What is pragmatics?"

This article intends to answer the question "What is pragmatics?" taking up the concepts present in the lessons of prof. Nuzzo.
Pragmatics studies the relationships between language and context since context acts on language and words influence context. The context can be analyzed as a linguistic context and an extra-linguistic context.
By linguistic context we mean the piece of language that "surrounds" the statement on which attention is focused. For example if we say: Why do you open the door? Claudia has arrived. Let's see how the second part of the statement corresponds to new information.
The extralinguistic context can be divided into macrolinguistic and microlinguistic context. By macrolinguistic context is meant the community of speakers understood as a group of speakers who share language and language usage rules.
The communicative event, i.e. the specific interaction, such as the purchase of a product in a shop, the phone call between friends, the job interview, etc.
The microlinguistic context is represented as the specific communicative situation between speakers, their roles and the relationship that binds them.
Pragmatics studies the levels of language analysis and therefore becomes a branch of linguistics. In short we say that pragmatics studies the relationship between signs and speakers, while semantics studies the relationship between signs and objects. Finally, grammar studies the relationship of signs between them.
Pragmatics highlights how knowledge of grammar or lexicon does not ensure effective participation in a communicative exchange.
For example if I say:
Should I take my hat?
It is January 3rd.
If we do not know where this communicative exchange is pronounced we cannot know that this exchange took place in both Bologna and Sydney. Therefore in the first case the answer will certainly be affirmative while in Sydney it will be out of place to want to wear a hat in the summer.
So to participate effectively in the exchange it is important to know the context of enunciation. The mere knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is not enough when one has to speak because there are also presuppositions.
Other examples:
I will be right back
credit is made tomorrow, not today.
from tomorrow pizza to noon
put it here
it's my cousin's
I chose this



To analyze these utterances one has to take into consideration the temporal deissi, which encodes the time intervals relative to the moment in which an utterance is pronounced or a message has been written. To analyze the elements of the temporal deissi in a correct way, it is necessary to identify the moment in which the speaker produces the utterance, that is the deictic center.
To understand the temporal deissi we use:
adverbs of time (now, now, today, tomorrow)
now it's raining
today (daytime interval in which the enunciation takes place) is a holiday.

Tenses
it's raining
it was raining



The spatial deissi encodes the spatial locations relative to the position of the participants in the communicative event. In order for the elements of the spatial deissi to be correctly interpreted, the position of the speaker must be identifiable, that is, the deictic center.

Adverbs of place (here, here, there, there)
here it indicates closeness, coincidence with the position of the speaker.
there it indicates the distance from the position of the speaker.
movement verbs (to come, to come) to understand proximity or distance from the speaker

Demonstrations (this, that).

The personal deissi codifies the role of the speakers in the communicative event in which a sentence is produced. In essence, the speaker must be identified by:
personal pronouns of 1 and 2 person
(me, you, me, you)
Verbal bending of the person:
I leave, you want, etc.

Possessive
mine yours



In fact when I speak I cannot choose between here understood as now and tomorrow.
Pragmatic phenomena are very common are assumptions and irony, which are subject to contextual discretion, as in the following cases:
- linguistic acts
- principles of cooperation
- courtesy
- organization of the conversation

Pragmatics as a research area is divided into two macro-research areas, namely pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics.
Socio-pragmatics analyzes the cultural norms that regulate linguistic use in a given culture.
Pragmalinguistics studies the linguistic forms associated with the multiple manifestations of linguistic use in that same culture.
If we analyze three different ways to ask one thing we notice how:
1. Give me a lift
2. if it's not too much trouble I'd ask you for a ride.
3. how late it is. I guess I missed the last subway ride.
In the first example we can say that this statement is not very suitable if we are not familiar with the interlocutor.
The second example is out of place if you are familiar with the interlocutor. In fact, to mitigate a request it is possible to present the request as far from reality by using the conditional or to justify a possible refusal by showing that you are aware of the difficulties that the requested action entails.
In the third example we are asked to infer the communicative intent of the speaker, that is, to get a passage.

