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Language Skill As A Pragmatic Expectancy Grammar

The document discusses two aspects of language use - the factive (cognitive) aspect, which conveys information about facts and states of affairs, and the emotive (affective) aspect, which conveys attitudes. It argues that while two people can agree on facts, they can disagree on attitudes conveyed. It uses the example of a newscaster whose cheerful manner when discussing tragic events likely led to a short career, as his attitude differed from that of viewers. The document also discusses pragmatics, language learning as modifying internal grammars or expectancies, and how language tests should invoke learners' grammars.

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195 views2 pages

Language Skill As A Pragmatic Expectancy Grammar

The document discusses two aspects of language use - the factive (cognitive) aspect, which conveys information about facts and states of affairs, and the emotive (affective) aspect, which conveys attitudes. It argues that while two people can agree on facts, they can disagree on attitudes conveyed. It uses the example of a newscaster whose cheerful manner when discussing tragic events likely led to a short career, as his attitude differed from that of viewers. The document also discusses pragmatics, language learning as modifying internal grammars or expectancies, and how language tests should invoke learners' grammars.

Uploaded by

syamsul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Language Skill as a Pragmatic Expectancy Grammar

A. What is pragmatics about?


B. The factive aspect of language use
C. The emotive aspect
D. Language learning as grammar construction and modification
E. Tests that invoke the learner's grammar

understanding what is to be tested is prerequisite to good testing of any sort. In this chapter, the
object of interest is language as it is used for communicative purposes — for getting and giving
information about (or for bringing about changes in) facts or states of affairs, and for expressing
attitudes toward those facts or states of affairs. The notion of expectancy is introduced as a key to
understanding the nature of psychologically real processes that underlie language use. It suggested
that expectancy generating systems are constructed and mod tied in the course of language
acquisition. Languags, proficiency to thus characterized as consisting of such an expectancy
generating system. Therefore, it is claimed that for a proposed measure to qualify as a language test,
it must invoke the expectancy system or Oran ima r of the examinee.

A. What is pragmatics about?

The newscaster in Albuquerque who smiled cheerfully while speaking of traffic fatalities, floods,
and other calamities was expressing an entirely different attitude toward the facts he was
referring to than was probably held by the friends and relatives of the victims,

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not to mention the more compassionate strangers who were undoubtedly watching him on the
television. There might not have been any disagreement about what the facts were, but the
potent contrast in the attitudes of the newscaster and others probably accounts for the brevity
of the man's career as the station's anchorman. Thus, two aspects of language use need to be
distinguished. Language is usually used to convey information about people, things, events,
ideas, states of affairs, and attitudes toward all of the foregoing. It is possible for two or more
people to agree entirely about the facts referred to or the assumptions implied by a certain
statement but to disagree markedly in their attitudes toward those facts. The newscaster and his
viewers probably disagreed very little or not at all concerning the facts he was speaking of. It was
his manner of speaking (including his choice of words) and the attitude conveyed by it that
probably shortened his career. Linguistic analysis has traditionally been concerned mainly with
what might be called the factive (or cognitive) aspect of language use. The physical stuff of
language which codes factive information usually consists of sequences of distinctive sounds
which combine to form syllables, which form words, which get hooked together in highly
constrained ways to form phrases, which make up clauses, which also combine in highly
restricted ways to yield the incredible diversity of human discourse. By contrast, the physical
stuff of language which codes emotive (or affective, attitudinal) information usually consists of
facial expression, tone of voice, and gesture. Psychologists and sociologists have often been
interested more in the emotive aspect of language than in the cognitive complexities of the
factive aspect. Certainly cognitive psychology and linguistics, along with philosophy and logic, on
the other hand, have concentrated on the latter. Although the two aspects are intricately
interrelated, it is often useful and sometimes essential to distinguish them. Consider, for
instance, the statement that Some of Richard's lies have been discovered. This remark could be
taken to mean that there is a certain person named Richard (whom we may infer to be a male
human), who is guilty of lying on more than one or two occasions, and some of whose lies have
been found out. In addition, the remark implies that there are other lies told by Richard which
may be uncovered later. Such a statement relates in systematic ways to a speaker's asserted
beliefs concerning certain states of affairs. Of course, the speaker may be lying, or sincere but
mistaken, or sincere and correct, and these are

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Penyiar di Albuquerque yang tersenyum riang saat berbicara tentang kematian lalu lintas, banjir, dan
bencana lainnya yang mengekspresikan sikap yang sama sekali berbeda terhadap fakta-fakta yang ia
maksud dari yang mungkin dimiliki oleh teman-teman dan kerabat korban, belum lagi orang-orang
asing yang lebih welas asih yang pasti menonton dia di televisi. Ada mungkin tidak pernah ada
ketidaksepakatan tentang apa fakta-fakta itu, tapi kontras kuat dalam sikap penyiar dan lain-lain
mungkin account untuk singkatnya karir pria itu sebagai pembaca berita stasiun.

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