PRAGMATICS
AND NATURAL
CONVENTIONAL SIGNS
to
fulfill the task of Semantics Lecture
The Lecture:
Mr. Dede Sudrajat M.Pd
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Class : VI C
Nur
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UNIVERSITAS MAJALENGKA
PROGRAM STUDI BAHASA INGGRIS
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CHAPTER 2
Language in Use
In this chapter we look more at the specific of
communication, beginning with observations about non- linguistics signs and how
we get meaning from them. We introduce a distinction between a sentence, a
language construction, and an utterance, a particular act of speaking or
writing. An utterance is typically part of a larger discourse. In spoken discourse
meanings are partly communicated by the emphases and melodies that are called
prosody. Vocal and gestural signs can also be the means of transmitting
meanings.
2.1.
Pragmatics
Pragmatics
is another branch of linguistics that is concerned with meaning. Pragmatics and
semantics can be viewed as different parts, or different aspects, of the same
general study. Both are concerned with people’s ability to use language system
in producing meaningful utterances and processing (comprehending) utterances
produced by other, the chief focus of pragmatics is a person ability to derive
meaning from specific kinds of speech situations to recognize what the speaker
is referring to, to relate new information to what has gone before, to
interpret what is said from background knowledge about the speaker and the
topic of discourse, and to infer or ‘fill in’ information that the speaker
takes for granted and doesn’t bother to say.
General
Pragmatics
Pragmatics
can generally be divided into:
a)
Pragmalinguistics
b) Sosiopragmatics
Pragmalingustics is a review of the
general conditions of communicative language use. Then this can be applied to
the study objectives pragmatics more directed to consider the goals of
linguistic specific resources provided by a particular language to convey
ilocusion-specific ilocusion (ilocusion is a way of doing things in the act of
saying something).
Sociopragmatics is the study of
local conditions or a more locally specific about the use of language. In a
more specific local community is clearly seen that the principle of
co-operative or partnership principle and the principle of courtesy takes place
varies in different cultures or different language communities, in social
situations differ among social classes different, and so forth. In other words
sociopragmatics is boundaries.
Obviously
the boundary between semantic and pragmatics is vague, and at the present time
various scholars are apt to disagree about where the boundary is. Some of the
contents of this chapter may be considered more ‘pragmatics’ than ‘semantics’
by some people.
2.2
. Natural and Conventional Signs
A
language is a system of symbols through which people communicate. The symbols
may be spoken, written, or signed with the hands.
People who use the language to
communicate with one another constitute a society, a language community–the
English language community, for
instance. Within that the communities there are differences in the way
different people use the language, chiefly of a geographical or social nature. When
people who have the same native language can understand one another but still
notice consistent differences in each other’s speech, we say they speak
different dialects of that language.
It
is easy to illustrate dialects differences : vocabulary differences like petrol
versus gasoline, lift versus elevator, alternative ways of framing certain
question: Have you a pencil? Versus Do you have a pencil? Versus have you got a pencil ?, for instance.
It is extremely difficult to say how many differences there are between
dialects or to recognize where ane dialects ends and another begin.
Language
is only one of the common activities of a society. The totally of the common
activities, institution and beliefs make up the culture of that society. Cultural
grouping are not necessarily coterminous with language communities.
In
the modern world it is quite the opposite : cultural features are almost always
more widespread than anyone language. Native speakers of English belong to the
so called Western Culture, which has developed from the Hebrews, Greek and
Romans of the ancient world. If it is hard to specify just what constitutes a
‘dialect’, it is equally difficult to specify what is included in one
‘culture’. Our culture includes, for example eating with a fork, and hundreds
of other major and minor customs and belief. The point is that communication
take place against a large common background.
A
language is a complex system of symbols, or signs, that are shared by members
of a community. It will be useful to consider other signs that we know and how
we react to them.
A
footprint is a natural sign. It is the natural result of a foot treading on a
soft surface, and it can communicate a message-that the owner of the foot was
recently there – to anyone observes it. We are all familiar with other natural
signs. We see smoke and know that there is a fire, or fire has just gone out. A
black cloud informs us of the possibility of train. Treetops moving tell us
that the wind is blowing. Our own bodies provide such signs as earaches and
hunger pangs. In other people we notice and interpret shivering, perspiration,
or a head nodding with drowsiness. All short of sights sound and smell can be
natural signs: they communicate to someone who observes and can interpret but
their messages are unintentional, the by – products of various events.
In
modern life we are likely to be less concerned with natural signs than with
conventional signs, the auditory and visual devices that people have created to
send routine message to one another. Day after day we hear such signals because
someone intends for us to hear them: horns, whistles, sirens. Buzzer and bells.
The pop of a gun start competitive runners, swimmers, and jockeys on their
respective races. In various sports a whistles or buzzer marks the beginning
and end of each period of play. Visual signs are just as prevalent and as
varied. We have conventional ways of indicating a slippery road, a bicycle
path, the location of a telephone, of men’s a woman’s lavatories, where there
is access for the handicapped, where smoking is prohibited, and so much more.
Humans produce not only single symbols but systems of symbols.
Different
bugle calls, different bells tones, different number of toots on a whistles or
flashes of light can form a repertory of messages. The traffic light found at
numerous city street intersections is a good example of a simple system. None
of these communications uses language, though of course devising, installing
and learning them could not be accomplished by people who had no language.
Unlike
natural signs, conventional signs have human senders as well as human
receivers; each one has an intention and interpretation. The message may be
personal as when a friend rings your telephone or quite impersonal and general,
like the warning siren on a speeding ambulance. We can even use devices like
smoke detectors and burglar alarms to send messages to ourselves at a letter time,
in circumstances that we really do not want to occur.
Observing
any such signs and getting information from it seems like a simple matter and
can take place in an instans, and yet the process of getting information
consist of three steps:
1. Perception
2. Identification
3. Interpretation
1.
Perception
The sign and the observer share a
context of place and time in which the sign attract the observer’s attention. Robinson
Crusoe, to use our first example, walked where the footprint was, looked in the
right direction, when there was sufficient light for visibility, and before the
print had been obliterate by train, wind, tide, or the movement of other
creatures.
2.
Identification
Every perception is a unique
experience. To say that we ‘recognize’ a phenomenon means that we match it with
previous experiences stored in our memory. Almost certainly, if you observe a
sign and derive some meaning from it, you must have seen a similar sign before.
We identify any new thing either as a phenomenon previously observes or more
often, as something that is ‘identical’ with phenomena we already know, a new
token of a familiar type. The human mind cannot deal with an infinite number of
separate things; we classify intensity as a new instance of the class of
footprints or bushes or sirens or churches. And to identify what something is
requires us to recognize what it is not, to discriminate between signs.
3.
Interpretation
Meaning is often personal. The
meaning of any sign depends on the space-time context is which we observe it.
Crasoe’s reaction to the footprint was due to the circumstances of his life,
the fact that until this moment it had been impossible for him to see any human
footprint other than his own. This is clearly an unusual case, but all the time
we interpret differently in different context.
Conventional sign can
have different meanings in different context or different circumstances. The
whistles of a policemen directing traffic, the whistles of a hotel doorman
summoning a taxi. And the whistles of the referee in a soccer game may all
sound exactly the same; their different meanings are due to do the different
intentions and are interpreted differently.
