Pragmalinguistics
Message: interpretation
Frames, scripts, and implicatures
A speech act evokes the image that contains knowledge stored in the form of frames, or some stereotypical situations which are compatible with the felicity conditions. A frame is retained in the memory as a pre-existing knowledge structure with a fixed static pattern. Frames are adapted to fit the present reality, and they can be altered as required. E.g. I bought a dress yesterday (STORE, or MARKET PLACE + SELLER + BUYER + CASH, or CREDIT CARD, or CHECK); Close the window, please (ROOM + OPEN WINDOW + COLD/NOISE + A PERSON WHO CAN CLOSE THE WINDOW).
(See Aitchison, p. 97).
While frames are static structures, scripts are dynamic structures. They model the pre-existing knowledge for interpreting event sequences. E.g. I must go to the dentist (GIVE YOUR NAME TO THE RECEPTIONIST MAKE AN APPOINTMENT COME TO THE DENTIST HAVE YOUR TEETH EXAMINED ONE TOOTH HAS A CAVITY HAVE THE CAVITY STOPPED LEAVE THE DENTIST).
Frames and scripts applied in interpreting a message by the participants of interaction are based on background knowledge. It is the information shared by the participants and taken for granted. Background knowledge includes presuppositions and implicatures.
Presupposition fits into the meaning of an individual linguistic expression – its signified or referential (contextual) meaning. Presuppositions are conventional, conversational, and cultural. Conventional presupposition is information associated with the conventional meaning (the signified) of a linguistic expression. E.g. (grammar) an imperative sentence is typically understood as a command, e.g. Pass the salt. Open the window. Keep silence; (lexicon) He has recovered (He was ill). Conversational presupposition is information obvious from the referential situation, or a particular situation of speech, e.g. Jane has left for Kiev (the speakers know who Jane is). Cultural presupposition is information shared by people who belong to one and the same culture, e.g. We’ll have to elect a new Verhovna Rada. The Congress voted against this bill.
Implicature results from a combination of two or more linguistic expressions which look like incompatible formally, but which are compatible semantically because the meaning of the unsaid part of the utterance is easily inferred by the listener. In other words, the listener must assume that the speaker means to convey more than is being said, e.g. I hope, you have seen Peter. – Oh, I wasn’t in town on Monday (= I haven’t seen Peter who has already left by now).
Pragmasemantics, which borders on semantics, centers on the senses that a linguistic unit acquires in a particular message or text. Such meanings are also called functional meanings, or referential meanings, as they relate to definite referents in a concrete situation of speech. A linguistic unit, such as a word, may have several meanings, or senses (LSV), from which only one fits into the utterance. E.g. I’ve bought this chair at the auction . The lecture is given by the chair of the Department of English. Further, a particular sense may have a number of referents, from which only one is actualized as the referential meaning and is to be entailed by the listener. E.g. chair as a piece of furniture: large, antique, with a red seat, etc.; chair as the head of a department: John Smyth, aged 45, tall, black haired, etc. Entailment of referential meanings is grounded on frames, scripts, and various presuppositions: conventional, situational, and cultural. Situational presuppositions are particularly important for deictic words, such as pronouns, the semantics of which is made obvious only within some context. The cases when pronouns refer to the previous information are called anaphora, e.g. The student left the room. He was sad. The cases when pronouns refer to the following information are called cataphora, e.g. They drive me mad, these eyes.