Pragmatics and the Dictionary

For many years the overriding concern of English language teachers was that their students should learn to speak and to write English correctly. More recently, serious attention has been drawn not only to the correct, but to the appropriate use of language. This shift of emphasis has taken place under the influence of studies in pragmatics.

Traditionally, dictionaries and grammars are concerned with what words, phrases, and sentences mean. Pragmatics, on the other hand, is the study of how words are used, and what speakers mean. There can he a considerable difference between sentence-meaning and speaker-meaning. For example, a person who says "Is that your car?" may mean something like this: "Your car is blocking my gateway -move it!" - Or this: "What a fantastic car - I didn't know you were so rich!» - or this: "What a dreadful car-I wouldn't be seen dead in it!" The very same words can be used to complain, to express admiration, or to express disapproval.

This Dictionary will often help you by giving examples of typical speaker-meanings. Look, for example, at the following Usage Note at the entry for way.

 

USAGE of combination “By the way”

Although this expression seems to suggest that you are going to add unimportant information, in fact it is often used to introduce a subject that is really very important to you; By the way, I wonder if we could discuss my salary some time? By the way, do you think you could lend me $10? —see also INCIDENTALLY (USAGE)

In general, the context-in which the words are spoken, or the way in which they are said (For example, their intonation) will tell us which of, the possible speaker-meanings is intended. But between speakers of different languages or people of different cultures, serious misunderstandings can occur. For example, it is common for a British teacher to say to a student: "James, would you like to read this passage?" Although the sentence is a question about what James likes, the teacher is not asking about James's wishes, but is telling him to read. A foreign student could easily misunderstand the teacher's intention, and reply; "No, thank you". This would strike the teacher either as being very rude, or as a bad joke. In other words, the reply would be inappropriate.

Misunderstandings are particularly likely to occur with words such as please, whose meaning cannot be explained by the normal method of  difn

1. How formal is the situation (is it a business meeting, a class discussion, or a picnic)?

2. How well do we know the people we are addressing (are they friends, workmates, or complete strangers)?

3 . If we are talking to strangers, how similar are they to ourselves (e.g. are they people of a similar age, of the same sex, of a similar social background, of the same profession)?

4. Are we talking to people who are in a superior, equal, or subordinate relationship (e.g.our boss, a colleague, or a waiter)?

5. How great is the demand we are making on them {e.g. are we asking to borrow a pencil or a car)?

Do we have the right to make a particular demand (e.g. teachers can require a student to write an essay, but not to clean their car)?

People of different cultures will answer these questions differently. Thus it is less of an "imposition" to ask for a cigarette in Eastern Europe (where they are very cheap) than in some parts of Western Europe (where they are expensive). And the point should be made that different English-speaking cultures vary among themselves, just as they differ from non-English-speaking cultures. For example, it can be less of an "imposition" to borrow someone's car in the United States "than it is in Great Britain.

People from different cultures will attach different values to the same factors. For example, a teacher has a higher status in some countries than in others. In some cultures, people are very deferential to their parents: the idea of parents being polite to their young children, as often happens in American or British middle-class homes (e.g. a mother's saying "Peter, would you mind shutting the door, please?") will seem very strange. Finally, the importance attached to factors such as differences of sex, age, and social status varies enormously from culture to culture.

Of dictionary definition; or with words such as surely, for which a definition giving  the meaning of the word out of its context can easily be misleading.

For example, please is a conventional marker of politeness added to requests. But it cannot be simply equated with items such as bitte in German or dozo in Japanese. Unlike these words, please cannot be used in reply to thanks (e.g. by a hostess giving a visitor a drink). And moreover, please is a minimal marker of politeness, which in some situations can actually be less polite than its absence! For example, "Will you please sit down?" is more likely to be used in addressing a naughty child than in addressing an important visitor to one's office. "Mind your head, please" is inappropriate because "Mind your head" is a warning, not a request: it is the kind of remark which is meant to benefit the hearer, rather than the speaker. These examples show how difficult it is to explain the meanings of some words without giving details of [he context in which it would be appropriate or inappropriate to use them.

Many linguists and language teachers would argue that the most serious cross-cultural misunderstandings occur at the level of speaker-meaning (i.e. pragmatics). If foreign learners make grammatical errors, people may think they do not speak English very well, and make allowances for them. But if learners make pragmatic errors, they risk (as in the case of "Will you please sit down?") appearing impolite, unfriendly, or even aggressive. Conversely, some learners (e.g. some speakers of oriental languages) may make the mistake of appearing over-polite, which in turn can cause embarrassment, or can even give an impression of sarcasm. The study of pragmatics may thus be seen as central to the foreign student's need to communicate, and it is perhaps surprising that up to now no serious attempt has been made to incorporate pragmatic information into a dictionary for foreign learners of English.

Part of the explanation lies in the fact that pragmatics is a comparatively new field of study. But more relevant is the fact that we cannot formulate rules of pragmatic usage in the way that rules are formulated in grammar. The best we can offer is a set of guidelines, because so many factors influence the way we speak and how polite or indirect we are. The sorts of questions we must ask ourselves are; In spite of the difficulties of generalizing, we attempt in this dictionary to capture "guidelines" of pragmatic usage by three means:

1. By Usage Notes forming part of the alphabetic entries for words (see, for example, the Usage Notes under actually, afraid, all right, (I) mean, please, surely).

 

USAGE of the word “actually”

 ...In conversation actually can be used to soften what you are saying, especially if you are correcting someone, disagreeing, or complaining: "Happy Birthday, Tom." 'Well. Actually my birthday was yesterday”. But it can be used with the opposite effect, if you speak with sarcasm: I didn't ask your opinion, actually,

2. By Language Notes covering more general pragmatic topics, which cannot be limited to the treatment of individual words, and which affect the meaning, in context, of many different words or phrases. (See, for example, the Language Notes for Apologies (p 38), Criticism and Praise (p244). Invitations and Offers(p556), and Thanks (p!097).)

3. By comments and examples within the entries for individual words, showing how they are used in context. This example at quite shows how it can be used to show annoyance:

(shows annoyance) If you've quite finished interrupting, perhaps I can continue.

And this example at respect shows how it is used in a fixed phrase to express polite disagreement: (used formally to introduce an expression of disagreement) With (t he greatest) respect/Wit h due respect, I think you 're wrong.

What we can reasonably attempt to show in these Notes is the way in which pragmatic questions are resolved in some typical situations, for a (hypothetical) "average" speaker of British or American English. The Notes are designed to help overcome problems of inappropriateness, whether these are caused by linguistic or by cultural differences.

Answer the following questions:

1. What is the beginning of Pragmatics connected with?

2. What conditions produced Pragmatics?                      

3. What are the chief contributions of the active type dictionaries to Pragmatics?

4. In what way is Pragmatics reflected in active type dictionaries?

5. What information do the learner's dictionaries give to English language learners?

6.   Which of two opposing lexicographical principles (the descriptive or prescriptive) is accepted by the learner's dictionaries?