6. Pragmatic syntax: Functional Sentence Perspective (fsp)

Functional Sentence Perspective was created within Prague school (W. Mathesius). In this theory the sentence is looked upon as a unit of information. The division of sentences is done on the binary principle: the known (Theme/Topic) + the new (Rheme/ Comment). The theme of the utterance which is the known expresses the starting point of the communication while the rheme contains new information. The former is usually the subject-group of the utterance, the latter is the predicate-group of the utterance:

Ex. You| are attentive students.

20. C.

The most important semantic element in the communication which is the part of the comment is called the centre of communication or the focus. The difference between topic and comment is found in different degrees of their dynamism. The topic is static. It doesn't develop communication. The comment pushes it forward. Therefore, the comment is expressed with more emphasis.

Means of expressing FSP in English

The usual means of emphasizing rheme/comment is the ordering of components: first theme, then rheme:

T. C.

1) T -> C 60 % (direct ordering) - ex. Daddy is coming.

C. T.

2) C -> T 40 % (indirect ordering) - ex. Daddy is coming.

Other means include:

1) Prosody (prosodic means): pitch, loudness, pausation, rhythm, intonation;

2) Pragmatic means:

— The article: definite: theme, indefinite: rheme;

— Other determiners: some, one, this, that, etc.;

— Particles: even, so, just, such ("rhematic" particles);

— Cleft sentences: It was he who ordered the pizza;

— Passive constructions: rheme is placed at the end of the sentence;

— There is /are ("rhematic" constructions).

3) Word order (inversion).

There are different kinds of thematic progression in discourse. Below are 2 most common types. As can be seen from the diagrams, in the first one the rheme of the previous sentence (Rl) becomes the theme of the following one (T2), and so on; in the second case, the same theme (T) has three different rhemes. It must be understood, however, that thematic progression in actual discourse is usually a lot more complicated:

1) T1 ————- R1 Ex. On my way I met Henry. He was carrying a plastic bag. The bag was full of oranges....

T2(=R1)-R2....

- R1

T – R2 Ex. My mother is very cheerful and kind. She cooks wonderful meals and makes our home really cosy.

- R3

7. Theory of speech acts. Common characteristics

The ideas, expressed by English philosopher J. Austin in his book "How to Do Things with Words" compose the core of the TSA. Later his ideas were developed by American logician J. Searle in his book "Speech Acts". It dates back to 60-s of the 20^th cen. Speech activity came to the foreground of linguistics. TSA became popular. The main reason of its popularity is the following: evidently this theory revealed an important aspect of speech activity, which had not been developed before.

The most common characteristics of TSA are based on the following features:

1. methodological status of the theory;

2. its conceptual preconditions (предпосыдки);

3. wide sphere of investigation;

4. the object of investigation;

5. the subject of investigation;

6. method of investigation.

There is a model of communicative situation in every theory. TSA is not an exception to me rule. It suggests its own original model of communicative situation. Besides such components of communication as Speaker, Hearer, Utterance, Circumstances, TSA includes also the Aim and Result of SA.

In the process of communication a person achieves a certain aim. And SA is studied as means of this achievement. So the linguists look at the language units from this angle. They tried to find an answer to the following question: what is the mechanism of language-usage for achieving different aims arising (emerging) within social interaction.

J. Austin states that by saying smth. We perform 3 acts in fact. They are locution, illocution, perlocution.

Locutionary act is equivalent to uttering a (certain) sentence with a certain sense and reference.

Ex. pure locution can be found in phonetics (repeating one and the same thing).

Illocutionary act predetermines the way and the sense in which the utterance is precisely used on this or that occasion. Performing the illocutionary act we either inform or order or threaten or promise, etc., i.e. we pronounce an utterance with a certain illocutionary force = speech intension.

Perlocutionary act is what is brought about or achieved by saying smth. (convincing, misleading, warning, etc.). It's connected with the pronoun "you". So we can say that SA is a three-level unit.

Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

Utterance (speech context) Any utterance has 2 meanings:

1) linguistic meaning, i.e. if we have zero context;

2) pragmatic meaning (communicative, contextual)

A SA is direct if its linguistic meaning coincides with its pragmatic (or communicative) meaning. The indirect SA is such in which the pragmatic meaning doesn't coincide with linguistic meaning.

Ex. Fat lot of information you 'II get. (I never tell you anything - very strong negative meaning).

Can I take yourpeni (request). The TV set is out of order —> to children

—> to husband

In DSA the perlocutionary effect is predetermined by the direct meaning of the utterance. In IndSA this effect doesn't correspond to the direct meaning of the utterance, but it is caused by the presupposition (the common knowledge of interlocutors), by the communicative conditions. The ability of an utterance to produce the effect which doesn't coincide with its semantics is called the perlocutionary effect.

The Structure of the Speech Act

The SA consists of two parts. The first part is the denotative aspect, and the second part is the modal-communicative aspect. The first aspect consists in description of an event. The second aspect reflects the aims and conditions of communication.

SA analysis in Pragmatics gives us an opportunity to reveal the following components of a SA:

1. Speaker;

2. Hearer (Addressee);

3. Presupposition;

4. The aim of the utterance;

5. The development, the inner structure (organization) of SA;

6. The context and the situation of the communicative process.

1. The 1^s1 component (Speaker) presupposes such items as:

1. speech localization. It describes facts from the point of view: I - here - now. There are 3 types of localization: temporal, personal and areal;

2. dictum modality which reflects the attitude of the information to reality from the point of view of the Speaker; and modus modality which reflects the knowledge, will and feelings of the Speaker towards the information he produces;

3. estimation (evaluation), conformity of the utterance to the norms, existing in Speaker's ideas;

4. emotiveness;

5. the degree of interest, caused by the information.

2. The 2d component (Hearer) plays an important role in organizing the utterance. Here belong such categories as:

a). informativity;

b). expressivity, aiming to cause the interest, to influence the Hearer;

c). transparantivity (the speech should be clear (plain), understandable to the Hearer).

3. Presupposition includes the common knowledge of interlocutors about the world, about the circumstances of the given SA, about the language they use.

4. The aim of the utterance is closely connected with orientation to the interlocutor. It includes such notions as communicative orientation (statement, question, imperatives) and type of SA.

5. The inner structure of SA includes the elements beginning and finishing the process of communication. Here belong the verbs expressing address, interjections.

The Performatives

J. Austin speaks about a specific class of utterances which unlike any other utterances denotes denote(s) certain event by the very fact of describing it:

Ex. I name the ship "Victoria".; I declare you husband and wife.; I congratulate you on this .....

He also discovered that all utterances have a performative part:

Ex. I ask you to keep quiet, proposition (explicit performative part).; Keep quiet', (implicit perfomative part)

Any sentence has the following structure:

S -> performative part + propositional part

He discovered the performative class of verbs: about 1000 verbs (to ask, to state, to declare, to promise). The performative part expresses the illocutionary force. There are such performative verbs which cannot become explicit, i.e. hedged performatives:

Ex. You are so pretty! But not: I compliment you ....