Pragmatics

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND PRAGMATICS

FINAL EXAMINATION FOR MASTER (S2) DEGREE

JUNE 2014

Lecturer : Dr. Bibit Suhatmady,S.Pd.,M.Pd

NAME            : MUH. TASRIN S

NIM                : 1305086005

The Questions:

1.      Concerning the language users relationship, how you explain the concept of “relative distance”?

2.      Under what circumstance that there is cooperation between speaker and listener?

3.      Explain briefly the difference between direct and indirect illocutionary act?

4.      How would you explain that there is no direct link between the referring expression (the language) and its referent (the entity)?

5.      Why does context have an important role to determine speaker’s meaning?

THE ANSWER

1.                  The concept of Relative Distance is a concept which is raises the question of what determines the choice between the said and the unsaid. The basic answer is tied to the notion of distance. Closeness, whether it is physical, social, or conceptual, implies shared experience. On the assumption of how close or distant the listener is, speakers determine how much needs to be said. When speaker and the listener psichologically were closer the utterances that is talked perhaps used deixis and topic conversations is very softly. They may talking about their daily life and topic that personal. In additional case when the interaction between a Boss and his/her employee, the Boss may use sharp language because he/her is superior and has high position in otherhand the employee as inferior bacause of low position.

2.                  The circumstance that there is cooperation between speaker and listener happen when speaker and listener are involved in a conversation. Generally they cooperate with each others. For example when someone says “my book”, automatically the listener assumes that the listener really has a book and the listener also plans to say the reality that he really has a book. The point is the cooperation principle must give a good understanding to the speaker and the listener. Cooperation principle can be divided into four subs:

2.1. Maxim quality

·         Don’t say what you believe to be false

·         Don’t say that for which you lack adequate evidence

Example:
Background: A friend’s father considers whether or not to buy your friend a new car, and you are aware that the old car has broken down before.
A  :should I buy my son this new sport car?
B improper : I do not know if that is such a good idea, his car runs fine.
B proper   : yeah, that sounds like a good idea, his car has broken down before

2.2. Maxim quantity

·         Make your contribution as informative as is required

·         Do not make your contribution more informative than is required

Example :
Background:
A man stops his vehicle in the middle of the road to briefly ask you for directions.
A : where is the post office?
B improper : there are two in town, but the closest one is brand new. Down the road, about 50 meters past the second left. Also, you should not stop your car in the middle of the road anymore.
B improper : continue on, and make the second left up there. You will see it.

2.3. Maxim of relation

·         Be relevant

Example :
A : ugh, I wonder what time it is…..
B improper : it is 6.30
B proper : it is 6.30. So, you have the whole night ahead of you! Have you eaten at Hardy’s before?

2.4. Maxim of manner

·         Avoid obscurity of expression.

·         Avoid ambiguity

·         Be orderly.

·         Be breaf

Example:
A : can you take out the trash?
B improper : well, it is probable that I would take out the trash more often if someone were not flagrantly wasteful, such that, the majority of trash was not always coming from that person.
B proper : Sure, but we need to talk about how we are assigning the chores around here when I get back.

3.                  The difference between direct and indirect illocutionary act is on whenever there is a direct relationship between structure and function we have direct illocutionary act. Then whenever there is indirect relationship between structure and function the situation such is called indirect illocutionary act. Thus, a declarative used to make a statement is a direct speech act, but a declarative used to make a request is an indirect speech act. When it is used to make a statement, it is a direct speech art. When it is used to make a command/request, it is functioning as an indirect speech art.

Example:

It’s cold outside.

Indirect speech acts are generally associated with greater politeness in English than direct speech art.

4.                  There is no direct link between the referring expression (the language) and its referent (the entity) this can be explaned that the listener’s task is to infer correctly which entity the speaker intends to identify by using a particular referring expression. Thus happen because it is not unusual for people to want to refer to some entity or person without knowing exactly which ‘name’ would be the best word to use. The language whic is used or uttered may vague expression examples (Mr. Aftershave is late today and Mr. Kawasaki is coming) thus expression is not automatically understand by the listener. The example above may serve to illustrate that reference is not based  on an objectively correct (versus incorrect) naming, but on some locally successful (versus unsuccessful) choice of expression. We might also note from example that successful reference is necessarily collaborative, with both the speaker and the listener having role in thinking what the other has in mind. To enable a listener (or reader) to identify something. To perform an act of reference we can use proper nouns (Chomsky, Jennifer, Whiskas), other nouns in phrases (a writer, my friend, the cat) or pronouns (he, she, it). The words Jennifer or friend or she can be used to refer to many entities in the world. An expression such as the war doesn’t directly identify anything by itself, because its reference depends on who is using it. We can also refer to things when we’re not sure what to call them. We can use expressions such as the blue thing and that icky stuff and we can even invent names. For instance, there was a man who always drove his motorcycle fast and loud through my neighborhood and was locally referred to as Mr. Kawasaki. In this case, a brand name for a motorcycle is being used to refer to a person. key process here is called inference. An inference is additional information used bythe listener to create a connection between what is said and what must be meant

5.                  Context have  an important role to determine speaker’s meaning because context makes it clear’ what they or speakers meant. Indeed, it is practically a multitude that what a speaker means in uttering a certain sentence, as well as how her audience understands her, ‘depends on the context’. Without context, there is no way to determine the very sense of the word that the speaker intended to convey whereas with context there is generally no danger of misinterpretation, for meaning lives in context and the context defines meaning. The context helps us to eliminate the ambiguity, indicate the referent without clear context the reference can be very confusing, last is provinsion of clues for inferring word meaning ; Context may prove extremely valuable in guessing the meanings of new words. In many cases, when a new word (thought to be) appears for the first time, the author generally manages to give hints which might help the readers to grasp the concept or understand the idea.

 

Tasrin

Tasrin dangke