Pragmatics Gives Context to Language

Pragmatics Gives Context to Language Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics concerned with the use of language in social  contexts  and the ways people produce and comprehend meanings through language. The term pragmatics was coined in the 1930s by psychologist and philosopher Charles Morris. Pragmatics was developed as a subfield of linguistics in the 1970s. Background Pragmatics has its roots in philosophy, sociology, and anthropology. Morris drew on his background when he laid out his theory of pragmatics in his book Signs, Language and Behavior, explaining that the linguistic term deals with the origins, uses, and effects of signs within the total behavior of the interpreters of signs. In terms of pragmatics, signs refers not to physical signs but to the subtle movements, gestures, tone of voice, and body language that often accompany speech. Sociology- the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society- and anthropology played large roles in the development of pragmatics. Morris based his theory on his earlier work editing the writings and lectures of George Herbert Mead, an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, in the book Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, writes John Shook in  Pragmatism Cybrary, an online pragmatism encyclopedia. Mead, whose work also drew heavily on anthropology- the study of human societies and cultures and their development- explained how communication involves much more than just the words people use: It involves the all-important social signs people make when they communicate. Pragmatics vs. Semantics Morris explained that pragmatics is different from  semantics, which  concerns the relations between signs and the objects they signify. Semantics refers to the specific meaning of language; pragmatics involves all the social cues that accompany language. Pragmatics focuses not on  what  people say but  how  they say it and how others interpret their  utterances  in social contexts, says Geoffrey Finch in Linguistic Terms and Concepts. Utterances are literally the units of sound you make when you talk, but the signs that accompany those utterances give the sounds their true meaning. Pragmatics in Action The  American Speech-Language-Hearing Association  (ASHA) gives two examples of how pragmatics influences language and its interpretation. In the first, ASHA notes: You invited your friend over for dinner. Your child sees your friend reach for some cookies and says, Better not take those, or youll get even bigger. You cant believe your child could be so rude. In a literal sense, the daughter is simply saying that eating cookies can make you gain weight. But due to the social context, the mother interprets that sentence to mean that her daughter is calling her friend fat. The first sentence in this explanation refers to the semantics- the literal meaning of the sentence. The second and third refer  to the pragmatics, the actual meaning of the words as interpreted by a listener based on social context. In another example, ASHA notes: You talk with a neighbor about his new car. He has trouble staying on topic and starts talking about his favorite TV show. He doesnt look at you when you talk and doesnt laugh at your jokes. He keeps talking, even when you look at your watch and say, Wow. Its getting late. You finally leave, thinking about how hard it is to talk with him. In this scenario, the speaker is just talking about a new car and his favorite TV show. But the listener interprets the signs the speaker is using- not looking at the listener and not laughing at his jokes- as the speaker being unaware of the listeners views (let alone his presence) and monopolizing his time. Youve likely been in this kind of situation before, where the speaker is talking about perfectly reasonable, simple subjects but is unaware of your presence and your need to escape. While the speaker sees the talk as a simple sharing of information (the semantics), you see it as a rude monopolization of your time (the pragmatics). Pragmatics has proved helpful in working with children with  autism.  Beverly Vicker, a speech and language pathologist writing on the  Autism Support Network  website, notes that many children with autism find it difficult to pick up on what she and other autism theorists describe as social pragmatics, which refers to: ...the ability to effectively use and adjust communication messages for a variety of purposes with an array of communication partners within diverse circumstances. When educators, speech pathologists, and other interventionists teach these explicit communication skills, or  social pragmatics, to children with autism spectrum disorder, the results are often profound and can have a big  impact in improving their conversational interaction skills. Importance of Pragmatics Pragmatics is the meaning minus semantics, says  Frank Brisard in his essay Introduction: Meaning and Use in Grammar, published in Grammar, Meaning and Pragmatics. Semantics, as noted, refers to the literal meaning of a spoken utterance. Grammar, Brisard says, involves the rules defining how the language is put together. Pragmatics takes  context  into account to complement the contributions that semantics and grammar make to meaning, he says. David Lodge, writing in the Paradise News, says that pragmatics gives humans a fuller, deeper, and generally more reasonable account of human language behavior. Without pragmatics, there is often  no understanding of what language actually means, or what a person truly means when she is speaking. The context- the social signs, body language, and tone of voice (the pragmatics)- is what makes utterances clear or unclear to the speaker and her listeners.