The Meaning of Language
PRONOUNS
Pronouns provide a good way to illustrate the two kinds of contexts: “linguistic and situational” that affect meaning.
PRONOUNS AND SYNTAX
Reflexive pronouns always depend on noun phrase NP antecedent for their meaning.
She did it herself.
The cat scratched itself.
Herself and itself are reflexive pronouns, they are in the same S.
Languages also have pronouns that are not reflexive, such as he, she, it, us, him, her, you and so on. The syntactic conditions on pronouns are different from those on reflexives.
PRONOUNS AND DISCOURSE
In a discourse, prior linguistic context plays a primary role in pronoun interpretation. Discourse refers to a unit of language longer than a single sentence. E.g.
The dog bit the boy.
He bit him.
Maybe discourse sounds stilted, the use of pronouns is a stylistic decision, which is part of pragmatics.
DEIXIS
Deixis is reference by means of an expression whose interpretation is relative to the (usually) extralinguistic context of the utterance, such as: who is speaking, the time or place of speaking, the gestures of the speaker, or the current location in the discourse.
SITUATIONAL CONTEXT
Situational context refers to the reason why you're speaking or listening, what objects are being discussed. Think of situational context as the event itself.
IMPLICATURES
Implicatures are inferred assumptions which cannot be directly derived from overt linguistic forms by completion or enrichment.
TYPES OF IMPLICATURES
CONVENTIONAL IMPLICATURES: it is the name given to non-truth-conditional aspects of meaning which are “conventionally” attached to particular linguistic forms.
CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES: they are briefly characterized as propositions or assumptions not encoded, completely or incompletely in what is actually said.
SPEECH ACTS
A general act (illocutionary act) that a speaker performs, analyzable as including: the uttering of words (utterance acts), making reference and predicating (propositional acts), and a particular intention in making the utterance (illocutionary force).
An act involved in the illocutionary act, including utterance acts and propositional acts.
The production of a particular effect in the addressee (perlocutionary act).
