Meaning: Pragmatics

-

Meaning is what related to a certain context there is no meaning without a context, that what makes human's ability so unique and special from the other species, a meaning of a word or a concept can change according to context, culture and situation, the study of such meaning is called ''Pragmatics"

In other words, Pragmatics deals with the meaning whether it is a contextual one, a hidden one ( a fuzzy one) or a complex one, deeper than just being a literal one, the word pragmatics derives via Latin pragmaticus from the Greek πραγματικός (pragmatikos), meaning amongst others "fit for action", Philosophers at that time like Aristotle tend to think about language from different aspects, meaning was an important aspect.

Furthermore, Pragmatics tend to answer the question ''why''? in this respect, it tends to explain why individuals have a certain choice of words, why this set of words have been chosen to send a message or to deliver an idea, it explains the use of linguistic phenomena, the use of passive voice for example.
when it comes to the understanding and the interpretation of a pragmatic meaning a set of abilities or competence are needed, which are: 
  1. Linguistic competence: is the system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language, it is the set of the unconscious grammar known by the speaker that enables him to produce and understand the language. 
In Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965), Chomsky wrote, "We thus make a fundamental distinction between competence (the speaker-hearer's knowledge of his language) and performance (the actual use of language in concrete situations)."
       2. Communicative competence: this concept was brought by the linguist Dell Hymes in 1972, it a              combination of competences that can be summarized in the following: (discourse analysis, sociolinguistic competence, linguistic competence and the cultural one)

Pragmatics as a field is a wide, important one, without meaning, there is no context, and vice-versa, without meaning, everything would have a literal sense, aspects such as Metaphors, discourses, conversations would be static. It is essential for all interaction and language contact, it is a key feature in understanding languages and the responses.
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Semantics: An introduction to meaning

-
Image
today, we have around 7.000 languages around the world, each with its own words, grammar, vocabulary and structure. The scientific study of language is called linguistics, it is how languages work, how different elements are combined together and how they have been identified as meaningful elements, check  previous article ( Linguistics: An introduction) . Semantics is the 3rd level in linguistics which studies meaning.  The term semantics was coined by the French philologist Michel Bréal in the late 19th century, where he connected it with the term semiotics ( brought by the famous swiss philologist and semiotician Ferdinand De Saussure , Semiotics is the study of signs " signifier and signified") Meaning is that essential aspect of a language, it is the interpretation of the received word, symbol and sounds. Semantics deals with the understanding of the direct (clear) meaning of a word or combined words that form a sentence ( a sentence is an abstract level in l...
Read more

Language Acquisition

-
Image
A human being uses language as his main tool to communicate, send messages, understand utterances and keeping his social interactions alive, it what makes us different from an animal, it is the unique ability to control our language and having a variety of expression and thinking, language is the language of thoughts. Linguistics is concerned with discovering and defining the form and structure of human languages. All normal human children learn the language (or languages) that they hear around them. having a language or acquiring is a long process that starts from the day we were born, it starts with the first sound that we hear and stored in our minds, The study of language acquisition is the study of how and when children get a command of the thing linguistics sets out to define. it is how we acquire the ability to produce and understand language. Acquiring a language has stages, these stages have their unique characteristics, period and background, these stages are: From v...
Read more