Semantics and Pragmatics

Lecture No.12

Study Material

Sentence Semantics - I : Situations

Introduction: Classifying Situations

Language allows speaker to classify situations by using semantic distinctions of actions, states, processes, tenses and aspects.

Classification of situations helps us to understand the meaning of a discourse deeply.

Situation Types

Two common situation types: Static and Dynamic which create different situations with the help of lexical categories in verbs. E.g.

I love pizza. (Static)

Gives no information about the interal structure of state: just holds for a certain time.

He was driving a car. (Action)

States

Knows, thinks, loves, like, have, remains etc. are stative verbs and do not contain physical actions. E.g ‘I like to watch movies’. ‘Like’ is a stative verb and can’t be said as ‘I’m liking to watch movies.’

Dynamic situation

This type contains action verbs such as eat, drive, walk. e.g. I killed a snake.

Types of Dynamic Verbs

Dynamic Verbs can be classified into a number of types, based on the semantic distinctions durative/punctual and telic/atelic

Durative is applied to those verbs which describe a situation or a process which lasts for a particular period of time. E.g. ‘Maria slept.’ (Saeed, 2004)

Punctual describes an event that seems so instantaneous or quick and it involves virtually no time, e.g. ‘Ali coughed’ or ‘Liza laughed.’

Telic refers to those processes which are seen as having a natural completion, e.g. ‘Ali was gazing at the sea.’ could be transformed as ‘Ali gazed at the sea.’

Atelic refers to those processes about which we can’t say they are naturally completed.

Look at the example:

‘Saira was building a house.’

We are not sure whether Saira has completed the construction or left the house incomplete.

Events and Situations

In events, the speaker views the situation as a whole, e.g. ‘the mine blew up.’

While, in processes, the speaker views, as it were, the internal structure of a dynamic situation, e.g. ‘he ran to the forest.’

Processes can be divided into inchoatives and resultatives.

System of Situations contains four kinds. (Vendler 1967: 97-121)

States such as desire, want, love, believe

Achievements such as stop, start, find

Activities (unbounded processes) such as run, walk, swim, push a car

Accomplishments (bounded processes) such as run a mile, draw a circle.

Tense and Aspect

What is Tense?

Tense is a category which allows a speaker to relate situations to time.

Examples of simple tenses

They cut the grass yesterday. (Past)

They will cut the grass tomorrow. (Future)

They cut the grass everyday. (Present)

Aspect System allows speaker to relate situation and time, and to view an event in various ways: as complete or incomplete.

Aspects have to do not with the location of an event in time, but with it’s temporal distribution or contour. (Saeed, 2004)

Example: ‘She is coming.’ (incomplete), ‘She has come.’ (Complete)

The perfect aspect

It allows a speaker to emphasize the relevance of events in the past to the ‘present’. Here the ‘present’ is time of speaking.

For example, Don’t run. The train has left. (Present)

Same condition would apply in past and future.

He didn’t run because the train had left. (Past)

Examples of complex tenses

By 2005 my friend had seen several arrests. (Past perfect tense)

I have just finished my work. (Present perfect tense)

By 2025 I will have joined another company. (Future perfect tense)

Complex tenses are also called pluperfect

Progressives describes an ongoing or continuous action.

progressives are used with dynamic situations. (Saeed, 2004)

For example:

I am working right now. (Present)

I was working. (Past)

I will be working. (Future)

Comparison of simple and progressive

‘John was building a fire-escape last week’ or ‘John built a fire-escape last week.’

1st example gives no information about whether the fire-escape ever got finished. While, 2nd example shows that fire-escape got finished.

‘Was building’ is past progressive.

Differentiate among simple, progressive and perfect tenses

She has been working in the company since 1992.

Ali has just completed his assignment.

Maria works in a bank.

John will be calling you by 2:00 pm.

Yasir was discussing this topic yesterday.

Modality

Modality is a linguistic category (like aspect or tense) that modifies the meaning of the event or action we talk about to include ways to “influence” the event described.

Modality may express what the speaker wants to do (give permission, describe ability, suggest, request, offer, prohibit, express desires or necessity, etc.)

Also express whether the speaker believes, or is sure that what he or she is saying is true.

‘Maria was in the office this morning.’

Modal System allows to show a strong and weak commitment to the factuality of statements. ‘It is certain that….‘It is possible that….‘It is likely that….‘It is probable that… (Saeed, 2004)

Look at some more example and find the difference.

I know that.

I believe that.

I think that.

I doubt that.

She might have gone.

She must have gone.

Note: Auxiliary verbs in this role are called modal verbs. (Saeed, 2004).

