Lexical Pragmatics

Gul Shair Sumalani M.Phil English Applied Linguistics.

English Language Centre University of Baluchistan Quetta.

What is Lexical Pragmatics..?

The basic idea of lexical pragmatics was launched by McCawley in1978.

Lexical pragmatics investigates the mechanisms by which linguistically-specified word meanings are modified in use. (Wilson,2003; Carston,2002).

Lexical Pragmatics is to account for the fact that the concept communicated by use of a word often differs from the concept encoded.

Word Narrowing in Pragmatics

Narrowing refers to the use of a lexical item to convey a more restricted interpretation than the semantically encoded one. (D Wilson, R Carston 2007)

For Example.. I am not drinking tonight. Asma is a working mother. Nadir has beaten Asif.

Approximation in Pragmatics

Approximation refers to something near to the reality.

For example, That bottle is empty. This policy will bankrupt the formers. This injection will be painless.

Neologism in Pragmatics

The entrance of new words and terms in language is called Neologism.

Neologism can be either loan words in the form of direct loans and loans translations, or newly coined terms, either morphologically new words or by giving existing words a new semantic content. (Akmajian A:2001)

Types of Neologism

Coined Words. Entirely new, previously nonexistent words, this often happens when speakers invent new words. For Example: To Google, Geek, Dweeb.

Acronyms. A word formed from the initial letters of two or more successive words. For Example: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

Conti:

Affixation. Adding a Suffix and Prefix to a word. For Example: Slow+ly. In+Complete.

Blending. A word formed by joining the beginning of one word to the end of another word. For Example: fantastic+fabulous= Fantabulous

Compounding. It is the process of word formation from 2 or more units that are themselves words. For Example: Black and board, Blackboard. Bed and room, Bedroom.

Conti:

Clipping. Reductions of longer forms, usually removing the end of the word. For Example: Picture (pic), Advertisement (ad)

Conversion. Changing the form class of a word. For Example: Taste(n) to taste (v). Walk(n) to walk(v).

Metaphor and Pragmatics

When we use two nouns and then compare and contrast them to one and other.

For Example.

I am a lion.

He is a rock.

You are diamond.

Conti:

A metaphor consists of two Parts. The Tenor and The Vehicle. The Tenor is the subject to which the metaphor is

applied. The Vehicle is the Metaphorical term through which the

tenor is applied. These two parts come together to reach a point of

similarity known as a Ground.

Conti:

For Example; He is a live wire. Here “live wire” is vehicle, “He” is Tenor and

the “Danger” is Ground. It means he is as danger as the live wire, that can

expire a man within few minutes.

Why Pragmatics is Wastebasket.

Pragmatics is interested in structure correctness, not in the meaning. On the other hand Semantics is interested in the meaning not in structure.

For Example:

I want to die in your eyes.

Pragmatics accepts the above sentence because it prefers the structure that is the reason why pragmatics is called Wastebasket.

Thanks for Your Kind

Attention