The use of english modals by first-year students of the department of anglophone studies

I.3 - PRAGMATICS AND DISCOURSE CONTEXT

The discourse analyst searches the relationship between sentences in the same text whereas the pragmaticist wants to find out the relationships between sentences and the real world. Some linguistic items require contextual information. If, for example, a speaker says «I prefer this table to that one», the hearer expects to see tables or he is aware of the existence of tables. The words «I», «this», and «that» used in the discourse refer to concrete existing things. These terms are known as referring expressions. In pragmatics, some technical terms such as reference, presupposition, implicature and inference are used to explicate the relationships between the language users and the world in which they live. Let us explain these terms.

I.3.1 - Pragmatic reference

Pragmatic reference is what Halliday and Hasan (1976:31)^3(*) call exophoric reference. They say that exophoric references are forms which, «instead of being interpreted semantically in their own right...make reference to something else for their interpretation». The exophoric reference need not be analyzed within the text - its interpretation lies outside the text - but within the context of situation. So it refers to context. Levinson (1983:58) defines context as a «set of pragmatic indices, co-ordinates or reference points (as they are variously called) for speakers, and whatever else is needed». When someone says, «Look at that» without any other linguistic item, we expect him to point at something concrete. Example of pragmatic or exophoric reference:

Look at that. (That = )

(that refers to a pencil)

In the following sentence knowledge of the referred person is necessary to understand the meaning of the modal.

E.g. He may leave.

The referring term is «He». If «He» refers to someone of a higher social status than the speaker, the modal «may» expresses a possibility; otherwise «may» will express either possibility or permission.

I.3.2 - Pragmatic presupposition

Pragmatic presupposition is well described in French by the use of tu and vous. Levinson (1983:175) notes that the presuppositions concerning the relationship holding between speaker and addressee, expressed by the use of tu or vous, simply do not affect «truth conditions». Thus, quoting Keenan (1971:51), Levinson (1983:175) says that in «Tu es Napoléon» the use of tu presupposes the addressee is socially inferior to the speaker or personally intimate with the speaker». Keenan (1971) then, defines pragmatic presuppositions as «a relation between a speaker and the appropriateness of a sentence in context». In «Vous êtes Napoléon», the use of vous shows a polite or a formal way of talking to the addressee. All in all, the use of tu or vous depends on the relationship between the addresser and the addressee. When there is respect we use vous when there is less respect we use tu.

In English, pronouns are not used to show when the request is perceived more polite or less polite. The distinction is made through the use of modals. Then an English native speaker would find «Could you give me your pen?» more polite than «Can you give me your pen?». By presupposing that the addressee is socially important, the speaker uses «could» (a French speaker will use vous).

The meaning expressions that capture presuppositions are called implicature expressions or conventional implicatures. What is implicature?

* ³ Brown and Yule (1983:192)