An Overview of Pragmatics

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 An Overview of Pragmatics

Pragmatics studies the ability of natural language speakers to communicate more than that which is explicitly stated. Another perspective is that pragmatics deals with the ways we reach our goal in communication. Pragmatics explains language use in context. It seeks to explain aspects of meaning which cannot be found in the plain sense of words or structures, as explained by semantics. Pragmatics is regarded as one of the most challenging aspects for language learners to grasp, and can only truly be learned with experience. Pragmaticsis concerned with theuse of these tools in meaningful communication. Pragmatics is about theinteraction of semantic knowledge with our knowledge of the world, taking into account contexts of use Griffiths, 2006:1. For example, the sentence 3 “You get a green light” is an ambiguous sentence. Without understanding the context, it would difficult to identify the meaning of the sentence, such as: a. It could mean that you are getting a green bulb. b. It could mean that you are getting a green light in the traffic light to drive your car. c. It could mean that you may do the project. Universitas Sumatera Utara From these interpretations, we may see that the meaning of the sentence is depending on the context and the intention of the speaker. According to Yule 1996:3, there are four areas that pragmatics are concern with, namely: 1. Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker or writer and interpreted by a listener or reader. It has, consequently, more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves. Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning. 2. This type of study necessarily involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the context influences what is said. It requires the consideration of how speaker organize what they want to say in accordance with who they are talking to, where, when, and under what circumstances. Pragmatic is the study of contextual meaning. 3. This approach also necessarily explores how listeners can make inferences about what is said in order to arrive at an interpretation of the speaker’s intended meaning. This type of study explores how a great deal of what is unsaid is recognized as part of what is communicated. We might say that it is the investigation of invisible meaning. Pragmatic is the study of how more meaning gets communicated than it said. 4. This perspective than raises the question of what determines the choice between the said and the unsaid. The basic answer is tried to the notion of distance. Closeness, whether it is physical, social, or conceptual, implies Universitas Sumatera Utara shared experience. On the assumption of how close or distant the listener is, speakers determine how much needs to be said. Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance. Pragmatics is a systematic way of explaining language use in context. It seeks to explain aspects of meaning which cannot be found in the plain sense of words or structures, as explained by semantics. Pragmatics is a way of investigating how sense can be made of certain texts even when, from a semantic viewpoint, the text seems to be either incomplete or to have a different meaning to what is really intended. Consider a sign seen in a childrens wear shop window: 4 “Baby Sale - lots of bargains”. From this sign, we know without asking that there are no babies are for sale. We will know the things that sold there are items used for babies. Pragmatics allows us to investigate how this “meaning beyond the words” can be understood without ambiguity.

2.2 Speech Acts