Principles of Pragmatics

by Leech,Geoffrey N.

• ISBN13: 9780582551107
• ISBN10: 0582551102
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1983-07-04
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Over the years, pragmatics - the study of the use and meaning of utterances to their situations - has become a more and more important branch of linguistics, as the inadequacies of a purely formalist, abstract approach to the study of language have become more evident. This book presents a rhetorical model of pragmatics: that is, a model which studies linguistic communication in terms of communicative goals and principles of 'good communicative behaviour'. In this respect, Geoffrey Leech argues for a rapprochement between linguistics and the traditional discipline of rhetoric. He does not reject the Chomskvan revolution of linguistics, but rather maintains that the language system in the abstract - i.e. the 'grammar' broadly in Chomsky's sense - must be studied in relation to a fully developed theory of language use. There is therefore a division of labour between grammar and rhetoric, or (in the study of meaning) between semantics and pragmatics. The book's main focus is thus on the development of a model of pragmatics within an overall functional model of language. In this it builds on the speech avct theory of Austin and Searle, and the theory of conversational implicature of Grice, but at the same time enlarges pragmatics to include politeness, irony, phatic communion, and other social principles of linguistic behaviour.

Table of Contents

Preface

A note on symbols

Introduction

Historical preamble

Semantics and pragmatics

General pragmatics

Aspects of speech situations

Rhetoric

A set of postulates

Semantic representation and pragmatic interpretation

Rules and principles

Convention and motivation

The relation between sense and force

Pragmatics as problem-solving

Conclusion

Formalism and functionalism

Formal and functional explanations

Biological, psychological, and social varieties of functionalism

The ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions of language

The ideational function: discreteness and determinacy

Examples of 'overgrammaticization'

Conclusion

The interpersonal role of the Cooperative Principle

The Cooperative Principle (CP) and the Politeness Principle (PP)

Maxims and Quantity and Quality

Maxim of Relation

The Hinting Strategy and anticipatory illocutions

Maxim of Manner

The Tact Maxim

Varieties of illocutionary function

Searle's categories of illocutionary acts

Tact: one kind of politeness

Pragmatic paradoxes of politeness

Semantic representation of ddeclaratives, interrogatives and imperatives

The interpretation of impositives

Pragmatic scales

Tact and condescension

A survey of the Interpersonal Rhetoric

Maxims and politeness

Metalinguistic aspects of politeness

Irony and banter

Hyperbole and litotes

Conclusion

Communicative Grammar: an example

Communicative Grammar and pragmatic force

Remarks on pragmatic metalanguage

Some aspects of negation and interrogation in English

Implications of politeness

Conclusion

Performatives

The Performative and Illocutionary-Verb Fallacies

The speech act theories of Austin and Searle

Illocutionary performatives: descriptive and non-descriptive approaches

Illocutionary performartives and oratio obliqua

The pragmatics of illocutionary performatives

The performative hypothesis

The extended performative hypothesis

Conclusion

Speech-act verbs in English

Locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary

A survey of speech-act verb clauses

Is there a separate class of performative verbs?

A semantic analysis of some illocutionary verbs

Assertive verbs

Conclusion

Retrospect and prospect

References

Index

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