Unit 2 (pragmatics) 【发布日期:2010-8-14】 【来源:】【字体:大 中 小】 【打印本页】 【关闭窗口】 02 Unit2
[Check your understanding]
1. f 02It is criticized as lacking criteria for classification.
2. f 02The hearer is held responsible.
3. f
4. t
5. f
02
In-Class Activities
1.
(1) No, they are essentially directives.
(2)02 “你能帮我还书吗，谢谢哦。”
“We’ll be very grateful for your presence.”
(3) Because they expect other people’s compliance instead of refusals. One feels indebted if one does not comply with the request.
02
2.
(1) Commissives
(2) Yes. The second promise is achieved with a condition which may turn the promise (a commissive) into a requirement (a directive).
02
3.
(1) No. Utterance a is a threat. Utterance b involves something that the speaker cannot control. Utterance c describes something in the past rather than something that the speaker will do in the future. Utterance d involves an act that the hearer rather than the speaker will do in the future. Utterance e has a third person as the subject. Utterance f is a statement about something that happened in the past.
(2) a. propositional content condition (what is said is about something that the speaker has done wrongly); b. sincerity condition (the speaker is serious or sincere in making the apology; c. preparatory conditions (e.g. the person who is apologizing should have made mistakes) d. essential condition (both sides understand that what the speaker says is an apology).
Zhang: 这件事你不应这样处理的。
Li:020202 好嘛，算我错了行了吧。[where the speaker is not sincere]
02
4.
(1) The customer when he says there is a fly in my soup (which is meant to be a complaint).
(2) Because saying that can normally attract the waiter’s attention and the waiter knows what to do in a context like this.
Yes. Sometimes, we speak indirectly to save our or others’ face.
(3) Yes, I agree with her. Hearing the customer’s words, the waiter may not take it seriously (if he is not joking).
02
5.
(1) The role of the underlined part is explaining the reason of the refusal so that Andy will accept Jack’s refusal more readily.
Not necessarily. A white lie also does the same trick.
(2) a. Calling on people to save water.
b. Denying people the right to park here.
The “irrelevant” information is used to enhance the chances of successfully performing the directive acts.
02
Exercises
Task3.
1.
a. Austin was a leading exponent of 'analytical' or 'Ordinary Language' philosophy. His work in the 1950s provided both a theoretical outline and the terminology for the modern study of speech acts developed subsequently. He was the initiator of the speech act theory. He drew the distinction between constative utterances and performative utterances, although he latter discarded the distinction. He introduced the trichotomy of locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.