Course : Introduction to Linguistics II (Εαρ. 2024-'25) - Sections Α-Καρ & Π-Ω

After completing our overview of semantics, we shifted our focus to pragmatics. The object of study in pragmatics is so-called "utterance meaning", which, as opposed to "semantic meaning", depends on the context (both linguistic and physical, i.e. extra-linguistic), and the communicative intention of the speaker. Τhe notion of context is central to pragmatics. In particular, we discussed how the physical context of an utterance modulates the meaning of so-called "deictic expressions", including person, space, and time deixis.

The second part is concerned with presupposition, namely a precondition that is required for a sentence to be true as in, e.g., "Mary stopped smoking"; this presupposes that Mary used to smoke. We specifically examined how syntactic and lexical forms, so-called "presupposition triggers", serve to give rise to presuppositions (such as the verb "stop" in the example above). We also discussed an instance of presupposition found in a political slogan ("Make America great again!") and serving as a means to implicitly get across a message of lost grandeur which therefore must be restored. Finally, we did in class all the exercises that are contained in Handout 1 in Pragmatics. 

Please study the lecture slides and the relevant pages from Yule's chapter on Pragmatics. Next time, please bring with you Handout 2 in Pragmatics (on speech acts & politeness).

I wish you all a lovely Easter break! Καλό Πάσχα!