Raise the awareness of

Pragmatic Competence:

compliment

Presenter: Cathy, Vicky and Austin

What is pragmatic competence?

An example When A says the following utterance, what

will you respond? Do you think it is a statement?

A: I forgot to take my jacket.B:______________________

A: I forgot to take my jacket.B: Do you want me to close the window ?

So what’s pragmatic competence?

Beyond knowledge of grammar, what are the other important things communicators should know in communication?

“Chomsky accepts that language is used

purposefully; indeed, in later writings he

introduced the term pragmatic competence--

knowledge of how language is related to the

situation in which it is used.

Pragmatic competence 'places language in the

institutional setting of its use, relating intentions

and purposes to the linguistic means at hand'

(Chomsky, 1980a, p. 225).

Pragmatic competence is defined as the ability to communicate effectively and involves knowledge beyond the level of grammar

(Thomas 1983).

What’s the relationship between grammatical competence and pragmatic competence?

"It may be possible to have grammatical

competence without pragmatic competence.

Eg.

A schoolboy in a novel Vintage Stuff (Sharpe,

1982) takes everything that is said literally; when

asked to turn over a new leaf, he digs up the

headmaster's camellias.

But knowledge of language use is different from

knowledge of language itself; pragmatic

competence is not linguistic competence.

Reference: (V.J. Cook and M. Newson, Chomsky's

Universal Grammar: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell, 1996)

Can Pragmatic Competence Be Taught?

No.

Competence, whether linguistic or pragmatic, is not teachable.

Competence is a type of knowledge that learners possess, develop, acquire, use or lose.

The challenge for foreign or second language teaching is whether we can arrange learning opportunities in such a way that they benefit the development of pragmatic competence in L2.

ways to promote pragmaticawareness encourage learners to think about how a

particular speech act differs in their own language.

encourage students to collect both written and spoken examples, as well as naturally occurring data or from film and television data.

…..

Raise the awareness of pragmatic competence--- take compliment as example

Complimenting Questions: Do you like to compliment people? If yes, in

what situations? Do you like to hear other people compliment

you? And whose compliments do you want to hear the most?

Why do people compliment?

Social functions of compliments Creating or reinforcing solidarity Greeting people Expressing thanks or congratulations Encouraging people Softening criticism Starting a conversation Overcoming embarrassment

Discussion

What do people usually compliment on?

How does people’s status and age determine the forms of compliment?

Are there gendered differences in complimenting?

Formula of compliments in American English

Three predominant patterns : Np + is / look (really) + Adj. (53%) Your blouse looks beautiful. I (really) like / love + Np. (16.2%) I really like your hardwood floors. Pron. + is really (a) + Adj. + Np. (14.9

％ ) That’s really a beautiful car.

The majority of English compliments contain one of a highly restricted set of adjectives (80%) and verbs (16%).

Five most frequently used adjectives: nice, good, beautiful, pretty, great

Four most frequently used verbs: like, love, is, look

Differences between Chinese and English compliments

frequency word choices sentence structure ways of response

Response formulasAcceptance vs. self-effacing1. A: You look terrific today! B1: Yes, it’s the new me! B2: 哪里，哪里。2. A: You did a beautiful job. B1: Of course, what did you expect? B2: 这不算什么，还差的远呢。

Compliment responses—beyond “Thank you”a. –I really like your hair that way. -Thank you.b. –Super shot! -Thanks, it was a lucky one.c. –You’re doing so well. -Aren’t I?d. –Gosh, you have such a beautiful garden. -It’s given us a lot of pleasure.e. –You’re really a skilled sailor. -This boat virtually sails itself.f. –You sound really good today. -I’m just following your lead.

g. –Your report comes out very well. - But I need to redo some figures.h. –I really like this soup. -I’m a great cook.i. –That’s a wonderful piece of work. -What? Are you kidding?j. –Oh, this house is adorable. -Well, it’s really small, though.k. –You look terrific tonight, Mary! -Flattery will get you nowhere, Mr. Jackson.l. -I really like the way you play the piano. I heard something

there I’d never heard before. - Well, they just come from sitting and practicing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QShPNcjgtfs free compliment

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-give-and-receive-compliments how to give and receive compliment in English

http://www.howcast.com/videos/236732-How-To-Compliment-a-Woman how to compliment a woman (choose one among it and the second one)