ANT253H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Marcel Danesi, Paul Grice, Niccolò Machiavelli
Professor Marcel Danesi Mar. 7, 2017
ANT253 LECTURE 6 (CHAPTER 6)
CONVERSATION AND DISCOURSE
• There are different types of Q & A Sentences
Ex. “What’s your name?” = “Samantha” (assumes that we know that the complete
sentence is “My name is Samantha”)
Pragmatics = Charles Morris
- Indicates the study of the meanings and uses of linguistic forms in their
communicative and interactional contexts of use
- Grice added the notion of Maxims to the study of conversational pragmatics
Paul Grice
- Grice’s maxims
1. Maxim of Quantity (1) this asserts the interlocutors tend to make their
message as informative as required for the purposes of the exchange; and (2)
that they generally do not make it more informative than required
2. Maxim of Quality this asserts that interlocutors expect the contents of an
utterance to be true, because (1) people tend not to say what they believe to be
false, and (2) they will likely not say something for which they lack adequate
evidence
3. Maxim of Relation or Relevance
4. Maxim of Manner this asserts that interlocutors will tend to be perspicuous
by (1) avoiding obscurity of expression, …
- Looked at conversation
- Realized there has to be some relevance in conversation
- Discussed how relevance is a necessary element in conversation
Communicative Competence (Dell Hymes)
- Linguistic competence Communicative competence
- The choice of words that are used in conversations are rule-governed this comes
from the pragmatic form of knowledge known as communicative competence
- Different from oral competence, which is more about the knowledge of word
structure or sentence structure
- Claimed that the ability to use a language was adaptive and also affected linguistic
competence
- Simple linguistic interactions require a detailed knowledge of the appropriate words
and nonverbal cues that will enable a speaker to be successful
- Language is highly interactive and context-sensitive
- Lying has become very prevalent in our conversation
Ex. Donald Trump, Niccolo Machiavelli
Ex. if two newborn babies are born on a boat and their parents fall overboard,
then their boat floats to shore and a she-wolf picks them up, they can
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Professor Marcel Danesi Mar. 7, 2017
survive…and instead of talking they will most likely develop a rudimentary form
of signaling communication that is similar to that of the wolf (they probably
wouldn’t even develop bipedalism) if they aren’t found before the age of
puberty, it’s hopeless – by puberty, the brain can cure itself, but after it cannot
Conversation Analysis (Hutchby and Wooffitt)
- The study of the relationship between language use and social variables
- The study of recorded, naturally occurring talk-in-interaction
- Tacit reasoning procedures
- Compression
Ex. “Sophia went to the mall a few days ago. Sophia ran into an old friend at the
mall. Sophia hadn’t seen the friend in a while. Sophia and the friend were
thrilled.” (she becomes a token of communicative competence, not linguistic
competence – because even though it is linguistically correct to repeat the name
or location, it isn’t how we want to hear it)
This happens often when people learn new languages (Ex. picking up a
language, you tend to say things the way they are mathematically outlined
when learning the language)
“she” is an index of Sophia (like at the back of a book, but more simple)
Anaphora and Cataphora
- Anaphora = using particles to look back (Ex. “Sophia went to the mall yesterday,
SHE…”) Devices that refer back to some word or syntactic category (literally
means “repetition-eliminating”, it is a conversational strategy that is part of
communicative competence)
- Cataphora = referral before (Ex. “Before SHE went to the mall yesterday, Sophia…”)
the use of lexeme/morpheme/etc. to anticipate some other unit
Ex. “Even though she will deny it, I tell you that Mary did it…”)
Langue and Parole
- Rules of Parole led to the formation of a branch of linguistics called systemic
linguistics, or functional grammar (Halliday)
- Research in systemic linguistics shows that lexical and grammatical choices—
although they have much leeway—are still constrained by factors such as social rules,
situation, and style
Gambits a perception of sorts (a tactic)
- Refer to devices that cohere in various ways within a conversation
- Used in conversation - to keep it going, repair an anomaly with it, etc.
Ex. “Uh huh…yeah…hmm…aha” (hedges)
Ex. “like,” (fillers)
Ex. “You like this, don’t you?” (tag)
Ex. “May I ask you something?” (opening gambit)
- Many languages have versions of these (Ex. Slavic languages)
Ex. “She’s a great student, isn’t she?”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Conversation and discourse: there are different types of q & a sentences. What"s your name? = samantha (assumes that we know that the complete sentence is my name is samantha ) Indicates the study of the meanings and uses of linguistic forms in their communicative and interactional contexts of use. Grice added the notion of maxims to the study of conversational pragmatics. Realized there has to be some relevance in conversation. Discussed how relevance is a necessary element in conversation. The choice of words that are used in conversations are rule-governed this comes from the pragmatic form of knowledge known as communicative competence. Different from oral competence, which is more about the knowledge of word structure or sentence structure. Claimed that the ability to use a language was adaptive and also affected linguistic competence. Simple linguistic interactions require a detailed knowledge of the appropriate words and nonverbal cues that will enable a speaker to be successful.
