Pragmatic Study REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
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producers ” Mey, 2001:5. Generally, the term pragmatics is often used in linguistic
research to refer to the “study of the interpretation meaning” O’keeffe, Clancy
Adolphs, 2011:1. As Thomas 2013:2 observes that when we talk about pragmatics, we tend to focus on two camps: speaker
’s meaning and utterances’ interpreter.
However, on the other hand, a more iconic paradigm about pragmatics suggested by Allan and Jaszczolt 2012:4 that through a pragmatic study “a speaker
can say something without meaning it or shehe can mean something without saying it, by merely implicating or impl
iciting it”. In this boundary, pragmatic study allows us to notice that speaker’s meaning is dependent on the assumption of knowledge
that are shared by both speaker and hearer Cutting, 2002:2. In other words, it is implied that speaker constructs linguistic message and intends a meaning, and in
turns, hearer interprets the message and finally infers the meaning from what the speaker says.
Concerning the implied meaning, Thomas 2013:3 comes to an idea that to understand the meaning, we can begin to understand the differences between the
levels of meaning. He classifies three levels of meanings: the first level is abstract meaning; the second meaning moves from the abstract meaning to contextual
meaning or also called as utterance meaning by assigning sense andor reference to a word, phrase or sentence; and the third level of meaning is force or the meaning
which is reached when we consider the speaker’s intention through the force effect of the utterance.
In this respect, Bublitz and Norrick 2011:4 summarize: PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Pragmatic includes pattern of linguistic actions, language functions, type of inferences, principles of communication, frame of knowledge,
attitude and belief… Pragmatics deals with meaning-in-context,
which for analytical purposes can be viewed from different perspectives that of the speaker, the recipient, the analyst, etc.. ……
The focal point of pragmatics is linguistic action and inter-action.
What pragmatics tries to highlight is how the language is used by people in everyday life interaction. Whenever the speaker speaks, shehe will choose herhis
language variation and adjusts the language based on contexts in different ways to deliver their intentions. Therefore, it can be underlined that language is not only
simply to deliver information from the speaker to the hearer or interpreter, but also as the mode which motivates the hearer to do something based on the speaker point.
Focusing that pragmatics concerns about language in use, it is important to assess the ability of the users in using it, on the other hand. The ability to use the
language contextually in an appropriate fashion is defined as pragmatic competence. Here the researcher sees that from the pragmatics point of view, the
language which is employed has strongly correlated to the ability of its users. Basically, to communicate effectively, participants are also required to have
intercultural competence which is also a part of pragmatic competence. According to Byram et al 2002,
“English learners are intercultural speakers who do necessarily have great competences, including pragmatic competence
”. Therefore, as second language learners, Batam University students possibly acquire different
pragmatic competence which supports them in communicating differently using English to carry their intentions.
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