Pragmatic study of the sentence

Remember that speech-act theory forms the base of pragmatics. Pragmatics is the study of human communication in general. The studyof the sentence (or the utterance) which is the basic unit of communication, lies within the scope of pragmatic syntax.

Every sentence is correlated with the communicative intention of the speaker. For example, if the speaker utters the sentence "I'll come ", his communicative intention may be different each time he utters it - it may be a statement, a promise, a warning, a threat, etc.

Thus, the pragmatic model of the sentence consists of a proposition, which reflects the situation of the external world and of a pragmatic component, which reflects the communicative intention of the speaker.

The proposition may be identical in sentences, which differ by their pragmatic component. For example, the sentence "Come at once!" may be an order, a request {please, intonation), a threat (or I'll show you a thing or two!), a warning (or you '11 miss the show), etc.

Analyzed from this viewpoint sentences differ from each other by the communicative intention of the speaker directed at solving a certain task of communication.

Thus, the decisive criterion for assigning a sentence to a specific pragmatic type is the character of its pragmatic component. In other words, it is the communicative intention of the speaker that determines the pragmatic type of the sentence.

3.3. Pragmatic types of sentences

The main pragmatic types of sentences are as follows (IIoчепцов):

· Constatives (константивы). These are sentences, which constate: The Earth rotates. We live in Russia. Chelyabinsk is my native town. The communicative intention of constatives is correlated with the formal characteristics of the sentence. Imperative sentences are never constatives. In general, constative sentences cannot be questions either. However, the structure of some general questions, together with certain intonation, may be used to express a strong conviction: Hasn't she "grown! Has she grown!

· Directives (директивы). Directives cause the listener to act: "Get out!", "Don't tell anybody about it!" Directive sentences are subdivided into injunctive sentences (or orders) and requestive sentences (or requests). They are distinguished by their intonation and the use of "please" and "Let's" for requests: Bring me some chalk, please. Structurally, directive sentences are mostly imperative sentences, but they can also have the form of a question: Could you give me this book to read? Will you tell nobody about it?

· Questions (квестивы). These are interrogative sentences in their traditional treatment: What is your name? Where are you from? How old are you? Questions have a common feature with directive sentences in that they are used with the purpose of causing the listener to act. But there is a difference too. Questions presuppose a verbal response, while directive sentences produce a response which is an action (including speech in some situations: Tell me about the man). Questions have a special structure and intonation. Sometimes declarative sentences are used as questions: You will speak to 'Jill?

· Promises (промиссивы) and ‘menaces (менасивы). These are sentences expressing a promise or a threat. Usually they have the form of a statement: I'll come tomorrow (promise). I'll show you a thing or two (menace). They are mainly used in the first person and refer to the future. The subject is always agentive and the predicate expresses an action. The second person as the subject sometimes occurs in sentences expressing promises and menaces, but the role of the subject in such sentences is never agentive: You '11 get this chance -> You '11 be given this chance -> *I'll give you this chance -> *Ipromise you '11 get this chance. The third person as the subject occurs only if the realization of the event described in the sentence depends on the speaker: He '11 do this -> *I'll make him do this --> */ promise you he'll do this. He '11 pay for this -> */'// make him pay for this -> */ promise he '11 pay for this (Bepxoвская).

· Performatives (nepформативы). These are sentences the uttering of which is by itself an action: I name this ship Queen Elisabeth. I apologize for my words. By uttering these sentences the speaker actually names the ship or makes an apology, but he is not making any kind of statement that can be regarded true or false. Grammatically, both sentences are statements, but they are not constatives, they are performatives. Other performative verbs are thank, approve, congratulate, censure, welcome, guarantee, etc.

3.4. Summary of the pragmatic aspect

We have seen that the study of the pragmatic aspect of the sentence is based on the speech-act theory and views the sentence as the basic unit of communication. The pragmatic model of the sentence consists of the proposition and the pragmatic component, i.e. the communicative intention. According to the communicative intention sentences may be classified into different pragmatic types. The speaker and the hearer share knowledge of how to identify and classify a sentence as a particular type according to some constitutive syntactic and pragmatic rules.

4. Summary of the functional aspect

The functional aspect of the sentence is not uniform. It consists of two aspects: the actual and the pragmatic ones. These aspects reflect different functions. The actual aspect reflects the internal functions of the sentence components. The pragmatic aspect reflects the external function of the sentence as a whole in the process of communication. The actual aspect of the sentence is concerned with sentence information structure in terms of theme and rheme. The function of the actual division of the sentence is to arrange information according to its significance and relevance to communication from the point of view of the speaker with the help of syntactic and other means. The pragmatic aspect of the sentence consists of the proposition and the pragmatic component, i.e. the communicative intention of the speaker. According to the communicative intention sentences may be classified into different pragmatic types. The functional aspect of the sentence is a unity of its actual and pragmatic aspects. Together with the semantic and the structural aspects discussed earlier, it gives a complete picture of the sentence as a basic unit of human communication.