There are two types of Modality:

Epistemic Modality expresses the degree of knowledge that how sure is the speaker in his communication.

It also distinguishes between the events in real world and the events in future or imaginary world. E.g ‘I came.’ (Reality) and ‘I may come.’ (Imaginary)

Look at these examples:

sure that it’s true: That must be the correct answer.

quite sure: Sarah may be at her office right now.

somewhat sure: It might rain tomorrow.

very unsure: You could pass the exam.

sure that it is not true: This can’t be the end.

Deontic Modality

Deontic Modality is, where the verbs mark the speaker’s attitude to social factors of obligation, responsibility and permission. For example:

‘You can drive this car.’ The speaker may want to give permission to drive this car or he is making prediction whether the driver is able to drive that car or not.

Here are some more examples of Deontic Modality.

- Permission: The children may go to the trip.

- Necessity: You needn’t have studied so hard.

- Obligation: Maya mustn’t be late.

- Suggestions: She should go to England.

- Requests: Could you open the window?

Modality is grammatically expressed by:

Modal Verbs:

John can speak English.

You must speak up.

Non-Modal Verbs:

She had to leave early.

Maya will be able to speak English soon.

Adverbs, Nouns, Adjectives (Probability, Certainty ):

She is probably at home.

Mood

Mood is the quality of verb which conveys a writer’s attitude or feelings towards a subject (Saeed, 2004).

Mood also shows the feelings of a speaker at time of speaking.

‘It may rain tomorrow.’

In the above example, the speaker’s attitude is uncertain about the rain.

For example

It is raining. (‘realis mood’ - based on reality or a statement of fact)

It may rain tomorrow. (irrealis - based on imagination.

Types of moods

Indicative moods Express a fact, opinion, or question based on realis form.

E.g. ‘he made it.’ or ‘He has completed his work’.

It is 44 degrees in here.

We will go to see a movie this Sunday.

I’ll follow you.

Potential moods: The word ‘Potential’ stands for probability. So, potential moods may have specific verb ending

E.g. ‘May be he’ll come.’ or ‘It’s possible he’ll come’.

Conditional uses Infinitives with auxiliary verbs such as have, be, should, etc. For example, ‘He would make it’, ‘he would have made it.’

Subjunctive moods contrast with indicative moods because there is an element of uncertainty in subjunctive moods.

Used for wishes, beliefs, exhortations, etc. e.g. ‘May you live long!’ (Saeed,2004)

Marks language specific types of irrealis mood.

expresses a doubtful condition (contrary to fact) and is often used with an "if" clause.

If I were you, I wouldn’t buy this house.

I wish I were more organized.

Imperative moods

Imperative moods make direct commands or requests.

Here are some examples.

Show me the money.

Don’t call the police.

Could you please open the door?

Identify moods in the following examples:

Maria translates articles into Spanish.

I wish you were here.

Bring me the towels.

Please be quiet.

The coach asked that each player practice twice each day.

If I were you, I wouldn’t buy this house.

Evidentially

Evidentiality is a semantic category which allows a speaker to communicate his/her attitude to the source of his/her information.

It further allows the speaker to say whether the statement relies on personal first-hand knowledge, or was acquired from another source. (Saeed, 2004).

Examples of Evidentiality

I saw that she was rich.

I heard that she was rich.

I am told she was rich.

Apparently she was rich.

She was rich, it seems.

Allegedly, she was rich.

I think she is sick.

Types of Evidentiality

Witness Evidentiality: when information source is obtained from the direct observation, e.g ‘I saw him breaking the window’. It is usually visual information (Eyewitness)

Sensory Evidentiality: indicates that the speaker’s evidence for truth is derived from speaker’s own sensory experience.

can be non visual as well, e.g ‘It smells that they are having a barbecue here.’

Inferential Evidentiality:

Indicates that the speaker makes his/her statement based on a deduction from facts and not on a direct observation of the action itself. (Aikhenvald,2004,2006)

‘You must be very tired after your journey.’

Reportative Evidentiality:

Indicates that the information was reported to the speaker by another person. It can be quotes, rumours or a news report. e.g.

‘The biggest wicket to fall’, says Imran Khan.

She says that she will do it.

Assumed Evidential

An assumed evidential indicates that the information source is not based on mere guess but is rather based on the general knowledge or habitual activities.

Example:

‘I think that he will go to seaside on this beautiful day’.

Epistemic Modality and Evidentiality

Evidentiality is often considered sub-type of Epistemic Modality. (Palmer 1986, Kiefer 1994)

Muneeba Batool

2018-11-30

Muhammad Imran