B2478 - Pragmatic Linguistics (CL1)

Course contents

1. Implicit and explicit in communication
1.1. Implicit as an adaptive solution in communication. The “iceberg” model
1.2. Forms of inference. The problem of pertinent information selection.

2. Literal meaning and intended meaning
2.1. Language resources (system, langue, expertise) vs. Use of resources (words, performance)
2.2. Discrepancies between literal meaning and intended (or speaker's) meaning: rhetorical figures (metaphor, irony, hyperbole, ...), errors, communicative implicits, indirect linguistic acts, etc.
2.3. Communicative uses and non-communicative uses
2.4. Formal definition of “intended meaning” (Grice: meaning-nn): communicative intention as the speaker's intention to produce an effect on the listener
2.5. Restrictive clause: communicative intention as the speaker's intention that the listener recognize his communicative intention
2.6. The inference of intended meaning from literal meaning

3. The Cooperation Principle and conversational maxims (Grice)
3.1. The Cooperation Principle as an unconventional, rational principle of behavior (not exclusively linguistic)
3.2. Conversational maxims as realizations of the PoC
3.3. The nature of the Principle and maxims: reasonable expectations of cooperative behavior, unless otherwise indicated
3.4. Violations of the Principle and maxims: four t
3.5. The exploitation of maxims
3.6. Inferences: typology and classification
3.7. Conversational implicatures as PdC-dependent pragmatic inferences. (Two) different ways of producing conversational implicatures
3.8. The scalar conversational implicatures
3.9. The conversational implicatures consequent to the exploitation of maxims: cases and examples
3.10. The general form of conversational implicatures
3.11. The premises of conversational implicatures. Relevant types of information
3.12. The erasability of implicatures. Other typical properties

4. The presuppositions
4.1. Foreground/asserted information and background/presupposed information
4.2. Noncontestability/persistence under denial of presupposed information
4.3. Definition/test of presupposition
4.4. The truth of the presupposition as a condition of the truth or falsity of the assertion
4.5. The presuppositional activators
4.6. Properties of presuppositions: contextuality
4.7. Properties of presuppositions: “erasability”
4.8. For a pragmatic, not semantic interpretation of presupposition

5. Linguistic acts. Meaning and illocution
5.1. Performative utterances (and constative utterances) in J. L. Austin
5.2. Happiness conditions for performative utterances
5.3. The standard (grammatical) form of performative utterances
5.4. Conditions of truth and conditions of happiness

5.5. Explicit and implicit performative utterances

5.6. From performative utterance to linguistic act. The three perspectives of the linguistic act: locutive, illocutive, perlocutive

5.7. The classification of illocutionary acts according to Searle: criteria and types

5.8. The revision of the theory of language acts according to Searle

5.9. The principle of expressibility. Indicators of Illocutionary Force and Propositional Content

5.10. Regulative (normative) rules and constitutive rules. Toward an explicit definition of illocution.

5.11. Promise analysis: necessary and sufficient conditions and constitutive rules. Other illocutionary forces

5.12. Indirect speech acts.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Bersani Berselli, G., “Esplicito ed implicito nella comunicazione”.

2. Bersani Berselli, G., “Significato letterale vs. significato inteso”.

3. Bersani Berselli, G., “Appunti di viaggio in Pragmatica, parte prima. il Principio di Cooperazione e le massime conversazionali”.

4. Bersani Berselli, G., “Appunti di viaggio in Pragmatica: parte seconda. Presupposizioni”.

5. Bersani Berselli, G., “Appunti di viaggio in Pragmatica: parte terza. Atti linguistici”.

6. Grice, H. P., “Logica e conversazione” in H. P. Grice, Logica e conversazione, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1993, 55-76. Anche in M. Sbisà (a cura di), Gli atti linguistici, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1978, 19955, 199-219.

7. Austin, J. L., “Performativo-constativo”, in M. Sbisà (a cura di) (1978), 49-60.

8. Searle, J. R., “Per una tassonomia degli atti illocutori”, in M. Sbisà (a cura di) (1978), 168-188. I parr. 5 e 6 sono esclusi.

9. Searle, J. R., “Atti linguistici indiretti”, in M. Sbisà (a cura di) (1978), 252-261 e 266-271. La lettura delle altre pagine è facoltativa.

10. Searle, J. R., Gli atti linguistici, Torino, Boringhieri, 1976, cap. 3: “Struttura degli atti illocutivi”, 85-106. La lettura del par. 3.1. “Come promettere: una faccenda complicata” è obbligatoria; la lettura degli altri paragrafi è facoltativa.

11. Levinson, S. C., La pragmatica, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1985, cap. 3: parr. 1, 2, 3.1; cap. 4: parr. 1, 3, 4; cap. 5: 1, 2.

Teaching methods

Lectures and group work.

Assessment methods

Module of Pragmatic Linguistics: At the end of the module, an examination will be given on the content covered in lectures and related readings, consisting of a two-hour written test.

Office hours

See the website of Gabriele Bersani Berselli