Understanding Meaning: Text, Reader, and Pragmatics

Posted on Mar 6, 2025 in English, Linguistic and Literary Studies

Negotiated Meaning: Text and Reader Interaction

The meaning of a text isn’t inherent within the text itself. Instead, it’s created through the interaction between the text and the reader. The text doesn’t possess a pre-existing meaning waiting to be discovered. Rather, it holds the potential for readers to create their own meaning. Meaning is generated by the text and is related to literary analysis.

Lexical Relations

  • Gradable: hot-warm-cool
  • Complementary: either/or (e.g., predator/prey)
  • Converses: mutually entailing; the existence of one member presupposes the existence of the other, existing simultaneously.

Homonymy and Polysemy

Homonymy refers to lexical items sharing the same form (spoken, written, or both) but differing in meaning. Examples include homographs (spelled the same) and homophones (pronounced the same).

Polysemy refers to a single lexical item possessing multiple meanings.

Holonyms and Meronyms

  • Holonym: the whole
  • Meronym: the part

Sentence Meaning: Key Components

The meaning of a sentence depends on:

  1. The meaning of individual words.
  2. Grammar and syntax: how word order affects meaning.
  3. Our knowledge of the world and context.

Speech Act Theory and Cooperative Principle

Austin’s Speech Act Theory (Performatives): Focuses on the force of a message – the speaker’s intended meaning.

H. P. Grice’s Cooperative Principle: Focuses on the hearer’s reaction and the effect that the force has.

Types of Speech Acts

  • Declarations: The speaker changes the world by uttering it (under specific conditions, often related to power).
  • Representatives (Assertives): Express beliefs, considerations, etc. What the speaker regards as true for them; presented as opinion, not fact.
  • Expressives: Express feelings and emotions.
  • Directives: Utterances aimed at getting someone to do something.
  • Commissives: The speaker commits themselves to doing something.

Levels of Speech Acts

  • Locutionary act: The literal meaning of the utterance.
  • Illocutionary act: The speaker’s intended meaning (the force of the message).
  • Perlocutionary act: The effect of the utterance on the listener (reaction). Sometimes, understanding occurs, but cooperation is refused.

Grice’s Maxims of Conversation

  • Quantity: Provide the right amount of information – no more, no less.
  • Quality: Tell the truth and have evidence for what you say.
  • Relation: Be relevant and address the topic.
  • Manner: Be brief, orderly, clear, and unambiguous.

Objections to the Performative Hypothesis

  • There’s no formal (grammatical) way to distinguish performative verbs from other verbs.
  • The presence of a performative verb doesn’t guarantee the action is performed; the hearer may misunderstand or refuse to cooperate.
  • Actions can be performed without performative verbs (e.g., body language in pragmatics). Persuasion can occur through non-verbal means.
  • Categorizing speech acts isn’t always precise.

SAT: Speech Act Theory

  • Constantives: Referential function: make statements about the world and pass information.
  • Performatives:
    • Direct: to put ourselves in a friendly environment.
    • Emotive: to express dismay, surprise, disgust.
    • Poetic: creative, word choice is important.
    • Metalinguistic: using language to talk about language.