Pragmatics, discource analysis and stylistics?

[Khalidhrr]

hi everyone, hope you are doing greate at the movement. thank you very much for teaching me on line. please let me know about pragmatics, discource analysis and stylistics.

[Kitosdad]

Pragmatic awareness is regarded as one of the most challenging aspects of language learning, and comes only through experience.

discourse analysis and stylistics? Both are way beyond my knowledge, and you should refer to Google for comprehensive explanations.

Best I can do.
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If you need me, I'm here.

[Jamie (K)]

Pragmatics deals with what are called speech acts. A speech act is when someone uses words to do something. For example, by saying, "I now pronounce you man and wife," the priest is actually pronouncing the couple man and wife. The saying is the doing. It's the same thing when a policeman says, "I place you under arrest." Saying that sentence is the same as arresting the person.

Eventually, after the concept of speech acts was introduced, linguists started to realize that pretty much anything anyone says is a speech act. In other words, almost anytime we say something, we are doing something. However, the context of the utterance will determine its intended meaning, along with the intention of the utterance. Two old ladies who want someone to shut a window, for example, might achieve this in two different ways. One might simply say, "Please shut the window." The other might say, "Aren't those children cold?" and the listener is supposed to discern the meaning from the context of the situation. Both are performing essentially the same speech act, but they are using different words and strategy to do it.

Pragmatics is much more than this, and you need to look it up in Wikipedia or somewhere similar to learn more.

Discourse is a linguistic exchange between two people. These exchanges are governed by various rules that may differ from language to language, culture to culture, and even gender to gender within the same culture. Discourse analysis studies the rules of these conversations.

As an example, you could take two Americans starting a conversation about a business matter. It will probably operate like this:

1. The two men greet each other.
2. Each asks the other how he is doing, and the answer is usually something quick, like, "Fine," or, "Not bad," with few or no details.
3. A sentence or two about sports or the weather.
4. Then they quickly begin talking about the business matter.

In some other cultures, the greeting might be very long, there may be many details about each person's health, and the conversation may continue for a very long time before the men actually begin to discuss business.

Sometimes one only becomes aware of one's own culture's discourse rule when it has been violated. For example, I once lived in a country in which it is perfectly normal to end a visit by saying, "Well, I'm going," without offering any apology or reason. When someone from that country did that while visiting some Americans, the Americans immediately thought they had given him a signal to leave, without realizing it. In the US, you're supposed to give an excuse before leaving, and if you don't, it makes people think there is something wrong.

Another aspect of discourse is turn-taking. Whose turn is it to speak? How long do you wait before speaking up? Is it okay to interrupt or not? People from the southern US can have trouble when they go to work in New York, because New Yorkers usually talk faster, they begin speaking very quickly after the other person has finished -- or even before he's finished -- and they may talk over each other. The southerner is used to a slower style of conversation, with a different style of turn-taking, and he may not get his ideas communicated in a meeting.

Again, discourse analysis is a very broad field, and you need to look up some formal information on it to really know what it is about.

You can read about stylistics here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylistics_(linguistics)