Course syllabus

LINGUIST 320

Pragmatics

 

Course Information

 

 

Lecturer and convenor:          Professor Yan Huang

                                                Office: Room 429, Art 1 Building

                                                Ph. 87809; Email yan.huang@auckland.ac.nz

                                                Office hours Monday 11-12

 

Prescribed textbook:              Huang, Yan (2014) Pragmatics. 2^nd edition. Oxford University Press. (Copies can be obtained in the University Bookshop.)

 

A reading list will be provided.

Other readings will be indicated.

Handouts will be provided for some individual lectures.

 

 

Assessment:               Coursework 50% of the final grade

                                    Final examinations, 2 hours, worth 50% of the final grade

                                    Coursework:    One 3,000-word essay, worth 50%

 

                                                          

Lecture outline/ topics and readings:

This may be subject to minor changes.

 

1 Speech acts (II)

   Indirect speech acts, politeness and impoliteness, speech acts and culture.

   Huang Ch 4, Sections 4.6-4.7.

 

2 Presupposition (I): the phenomenon

     What is presupposition? Properties of presupposition: (i) constancy under negation, (ii) defeasibility, projection problem

Huang Ch 3. Secs 3.1-3.2

 

3 Presupposition (II): the analyses

     Filter-satisfaction analysis, cancellation analysis, accommodation analysis.

Huang Ch 3. Secs 3.3.

 

4 Deixis (I)

What is deixis? Deitic vs. non-deictic expression, gestural vs. symbolic use, deictic centre, deictic projections.

Huang Ch 5. Sec 5.1.

 

5 Deixis (II): space deixis

                              Three universal linguistic frames of spatial reference, grammaticalisation of space deixis, semantic parameters of space deixis.

Huang Ch 5. Sec 5.2.

 

6 Pragmatics and the lexicon (I)

Lexical narrowing, lexical underspecification, two types of lexical narrowing, lexical broadening, lexical cloning.

Huang (2009): Neo-Gricean pragmatics and the lexicon, IRP 1:1 (to be distributed) Sections 4-5.

 

7 Pragmatics and the lexicon (II)

Lexical blocking, lexicalization asymmetry: logical operators.

Huang (2009): Neo-Gricean pragmatics and the lexicon, IRP 1:1 (to be distributed) Sections 6-7.

 

8 Pragmatics and syntax (I)

Chomsky’s views about language and linguistics, Chomsky’s binding theory, problems for Chomsky’s binding theory.

Huang Ch 9. Secs 9.1 – 9.3.

 

9 Pragmatics and syntax (II)

A revised neo-Gricean pragmatic theory of anaphora, typological and theoretical implications.

Huang Ch 9 Sec 9.4 - 9.5.