合肥工业大学英语语言学课件Chap.6 Pragmatics.ppt

Chapter 6 Pragmatics 6.1 Introduction 6.1.1 Pragmatics (语用学) The modern usage of the term pragmatics was firstly put forward by the philosopher Charles Morris, who was concerned with semiotics(符号学)—the study of signs. 6.1 Introduction There are different kinds of semiotic systems in the world, such as Morse code, sign language, and traffic signals. But the most important semiotic system is human language. Morris distinguished three distinct branches of language within semiotics: syntax, semantics and pragmatics. 6.1 Introduction syntax—the way signs are arranged; semantics—what signs mean or signify; pragmatics—the relationship between signs and their users. 6.1 Introduction Based on Morris’ description of pragmatics, linguists have given a general definition —the study of how speakers use language to conduct successful communication(语用学). 6.1 Introduction 6.1.2 Pragmatics semantics Traditionally, language was studied by linguists as a self-contained, intrinsic system, and what those linguists were interested in was language itself. 6.1 Introduction Gradually, they no longer regard meaning as an inherent property of language itself, but begin to investigate meaning together with context of language use. And when the context is involved, the traditional semantics pragmatics. 6.1 Introduction The distinction between semantics and pragmatics is to see, whether the context of language use is considered in the study of meaning. 6.1 Introduction 6.1.3 Context(语境) Generally speaking, context is thought to be constituted by the knowledge shard by both the speaker and the hearer. 6.1 Introduction In a narrow sense, it refers to the words, clauses, sentences in which a linguistic expression appears. This is known as linguistic context which may cover a paragraph, a whole chapter and even the entire book. 6.1