M. A. I english P. C3 & C6 Modern Linguistics title pmd

1.3
The Difference between Pragmatics and Semantics
Semantics assumes two entities – sentence and meaning, i.e., there is a 
sentence and it has some meaning. Whereas Pragmatics assumes three entities - 
utterance, meaning and interpreter/hearer, i.e., an utterance has a meaning as the 
hearer sees it. Thus, semantics is dyadic whereas Pragmatics is triadic. 
Semantics, being dependent on syntax, is rule-governed whereas for 
Pragmatics context is central and, therefore, it is principle-controlled. We can also 
say that Semantics is formal whereas Pragmatics is functional. 

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1.4
Sentence vs. Utterance
SENTENCE 
UTTERANCE 
1. 
Is an abstract theoretical entity 
Speech act 
2. 
Rule governed 
Principle controlled 
3. 
structural 
functional 
4. 
rigid 
Dynamic 
5. 
abstract 
concrete 
6. 
universal 
Context bound 
7. 
accurate 
appropriate 
8. 
Semantic entity 
Pragmatic entity 
9. 
Has linguistic properties of syntactic 
elements - subject, predicate, etc 
Pragmatic 
elements 
– 
deixis, 
implicature. Speech acts, etc 
1.5
Context
Context is one of the central concepts in Pragmatics. In 1923, Malinowski 
(The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages), the well-known sociolinguist, 
coined the term ‘context of situation’. This observation can be seen as one of the 
necessary pillars of any theory of Pragmatics. Language use is always situated 
against a complex background termed as ‘communicative context’ with which it is 
related in a variety of ways. The major components of the communicative context 
are: 
 
Language users, i.e., utterer and interpreter 
 
The mental world (verbal interaction is communication from mind to mind - 
minds are always ‘minds in society’ having cognitive(conceptualizations) and 
emotive(affective) elements) 

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 
The social world (social settings or institutions and culture with its norms and 
values) 
 
The physical world (physical conditions including sex, age, bodily postures, 
gestures, gaze, etc. and spatial and temporal references) 
The interlocutors, utterer and interpreter, are presented as focal points 
because the contextual aspects of the physical, social, and mental worlds do not 
usually start to play a role in language use until they have somehow been activated 
by the language users’ cognitive processes.
Levinsonalso stresses the importance of Context when defining Pragmatics,
… The study of those relations between language and context that are 
grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a language. (1983:09) 
In the words of Nozar Niazi,
… an utterance is a unit of communication whose significance or value is 
established by its contextual situation… (2004:13) 
According to Bilmes, the context is the social setting in which the Speech 
event takes place. Pragmatics operates when the utterance implies something more 
or different than what is said. ‘Context’ plays a vital role in determining the 
illocutionary force (exact meaning) of the utterance. Any utterance is meaningless if 
not placed in its human context. Thus the chief task of Pragmatics is to explain the 
illocutionary force of certain utterance and its consequence in the given situation of 
context as the interpretation varies in different contexts.