Semantics and Pragmatics

Semantics and Pragmatics

SECTION A

Question 1

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Question 2

Collocations are words that often go together or are likely to occur together, for example, deep sleeper. However, the formation of these collocations sometimes is through redundancy, for example, an adverb + an adjective = a collocation, i.e. completely satisfied. In the sentence, the phrases ‘future plan’ and ‘in my opinion’ are unusual collocations and are odd in terms of redundancy in that, for the first phrase, a plan is a design meant for the future thus putting ‘future’ before ‘plan’ creates a sense of tautology. The same case with the phrase, ‘in my opinion’ is followed with ‘I think’ as they mean the same thing.

Question 3

The modal verb ‘must’ is used for prohibition, to make a command more respectfully and to make a conjecture but with some certainty. ‘Should’, on the other hand, is used to create a suggestion or advice and to convey an idea of an obligation. When exchanged in the sentence, the two modal verbs will change the weight of the sentence entirely basing on the context. That will mean that the students are suggested to turn off their phones, which was mandatory for them in the original sentence. It will also be necessary for them to check their details, which was a suggestion in the original sentence.

Question 4

Tense referred to when an action occurred, and they include the past, present and future tense. Aspect, on the other hand, is the flow of time, and it addresses whether or not an action takes place in a single block of time or a continuous or repeated manner. Therefore, the aspect of a tense allows us to describe or understand how an event unfolds over time. The first sentence is in the past tense with a simple past aspect, demonstrating an action already done. The second sentence is in the future tense as it shows an activity that has not been completed but is bound to be done at one point. The third sentence is in present perfect tense with a present perfect progressive aspect as it shows an action has taken place.

Question 5

Ambiguity occurs when a word form corresponds to more than one meaning. There is the lexical ambiguity which entails a single lexical item having two or more possible interpretations. The first sentence is an example of a lexical ambiguity due to the use of the word ‘bear’. The sentence either means Susan does not have the ability to have children or Susan cannot tolerate children. Such terms are known as homonyms as they have the same spelling but different meaning. The second sentence is an example of a syntactic ambiguity which entails a sequence of words having more than one interpretation. The chain in the sentence being ‘said on Friday he would give a test’ could mean, the teacher spoke on Friday about giving a test, placing the context in the past tense. It could also mean the teacher said he would provide a test on Friday, putting the meaning in the future tense to mean that ambiguity is fully context-independent.

SECTION B

Question 7

The Gricean Cooperative Principle makes one contribution such as is required, as the stage which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. This principle was introduced to show how users of language work out conversational implicatures, and it expresses all the logics possible in a conversation. They are a set of norms that are expected in talks. The principle consists of four maxims which are to be followed for one to be cooperative and understanding. There is the maxim of quality where the speaker has to tell the truth or something provable by adequate evidence. In the context of the question, the daughter does not tell the truth when asked about who was on the phone. Instead, she deviates from the topic and talks about something different to distract her mother from the main context.

Maxim of quantity entails being informative as required during a conversation by avoiding saying more or less. The daughter does not answer what she is asked but instead gives a statement entirely out of topic. She provides a response which is irrelevant to the issue of the discussion, thus not maintaining the maxim of relation which entails relevant reactions to the subject of debate. Lastly is the maxim of manner which involves avoiding ambiguity or obscurity and being direct and straightforward during a conversation. From the context, the daughter is ambiguous of her answer as she does not answer what she is asked. Instead, she deviates from the topic and states something completely different, thus making her not to be straightforward with her mother. The principal aim of the principle is to obtain a successful communication which not only does it depend on what we are saying, but also on how we are saying something. The daughter, from the context, does not maintain these maxims, thus making the conversation unsuccessful.

Question 8

Politeness has been defined as being in one’s respectful behaviour and being considerate of other people. When growing up, one was/is taught on politeness to others, thus being able to tell what is polite and what is impolite. However, in semantics, politeness is not ranked as part of grammar but is associated with language use. There are degrees of politeness which are ranked from more to less polite basing on certain sociological variables, used to portray a certain amount of threat. These variables include social distance, power and rank of imposition. Social distance is the closeness of the relationship between the speaker, and the hearer and power are that which the speaker has over the hearer. The rank of impositions refers to the importance or degree of difficulty in the situation, for example, a broad level of imposition occurs when the favour being asked is big and small request requires the low rank of imposition.

The first sentence, ‘sorry sir, this is a non-smoking area’, falls under the social-norm as the degree of formality is higher thus implying more excellent politeness, expressed by the words ‘sorry’ and ‘sir’. The second sentence, ‘stop smoking!’ shows clearly the aspect of power which the speaker has over the hearer due to use of the exclamation mark which has been used to indicate an emphatic declaration. The last sentence, ‘no smoking, please’, also implies more excellent politeness thus falls under social distance as it portrays how close the speaker and the hearer are. The word ‘please’ has been used to express culture to avoid anger and job from intervening.