Lecture 1: Introduction to Pragmatics

Study Questions 1

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• 1. What is studied in the field of pragmatics, and what are some of the definitions of pragmatics?

• 2. Give 2 own examples of pragmatically defect utterances or commicative situations in Swedish and/or in another language you know.

• 3. What is speaker-meaning in Gricean terms?

• 4. In the case Bronston versus United States, the defendant Bronston was the president of Samual Bronston Productions, Inc., a movie production company and had both personal and company bank accounts in various European countries. The company petitioned for bankruptcy and in the court the following exchange occured between the laywer for a creditor and Mr. Bronston (Triesma 1990:378):

  Q: Do you have any bank accounts in Swiss banks, Mr Bronston?
  A: No, sir.
  Q: Have you ever?
  A: The company had an account there for about six months, in Zurich.

  Explain in terms of implications what is implied in each utterance in the above verbal exchange.

Please, send the answers to:
biljana@ling.gu.se