By: http://www.kau.edu.

sa/SBANJER
Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar http://wwwdrshadiabanjar.blogspot.com

Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 1

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics
Syntax is the study of relationships between
linguistic forms, how they are arranged in
sequences , and which sequences are well-
formed.
Semantics is the study of the relationships
between linguistic forms and entities in the world;
that is, how words literally connect to things.
Pragmatics is the study of the relationships
between linguistic forms and the users of those
forms.
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
 Regularity
in using language, People tend to behave
to a certain extent in regular ways.
This is because they are members of social
groups and follow general patterns of
behavior expected within the groups.
Most people within a linguistic community
have similar basic experiences of the world
and share a lot of non-linguistic
knowledge.
Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 3

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 The Pragmatics wastebasket

For a long period of time, there has been a

very strong interest in formal system of
language analysis based on logic and
mathematics.
The emphasis has been on discovering some
of the abstract principles that lie at the very
core of language.
universal features of language was in focus.
Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 4

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 Linguists tended to push any notes they had on
everyday language use to the edges.
Many of those notes ended up in the wastebasket.
That overflowing wastebasket has become the
source of much of what is discussed in Pragmatics.
The contents of that wastebasket were not
originally organized under a single category.
They were defined as the stuff that wasn’t easily
handled within the formal analysis.
Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 5

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 The duck ran up to Mary and licked her.
A syntactic approach to this sentence would be
concerned with the rules that determine the
correct structure and exclude any incorrect
structure.
From the syntactic point of view such a sentence
is grammatically correct.

Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 6

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 Dogs lick not
ducks!

Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 7

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 The duck ran up to Mary and licked her.
The bottle of ketchup ran up to Mary.
Both sentences are grammatically correct.
Semantically, the first sentence is okay as the
word ‘duck’ is an animate while ‘a bottle of
ketchup’ is non-animate and the verb ‘ran up
to’ requires an animate subject.

Formal Semantics
Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 8

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 The duck ran up to Mary and licked her.
Semantics is also concerned with the truth-
conditions of propositions expressed in sentences.
‘The duck ran up to Mary’ = p
+ ‘ampersand’ &
‘The duck licked Mary’ = q
=
‘The duck ran up to Mary and licked her’ = r

If p is true & q is true, then p&q is true.

If either p or q is not true, then p&q is false.
Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 9

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 In this type of analysis which is
known as formal semantics, whenever
p & q is true, it logically follows that q
&p is true as the following:
The duck licked Mary and
ran up to her.

Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 10

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 In the everyday world of language
use, this state of affairs described in 2
is not identical to the original situation
described in 1.
There is a sequence of two events
being described and we expect that
sequence, in terms of occurrence, to be
reflected in the order of mention.

Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 11

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 If p involves some action and
q involves another action, we
have an overwhelming tendency
to interpret the conjunction
‘and’, not as logical &, but as
the sequential expression ‘and
then’.
P and then q
Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 12

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 Syntax Pragmatics

HAVE

Rules Principles

Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 13

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 Interpret order of mention as a
reflection of order of occurrence.

A Pragmatic Principle
We use a pragmatic principle to make sense
of what we hear and read, but we can
ignore if it doesn’t apply in some situations.

Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 14

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

 Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar 15

PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com