35.Pragmatic transposition of sentences

Sometimes a sentence characterized by formal features of some pragmatic

type in speech acquires illocutionary power of sentences of another type. Such

cases are referred to as indirect speech acts. Indirect speech acts are commonly

used to reject proposals and to make requests. For example a speaker asks, “Would

you like to meet me for coffee?” and another replies, “I have class.” The second

speaker used an indirect speech act to reject the proposal. This is indirect because

the literal meaning of “I have class” does not entail any sort of rejection. Typical

cases include:

o constative >> requestive: e.g. It is rather cool here. (Please close the

window.)

o quesitive >> requestive: e.g. Do you have any cash on you? (Please lend

me some.)

o constative >> offertive: e.g. There is some chocolate on the tea table.

(Have some.)

A sentence used transpositionally still retains its original meaning. The two

meanings co-exist, the indirect one being layered upon the original one.

It is obvious that there are some restrictions as to types of sentences that can

be transposed. A sentence of any pragmatic type cannot be transposed into any

other pragmatic type.

Apparently, pragmatic transposition of sentences is socially motivated. The

choice of an indirect pragmatic type is explained by extralinguistic conditions of

the communicative situation.

The Cooperative principle and Grice’s maxims

G.P.Grays in "Logic and speech communication," argues that the basis of verbal communication is the principle of cooperation. the principle of cooperation - is the willingness of partners to cooperate.

cooperative principle stipulates the basic rules of verbal communication. The author defines it as four categories (maxim).

the maxim of quantity (completeness) information;

maxim of quality information;

maxim ratio (relevance);

maxim means of expression (manner).

Maxim "quantity" G.Grays connects with the amount of information you want to send. The postulates of this category:

Your statement must contain no less information than is required.

Your statement should not contain more information than is required.

The essence of the maxim "quality" of the author formulates this: "Try that statement to be true", - elaborating on this idea two positions:

Do not say what is false.

Do not say that for which you do not have sufficient grounds.

Maxim's "attitude" is related to the relevance, that is, statements of compliance subject of conversation: "Do not deviate from the topic."

Maxim's "mode of expression" refers not to what is said, but how they say: "We express clearly." This provision is specified several private:

Avoid confusing expressions.

Avoid ambiguity.

Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).

It is organized.

The actual verbal communication is not complete and does not always correspond to the rules that people are wordy; not necessarily say what they think; deviate from the topic of conversation; their speech is unclear, fragmentary. However, if this does not apply to a violation of the basic principle of co-operation, interaction continues and reaches a certain level of understanding.

. The Politeness principle and Leech’s maxims

The politeness principle by J.Leech belongs speech etiquette and is a collection of a number of maxims.

Six maxims of politeness:

Maxim clock. This maxim boundaries private sphere. Ideally, any communicative act provides for a certain distance. Do not touch the potentially dangerous (privacy, personal preferences, and so forth.).

Maxim generosity. Successful communicative act should not be uncomfortable for the participants in the communication. Do not associate partner promise or oath.

Maxim approval. This positive assessment in the other ( "Judge not, that ye be not judged", "do not judge others"). If the world does not coincide with the evaluation of the assessment of the interlocutor, it greatly complicates the implementation of its own communication strategy.

Maxim modesty. This position is rejection of praise in his address. One of the conditions for the successful deployment of the communicative act is realistic as possible an objective self-esteem. Overly inflated or low self-esteem can affect the establishment of contact.

Maxim consent. This maxim neoppozitsionnosti. It involves the rejection of conflict in the name of solving a serious problem - saving the interaction of the subject, "the removal of the conflict" by mutual correction of communicative tactics interlocutors.

Maxim sympathy.

This benevolence position, which creates a favorable background for future substantive conversation. Unwholesome speech act makes it impossible. It creates a particular problem so-called "contact indifferent" when the sides without being enemies do not exhibit good will towards each other. Maxim goodwill gives reason to expect a positive development of speech situation with the planned conflict.

The text in the hierarchy of language units. The problem of the text unit

It applies to any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole - a semantic unit. The text is the object of studies of the branch of linguistics called text linguistics. Contemporary text linguistics studies the text and its structure, its categories and components as well as ways of constructing texts. Text linguistics takes into account the form of the text, but also its setting, i.e. the way in which it is situated in an interactional, communicative context. Both the author of a (written or spoken) text as well as its addressee are taken into consideration in their respective (social and / or institutonal) roles in the specific communicative context. In general it is an application of linguistic analysis at the much broader level of text, rather than just a sentence or word. . The difficulties that arise when trying to work out a universally acceptable definition of the text can be explained by the fact that scholars study the text in its various aspects: grammatical, stylistic, semantic, functional and so on. The text can be studied as a product (text grammar) or as a process (theory of text). The text-as-a-product approach is focused on the text cohesion, coherence, topical organization, illocutionary structure and communicative functions; the textas-a-process perspective studies the text production, reception and interpretation. Text can be understood as an instance of (spoken or written) language use (an act of parole), a relatively self-contained unit of communication. As a 'communicative occurrence' it meets seven criteria of textuality (the constitutive principles of textual communication): cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and intertextuality, and three regulative principles of textual communication: efficiency, effectiveness and appropriateness regulative Principles of Textual Communication the principle of efficiency requires that a text should be used with a minimum effort - hence the use of plain (stereotyped and unimaginative) language which, however boring and unimpressive, is easy to produce and comprehend. In contrast, effectiveness presumes leaving a strong impression and the creation of favourable conditions for attaining a communicative goal; this presupposes the use of creative (original, imaginative) language which, however effective, may lead to communicative breakdown. The principle of appropriateness attempts to balance off the two above