropological linguistics, pragmatics and semantics. Understanding Language series Series Editors: Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany Greville Corbett, Surrey Morphology Group, University of Surrey, UK The Understanding Language series provides approachable, yet authoritative, introductions to major topics in linguistics. Ideal for students with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics, each book carefully explains the basics, emphasizing understanding of the essential notions rather than arguing for a particular theoretical position. Other titles in the series: Understanding Language Testing Dan Douglas Understanding Morphology, Second Edition Martin Haspelmath Andrea D. Sims Understanding Phonetics Patricia Ashby Understanding Phonology, Third Edition Carlos Gussenhoven Haike Jacobs Understanding Second Language Learning Lourdes Ortega Understanding Syntax, Third Edition Maggie Tallerman Understanding Semantics, Second Edition Sebastian Löbner Understanding Child Language Acquisition Caroline Rowland For more information on any of these titles, or to order, go to www.routledge.com/ linguistics Understanding Pragmatics Gunter Senft First published 2014 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2014 Gunter Senft The right of Gunter Senft to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Senft, Gunter, 1952– Understanding pragmatics : an interdisciplinary approach to language use / Gunter Senft. pages cm. -- (Understanding Language Series) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Pragmatics. 2. Linguistics. I. Title. P99.4.P72S48 2014 401'.45--dc23 2013027996 ISBN: 978-0-415-84056-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-4441-8030-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-77647-6 (ebk) Typeset in Minion Pro by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby Contents List of abbreviations vii Acknowledgements x Introduction 1 1 Pragmatics and philosophy: What we do when we speak and what we actually mean – speech act theory and the theory of conversational implicature 11 1.1 Introduction 11 1.2 John Austin’s speech act theory 12 1.3 John Searle’s speech act theory 19 1.4 Pieter Seuren on the socially binding force of speech acts 31 1.5 Maxims that guide conversation: H. Paul Grice’s theory of conversational implicature 33 1.6 Concluding remarks 39 1.7 Exercise/work section 40 1.8 Suggestions for further reading 41 Notes 41 2 Pragmatics and psychology: Deictic reference and gesture 42 2.1 Introduction 42 2.2 Deictic reference 43 2.3 Spatial deixis 45 2.4 Gesture 62 2.5 Concluding remarks 75 2.6 Exercise/work section 76 2.7 Suggestions for further reading 77 Notes 77 3 Pragmatics and human ethology: Biological foundations of communicative behaviour 79 3.1 Introduction 79 3.2 Expressive movements and their ritualization into signals 80 3.3 Rituals, ritual communication and interaction strategies 86 3.4 Concluding remarks 100 3.5 Exercise/work section 101 vi Contents 3.6 Suggestions for further reading 102 Notes 102 4 Pragmatics and ethnology: The interface of language, culture and cognition 104 4.1 Introduction 104 4.2 Phatic communion 104 4.3 Linguistic relativity: the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 113 4.4 The ethnography of speaking 120 4.5 Concluding remarks 129 4.6 Exercise/work section 130 4.7 Suggestions for further reading 131 Notes 131 5 Pragmatics and sociology: Everyday social interaction 133 5.1 Introduction 133 5.2 Erving Goffman’s interaction order 133 5.3 Harold Garfinkel’s ethnomethodology 142 5.4 Harvey Sacks and Conversation Analysis 146 5.5 Concluding remarks 159 5.6 Exercise/work section 160 5.7 Suggestions for further reading 161 Notes 161 6 Pragmatics and politics: Language, social class, ethnicity and education and linguistic ideologies 162 6.1 Introduction 162 6.2 Basil Bernstein’s code theory 163 6.3 William Labov and the variability concept 165 6.4 Language ideologies 169 6.5 Concluding remarks 181 6.6 Exercise/work section 182 6.7 Suggestions for further reading 183 Notes 183 7 Understanding pragmatics: Summary and outlook 185 7.1 Introduction 185 7.2 Summary 185 7.3 A brief outlook on future developments within the discipline: Emancipatory pragmatics 189 Note 190 References 191 Index 212 Abbreviations Note that the glosses in some of the examples quoted were changed (following the Leipzig Glossing Rules as closely as possible) for the sake of standardization. 1 first person 2 second person 3 third person ABS absolutive ACAUS anti-causative ACS achieved change of state particle AN animate ASP neutral aspect CLF (numeral) classifier CNJ conjunction COP copula CRA cross-reference set A (>ergative=, possessor) CRB cross-reference set B (>absolutive=) Dat dative DEF definiteness marker, definite determiner DEIC deictic DEM demonstrative DF disfluency DIM diminutive DIR directional DIST distal E experimenter EXCL exclusive viii List of abbreviations EXIST existential predicate FP final particle FUT future H hearer HON honorific prefix IMPF imperfective INC incompletive INCL inclusive LOC locative M masculine MED medial ms milliseconds NMLZ nominalizer N proper name (Moerman transcript, subsection 5.4) NOMP nominative particle OBL oblique P particle PAST past (p.c.) personal communication PL plural PP.IV possessive pronoun series IV in Kilivila, marking inalienable possession POSS possessive PRS present PRN pronoun PROG progressive PRT unanalysed sentential particle PT discourse/evidential particle PRV pro-verb QPRT question particle QUOTP quotative particle List of abbreviations ix S subject (in an experiment) speaker SG singular T title TCPs turn-completion points TCUs turn-constructional units TRPs transition-relevance places Acknowledgements Writing this book involved the help of many people. First of all I would like to thank Bernard Comrie and Greville Corbett for inviting me to write this introduction to linguistic pragmatics as a contribution to their Understanding Language series. I also owe thanks to them as well as to three anonymous reviewers for constructive and insightful comments on my book proposal. In addition, Grev and Bernard accompanied the writing process and gave me very useful editorial advice at various stages.