Pragmatics: context and inference

Pragmatics is NOT concerned with:

• the use of language in social contexts

• the relations between signs and the referents

• he choice of language in social interaction and

  the effect of this choice on others

A stretch of speech preceded and followed by silence or a change of speaker is called

• a sentence

• an utterance

• discourse

Discourse that surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its interpretation is called

• linguistic context

• situational context

• speech event

Ambiguity means a type of meaning in which a phrase or statement is not explicitly defined, leading to several interpretations.

• True

• False

Deixis refers to expressions which

• are used to point to someone or something through language

• mention someone or something in speech or writing

• show a relation between a referent and thought

"SHE wanted to borrow some money." SHE is:

• Person deixis

• Spacial deixis

• Temporal deixis

"I will join you THIS EVENING". THIS EVENING is:

• Person deixis

• Temporal deixis

• Spacial deixis

" I am going to buy a present THERE". THERE is:

• Spacial deixis

• Person deixis

• Temporal deixis

"Let's meet on MONDAY." MONDAY is:

• Person deixis

• Spacial deixis

• Temporal deixis

What kind of reference do these pronouns have? "Michael went to the bank. HE was annoyed because IT was closed."

• anaphora

• cataphora