Pragmatics and semantics observation assignment
2. Pragmatics and Semantics.
Over the next few days, observe verbal interactions (in any language you understand fluently) and the settings in which they occur around you. Choose ONE (a, b, or c) of the following issues to address, citing examples from your observations to support your answer.
a) Find examples in which one or more of Grices maxims are flouted. Note the situation and, as accurately as possible, the utterances which were exchanged. What was the meaning of the exchange(s)? Explain how Grices maxims were flouted. How might you take what you have observed in this exchange (or these exchanges) and incorporate it/them into a lesson for language learners? You may consider ESL learners or learners of any other language you know; just specify the learning context, please.(pragmatics)
b) Choose one speech act and find instances of how this speech act gets realized in everyday activities. E.g., you might choose to look at complaints and take note of how people make complaints. Note the sequence of turns who initiates the complaint, who responds, and how? What happens next? Based on the various instances of this speech act you observe, in what ways can this speech act vary? On what factors might this variance depend? E.g., cultural, situational, personal, etc. Discuss the implications of your findings for L2 learners. (pragmatics)
c) Observe naturally occurring spoken or written (or both) English around you. Find two or more examples each of lexical ambiguity, synonymy, hyponymy, overlap, and antonymy in the phrases you observe. Describe the settings in which you observed them, and explain how they were used. Discuss how you might explain their uses to a language learner. Please note that you should not find examples from a linguistics textbook or a google search. Rather, you should find examples occurring in your everyday life and observations.(semantics)
(I will upload our textbook for you, please use for reference. Chapter8 pragmatics Chapter7 semantics. I will also give you two examples of others’ work)
