Pragmatics: Crash Course Linguistics #6 | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Linguistics explores how context and assumptions affect meaning, as people communicate through implicature, politeness, and the Cooperative Principle.

Key Insights

• 💠 Pragmatics explores how context and assumptions shape meaning in communication.
• ✋ The Cooperative Principle assumes that people generally cooperate by providing high-quality, relevant information in a polite and straightforward manner.
• 👻 Implicature adds additional meaning beyond what is explicitly said, allowing for contextually derived interpretations.
• 🦔 Politeness in language involves various strategies, such as indirectness, qualifiers, and hedges.
• 🛀 Different cultures have different conversational styles, with variations in turn-taking and overlapping.
• ❓ Language choices in conversation are influenced by individual conversation styles and cultural norms.
• 🖐️ Pragmatics plays a crucial role in the creation of meaning and maintaining social harmony.

Transcript

Hello, I'm Taylor and welcome to Crash Course Linguistics! Sometimes we don't say exactly what we mean, and yet we still manage to understand each other. If you ask, “Is it raining?” when I come inside soaking wet and I say, "Great job, Sherlock", you'll probably assume that I'm being sarcastic rather than giving you a compliment. Or if you ask me ... Read More

Questions & Answers

Q: What are the main assumptions of pragmatics?

Pragmatics assumes that people strive to communicate high-quality, sufficient, relevant information in a manner that is as straightforward as possible for the context. These assumptions are collectively known as the Cooperative Principle.

Q: How does implicature contribute to communication?

Implicature involves adding additional meaning to what is explicitly said, allowing for contextually derived interpretations. It helps make sense of situations where someone says one thing but means another.

Q: How do different languages express politeness?

Languages employ various strategies for politeness, such as adding particles like "please" or "sorry," using different forms of words based on social status, adding qualifiers or caveats, and being indirect or hinting instead of ordering.

Q: How does turn-taking in conversation vary across cultures?

Different cultures have different conversational styles, with some favoring high-involvement interactional style (overlapping, less silence) and others favoring high-considerateness interactional style (no overlapping, more silence). These differences can affect the flow of conversation.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Pragmatics, the study of language in context, explores how meaning is derived from more than just words and sentences.

• The Cooperative Principle suggests that people assume others are trying to communicate high-quality, relevant information in a polite and straightforward manner.

• Politeness in language involves strategies such as indirectness, qualifiers, and hedges to maintain social harmony.