Seminar 8 What is pragmatics? What is the difference between semantics, syntactics and pragmatics? What relationships can exist between the word and its users?

Seminar 8

1. 
   What is pragmatics? What is the difference between semantics, syntactics and pragmatics? What relationships can exist between the word and its users?
   

Pragmatics- is the analysis of language in terms of situational context within which utterances are made, including the knowledge and beliefs of the speaker and the attitude between speaker and listener.


Words in any language are related to certain referents which they designate and to other words of the same language with which they make up syntactic units. These relationships are called semantic and syntactic. Words are also related to the people who use them. This relationship is called pragmatics. Syntax is concerned with words and how they are combined to form phrases and sentences. Semantics is concerned with what these combinations mean. But in any text syntax and semantics interact. In any language one and the same meaning may be expressed syntactically in more than one way.


The people develop a certain attitude to the words they use. Some of the words acquire definite implications, they evoke a positive or negative response, they are associated with certain theories, beliefs, likes or dislikes. There are "noble" words like "honour, dignity, freedom", etc. and "low" words "infamy, cowardice, betrayal". Words can be nice or ugly, attractive or repulsive. Such relationships between the word and its users are called "pragmatic".

2. 
   What role do the pragmatic aspects play in translation? Can correlated words in SL and TL have dissimilar effect upon the users? How should the pragmatic meaning of the word be rendered in translation?
   

Pragmatics is a set of skills which allow us to know what to say, to whom and how to communicate ones message in a specific context (what, how, whom, and when).

◦By teaching pragmatic language we teach our students how to use the language appropriately, for example when a student learning English is asked “how are you?” in England, do they need to provide a full and detailed description of their recent life or is it enough to shortly answer “All right” or “Not bad”?
◦ It seems obvious that the latter is correct, right? It depends on the context and who your interlocutor is: if you are a doctor in hospital, your patient may provide a more detailed response which is appropriate given the circumstances. Another example of how to use English appropriately might be politeness, such as when to use “please” in English.

◦The pragmatics of the original text cannot be as a rule directly reproduced in translation but often require important changes in the transmitted message. Correlated words in different languages may produce dissimilar effect upon the users. An "ambition" in English is just the name of a quality which may evoke any kind of response — positive, negative or neutral. Its Russian counterpart «амбиция» is definitely not a nice word.

◦ Thus, the phrase 'The voters put an end to the general's political ambitions" can be translated as «Избиратели положили конец политическим амбициям генерала», retaining the negative implication of the original, but if the implication were positive the translator would not make use of the derogatory term.
◦The sentence 'The boy's ambition was to become a pilot" will be translated as «Мечтой мальчика было стать летчиком».

Such words as "idealism" or "nationalism" often have a positive effect in the English text and are rendered into Russian not as «идеализм» or «на-ционализм» but as «служение идеалам, бескорыстие» and «национальное самосознание, национальные интересы», respectively.

III. Answer the questions according to the text

1) How would you understand the phrase "our modern world was born in northern cities of Britain"? What is meant by the "modern world"? Does the phrase imply the political, economic or technical aspects of our civilization?
2) Do the word "stocky" and "taciturn" give a positive or a negative characteristics of the people? How can people "live by steam"? Does the "dynamism of the human condition" mean that the living conditions of people can change quickly or that they do not change at all?
3) What does the phrase "by the rules of heredity mean? Were the artificial satellite and the computer really invented, built or first thought of in the North of Britain?
4) Who or what is Baedeker? What is a history's crucible? Is it a place where "history is made"? In what way does Baedeker not recognize the fact that history was made in the North of Britain? What places are referred to as historical in guidebooks?
5) Why are the primitive industries said to "invigorate the country"?