In the context of the study of pragmatics we have intracultural pragmatics, that is, the pragmatics of a given language / culture, for example how spatial deissi is used in Italian.
In the context of contrastive pragmatics, for example, the way of using the spatial deissi between Italian and English, French, etc. is studied.

Intercultural pragmatics studies pragmatic phenomena in the interaction between native and non-native speakers of a language.

For example: the use of irony by Italians living in London can be studied.
Interlingual pragmatics, on the other hand, is concerned with understanding how the learners of Italian LS learn irony
The research methodologies used for research in linguistic pragmatics can be of three types according to the points of view:
- the single moment (simultaneous observation of two groups of speakers)
- longitudinal (periodic observation of one or more subjects along a time span of varying extension).
- Transversal, i.e. simultaneous observation of multiple subjects who are at different stages of linguistic development.)

Data can be obtained through:
Natural data ................................................ ..................................... data manipulated
spontaneous interactions, communication tasks, open or closed role-plays, questionnaires, diaries

For example in interviews and narrations we can ask:
what does it mean to protest? Have you ever had to protest recently? Do you remember what you said?
This method is useful for obtaining information on the cultural meanings that members of a community attribute to certain communication practices and to certain aspects of linguistic action.
This method is useless for obtaining information on communication practices and on linguistic action in reality or for obtaining information on interactional aspects.
As a research activity, some examples can be listed:
- report your experience as a student of language courses
- what do you say to a friend who should return you a book.
- How to interpret a sentence like:
- today it's cold
- We are in August



Role-play:
Character A: your neighbor leaves the trash bag outside his house door in the evening. When you come home in the evening there is always a lot of stink. One day you meet your neighbor while he is putting the bag outside the door. What do you say?


Requests as a directive

Requests as a linguistic act have the purpose of a speaker P to induce another participant A to do something. In this way, the request is a form of adaptation of the world to our words. The psychological state is that of desire or will which is translated through the use of performatives (command, ask, advice, invitation, supplication).
These guidelines correspond to different costs and benefits for the interlocutors. According to Lakoff (1973) there are two rules of pragmatic competence:
1. be clear (Grice cooperation principle)
2. be courteous
Courtesy implies three rules of courtesies according to Lakoff,
R1: keep your distance, don't matter
R2: show deference by offering alternatives
R3: be friendly, put the other at ease.
However, the prevalence of one or the other maxim depends on a set of factors, such as the social distance between the interlocutors and their relative power.

In pragmatics the notion of "Face", ie the social image of the participants, plays an important role.
The positive side is that which concerns the need to give and receive approval with positive judgments among the interlocutors; to appeal to the common ground, to avoid direct contradictions, to underline cooperation and mutual understanding (Bazzanella, 2005: 185); the notion of negative face concerns the need to respect the interlocutors' freedom of action, not to force the interlocutor, to maintain a ritual distance (Andorno, 2005).
In pragmatics we have gone from the notions of positive and negative face to the notions of positive and negative courtesy.
Linguistic courtesy or politeness is understood as an incessant job of protecting one's face and that of others by all members of a community. (Nuzzo, 2007).
Another very important concept in pragmatics is the concept of face threatening acts (FTA) in Italian.
In this FTA perspective, both aspects of the face risk being threatened in verbal interactions, especially in the case of "dangerous" acts.

To analyze the factors that determine the severity of the threat we can list:

- the social distance between the interlocutors
- the power relationship between the interlocutors
- the assessment of the degree of taxation of the act itself.

Always keep in mind that these factors are always subject to contextual variation.
Always keep in mind that these factors are always subject to contextual variation.

Criticalities addressed to the concept of face by Brown and Levinson (1987) are to be placed in the alleged universality of courtesy strategies in the various languages ​​and cultures, predominance of negative courtesy and threatening vision of the linguistic act.

The courtesy / discourtesy of a sentence must be assessed on:
the act in question and the norms of a specific culture / society.

In general, we can observe in the use of requests by native Italian speakers a use of the verification strategy and justification as more common pragmatic strategies. Often the two strategies are used together.
In the production of these acts of requests we often note the use of modifiers in situations with low social distance while in other situations we have a greater use of discursive modifiers and to a lesser extent lexical modifiers to advance requests with interlocutors with greater social distance.