Seminar 15. Pragmatics of the sentence

Plan

1. The concern of pragmatics and its difference from that of semantics.

2. Reference force and effect. Proposition: illocution. Illocutionary force, perlocutionary effect – the basic notions of pragmatics.

3. A speech event and a speech act. Schema. A cooperative principle as the main condition of success of communication.

4. Performatives and Constatives.

5. Relations between utterances.

Questions and Tasks:

1. What is pragmatics concerned with?
2. What is the difference between syntax, semantics and pragmatics?
3. What is the advantage and disadvantage of studying language via pragmatics?
4. What is a speech act?
5. Name the three related acts the action performed by producing an utterance, consist of.
6. What is the most obvious device for indicating the illocutionary force of the utterance?
7. Name the five types of general functions performed by speech acts.
8. Speak about Direct and Indirect Speech acts.

References:

1. Никитин М.В. Курс лексической семантики: Учебное пособие к курсам языкознания, лексикологии и теоретической грамматики. / М.В. Никитин. – СПб.: Научный центр проблем диалога, 1996. – С. 619-753.
2. Jule, George. Pragmatics. // Oxford Introductions to Language Study. Series Editor H. Y. Widdowson. – Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. – 138 с.
3. Widdowson H. Y. Linguistics. // Oxford Introductions to Language Study. Series Editor H. Y. Widdowson. – Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. – С. 61-68.

SEMINAR 16. TEXT AND DISCOURSE

Plan

1. The nature of text.

a) Text type or genre and style.

b) Text type and function.

2. The nature of discourse.

a) Textual and contextual meaning.

b) The context and its components.

The context of literary discourse.

The communicative situation in literary discourse.

Questions and Tasks:

1. What is a ‘communicative triangle’?
2. What are the intrinsic linguistic properties of the text?
3. What is discourse?
4. What is style in language? What does concept of style involve?
5. How is a genre or a text type defined?
6. Give the definition of a context.
7. Name the characteristic features of linguistic context.
8. Name the typical features of non-linguistic context.

References:

1. Александрова О.В., Комова Т.А. Современный английский язык. Морфология и синтаксис. = Modern English Grammar: Morphology and Syntax: учеб. пособие. / О.В. Александрова, Т.А. Комова. – М.: ИЦ «Академия», 2007. – С. 138-140; 173-174.
2. Прохоров Ю.Е. Действительность. Текст. Дискурс: Учеб. пособие. – 2-е изд. испр. / Ю.Е. Прохоров. – М.: Флинта. Наука, 2006. – С. 9-72.
3. Blackmore, D. Understanding utterances. An introduction to pragmatics. / Diane Blackmore. – (Blackwell textbooks in linguistics: 6) – Padstow, Cornwall: T. J. International Ltd., 2003. – P. 134-154.
4. Verdonk, Peter. Stylistics // Oxford Introductions to Language Study. / Series Editor H. Y. Widdowson. – Oxford University Press, 2003. – P. 17-27.

6. Контрольные вопросы и задания по курсу