Language
Function
Language Function
*
Transactional
To convey factual information
*
Interactional
Language function that
At the bus stop, two newly
met passengers say to
each other
A: It’s freezing
It’s unlikely that speaker A says
that only to convey information
Instead
A.UTTERANCE B.SPEAKER’S DISCOURSE C.TEXT D.DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
• The field that deals with the organisation of texts, ways in which parts of texts are connected and the devices used for achieving textual structure.
• Any bit of talk produced by a speaker.
• The written (or transcribed) version of any utterance/body of discourse.
Interpretation of
pronominals: he and the
a.The judge denied the
prisoner’s request because
he
was cautious.
b.The judge denied the
prisoner’s request because
Most people believe that a judge
is more likely to be cautious and
a prisoner more likely to be
dangerous.
A plausible reason for a judge’s denying
a prisoner’s request is more likely to be
caution (on the judge’s part) or danger to
the public (on the prisoner’s part)
so
He
refers to the judge in the first
sentence but the prisoner in the
Presuppositon:
The assumption or belief implied by the use of a particular word or structure.
a. D’Arcy McGee was
assassinated
in 1868.
b. D’Arcy McGee was
murdered
In A involves the assumption that D’Arcy McGee was a prominent political figure.
BUT
No
such
presupposition
is
associated with the verb murder.
Under two different
context, the utterance can
mean differently.
(I)
A young mother and her mother-in-law were watching her two years old son chasing ducks. The mother-in-law
said that her son (the boy’s father) was backward at that age. So the utterance means that Adam is quick
(II)
One of the students has just told
a joke, everyone except Adam
laughed. After a while Adam
then laughed. So, this utterance
means that Adam is quick to
understand/ react the joke.
Saying the reversed
from the truth implied
The baby cried
The mommy picked it up
A: I am out of petrol
B: There is a garage round
the
corner
Local interpretation can build context boundary, therefore the mother is not
picking up a chair while doing the
Being irrelevant breaks one of Grice’s maxims: be relevant. But, by responding that ‘there is
a garage round the corner’ means that co-operative principle is being exercised: the
maxim of quality (tell the truth)
In saying so, A did not want to
only describe but also ask for a
Thank You
