PRAGMATICS TUTORIAL 8 CHAN YI HAO HO JIA DA TAN HUI MIN WU JIAJUN.

PRAGMATICSTUTORIAL 8

CHAN YI HAO

HO JIA DA

TAN HUI MIN

WU JIAJUN

QUESTION 1: SPEECH ACT THEORY

Jia Da


Two Forces IllocutionaryPerlocutionary

Two FormsDirect Speech Act Indirect Speech Act


Performative Verbs Meaning of the verb is PERFORMED by simply UTTERING it in

the sentence.

Examples I apologise for my ugly presentation

slides

I promise to work hard for this module

QUESTION 1A: QUESTION

Direct, Performative Verb

May I enquire about the criteria for admission to NUS?

Intention: Illicit Information (Question)

Linguistic Form: Interrogative


Direct, without Performative Verb

Why on earth do you want to enroll in NUS?




Indirect

I am running out of patience


Linguistic Form: Declarative

QUESTION 1B: REQUEST

Direct, with Performative Verb

I demand a diamond ring, necklace and bracelet this Valentines Day.

Intention: Request/Order

Linguistic Imperative


Direct, no Performative Verb

Please understand my current financial situation


Linguistic Form: Imperative


Indirect

Can’t you afford the ring at least?



QUESTION 1C: PROMISE

Direct, with Performative Verb

I swear that I will make you pay for murder

Intention: Promise (Declaration)



Direct, no Performative Verb

I will never kill again if you spare me

Intention: Promise



Indirect

Prepare to meet your inevitable doom

Intention: Promise (Declaration)

Linguistic Form: Imperative

QUESTION 2: GRICEAN MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION

Yi Hao

Cooperative principle:

How people interact with one another


Quality Quantity Relation Manner

False information

Lack adequate evidence

Be as informative as required

Do not be too informative

Be relevant Avoid ambiguity and obscurity

Be brief and orderly

4 Gricean Maxim of Conversation

“He’s so well spoken that you can get lulled into thinking that you believe him. Then, after a while, you start to realize that most of what he’s saying is just unfounded opinion. He never backs up his statements with anything factual.”

Answer: Maxim of Quality


“Her lectures are really hard to understand. I think that she knows what she’s talking about, but she uses all this complicated vocabulary, and she never defines any of the words. Plus, every sentence is about a million words long, and by the time you figure out what it meant, she’s giving you another sentence that’s even more complicated! Aiyoh”

Answer: Maxim of Manner & Maxim of Quantity (too much)


“His classes are hard to follow because he goes off on so many tangents. He’ll be talking about Russian politics one minute, and then he’ll veer off to tell us something about democracy in Ancient Greece. Then he’ll get back to the Russian politics only to interrupt himself with a story about what his son did at breakfast this morning! OMG”

Answer: Maxim of Relation & Maxim of Manner


“I feel as though she never gives us thorough answers to our questions. For example, I asked her yesterday why we shiver when we’re cold. All she said was ‘because you’re warm-blooded,’ and then she went to with her lecture. I already knew that people are warm-blooded, but I don’t know what this has to do with shivering. Damn it!”

Answer: Maxim of Quantity (too little)


QUESTION 3: PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE

Hui Min

The following is a true story involving a mother and her 2-year-old daughter.

The mother is busy preparing dinner, and tells the child: Go ask your uncle what he wants to drink. The child runs to the living room where the uncle is relaxing, and doesn’t come back. After a good 15 minutes, the mother checks with the uncle, who says: Yeah, she did come to me and said “Uncle, uncle, what you want to drink?”, then she disappeared towards her bedroom.

Keeping in mind the 2-year-old’s level of communicative competence, explain how the pragmatic notions of illocution and perlocution crucially help us understand this funny episode.


Illocutionary Utterance

Speaker-oriented Has an communicative intent to induce

an actionDeclarative, Interrogative, Imperative

Hearer-based Has behavioral consequences on

the hearerDeclarative, Interrogative,

Imperative

Perlocutionary Utterance



Illocutionary Utterance

“Go ask your uncle what he wants to drink…”

IntentFind out what drink Uncle wants and get back to me


Perlocutionary behaviour

“Mummy said to ask what Uncle wants to drink”


What child understandsFind out what Uncle wants to drink and no need get back to mummy


Competency of a 2 year old:• Process literal meaning as

presented• Do not understand true intent of

context


No instruction to get back to Mummy

No need to get back to

Mummy=

Q4: PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF APOLOGY IN SINGAPORE

Jiajun

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for attending this press conference.

With great regret, I announce that I have tendered my resignation as a Member of Parliament and as a member of the People's Action Party.

I have resigned to take full responsibility for a grave mistake that I have committed. I had a relationship with a member of the People's Association staff working in Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. While the individual did not work with me directly, Punggol East used to be part of the GRC and continues to work with it. My conduct was improper and it was a serious error of judgment.

I have resigned in order to avoid further embarrassment to the PAP and to Parliament.

I have performed my duties as Speaker of Parliament and MP for Punggol East to the best of my ability and my actions did not affect my performance of those duties.

I am deeply sorry for letting down the residents of Punggol East, the PAP and everyone who has believed in me and supported me. I apologise unreservedly to them, and to my family.

I humbly request that you be kind enough to respect my family's privacy during this difficult period. Thank you.

- Michael PalmerSpeaker of Parliament

Effective?

Yes!Duh

No repercussion to PAP after public apology

Sincere


Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for attending this press conference.

With great regret, I announce that I have tendered my resignation as a Member of Parliament and as a member of the People's Action Party.

I have resigned to take full responsibility for a grave mistake that I have committed. I had a relationship with a member of the People's Association staff working in Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. While the individual did not work with me directly, Punggol East used to be part of the GRC and continues to work with it. My conduct was improper and it was a serious error of judgment.

I have resigned in order to avoid further embarrassment to the PAP and to Parliament.

I have performed my duties as Speaker of Parliament and MP for Punggol East to the best of my ability and my actions did not affect my performance of those duties.

I am deeply sorry for letting down the residents of Punggol East, the PAP and everyone who has believed in me and supported me. I apologise unreservedly to them, and to my family.

I humbly request that you be kind enough to respect my family's privacy during this difficult period. Thank you.

- Michael PalmerSpeaker of Parliament

•Sincere Expression of Remorse• “With great regret”

• “I am deeply sorry”

•Admission of fault• “My conduct was improper”

•Taking responsibility• “to take full responsibility”

• “resigned in order to avoid further embarrassment to the PAP”

•Public Apology• Press conference


Similar casesJack Neo, Jesslyn Tan, Anton

Casey

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20121212-389136.html


The End~



PRAGMATICS TUTORIAL 8 CHAN YI HAO HO JIA DA TAN HUI MIN WU JIAJUN.

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