Tasks: Pragmatics – the Study of Meaning
Work with a partner and sum up the main points of the article 'Pragmatics – the Study of Meaning' in ten sentences or fewer.
How does the meaning of the sentences change when the context changes?
'Oh, you look nice!'
Said by someone who intensely dislikes the person they're talking to.
Said by a mother to a child covered in mud.
Said by someone who has been waiting for the person to get ready to go out.
'Are you here?'
Said by a teacher who finds his students in a different classroom than expected.
Said by someone who is looking into a room that appears empty.
Said by an employer who is surprised to find one employee rather than another at work that day.
'It's not cold in here'.
Said by a person who has just entered a sauna.
Said by a parent who has just watched their child turn up the heat.
Said by a food and health inspector who is checking a shop's cold storage.
Write down your answers. If you like, you can work with a partner.
In the box, you will find examples of sentences that contain homonyms -words that are written in the same way, but have different meanings.
Explain the different meanings of the homonyms.
I am going to park the car by the park.
My dogs always bark at trees; I think tree bark upsets them.
During the play, a child ran out on stage wanting to play with the actors.
I left my phone in the left drawer of the dresser.
She was so kind, she bought me a kind of hot fudge sundae.
He had to duck when a duck flew at his head.
The orange looked yellow against the orange wall.
Here are five scenarios describing people who, in different ways, struggle with communication. Study the scenarios and suggest how the different people may communicate more successfully.
Joseph was bullied in primary school. In secondary school he is not bullied, but he does not have any friends to hang out with. When the teacher asks some of his classmates if they are intentionally leaving Joseph out, they reply 'no, he just stays by himself, he never comes over to talk to us or join us.'
Two friends are going on holiday together. They both have low self-esteem and think the other is coming along just to be nice. Each of them is afraid to make suggestions for fun things to do because they do not want the other to feel obligated to participate.
A boss thinks that he is very charming and funny, and he is unaware that his humour and jokes make his employees very uncomfortable.
The director of the FBI feels that the president of the United States cannot be trusted to tell the truth, so he secretly writes down every conversation they have.
Alice is very nearsighted and struggles to see people's faces from a distance. Her neighbour is unaware of this; he thinks Alice is stuck-up and rude because she never greets him when they pass on the street.
Related content
Pragmatics is the study of how context affects meaning.