CharityG’s blog

We have all been in that situation where we really don't want to do something, but instead of flat out saying no we just comply or make up some excuse. Well, on wed night this exact thing happened to me! It was roomates birthday and we all went to dinner at Cheddars. Afterwards they were all going out to the bars downtown, but I just really didn't feel like attending! My roomate said "Hey do you wanna come downtown with us". Unconciously I said "Aww I can't I have a test tomorrow". I flat out lied to her! I felt bad at the time.... but I shouldn't have because I was just using a linguistic concept! (I tell myself this to make myself feel better about lying ha) She offered/invited me and I used the dispreferred second by refusing the offer. It would have been easier to just say no, but then that wouldn't have been very polite. Instead I had to make up a lie or in other words (flouting the maxim of quality). I've realized that these situations come up almost everyday and in every situation I always use some sort of flouting or second preference! At least now I don't feel bad since I know there is an actual term for it!

Well yesterday in class we had a sheet of really exercises, and little did I know that later that night I was going to have a dilema very similar to "John told Steve he won the prize". So last night I was trying to be little miss domestic and decided to cook some chicken patties. Well I was reading the directions and it said for a skillet, "Cook for 8 minutes on each side". So first I was like okay no problem, but then I had a "uhhh?" moment. I wasnt sure if it meant cook on each side for 8 minutes OR cook 8 minutes total meaning 4 on one side and 4 on the other. I would have never even thought twice if it wasnt for our class lecture. The directions were ambiguous and clearly lacking any reference to how exactly I was supposed to cook the chicken! Needless to say I just went with the 8 minutes total, and it definately wasnt done enough! Maybe I should send them the journal of pragmatics in the mail! ;)

So, I recently went to the doctor for a sickness and while I was there I realized how many maxims there are in a simple visit. For one, Some people do not exactlty tell the whole truth when they visit the doctor for personal embarassment issues. This is definately flouting the maxim of quality. However, if one doesnt tell the whole truth then it is hard for a correct diagnosis. In my case, I told the whole truth. I had just been running a temperature and caoughing non stop. He then asked me some questions in which I thought HE was actually flouting the maxim of relation. He asked if I had been vomitting. I suppose it wasn't an absurd question but I usually don't correlate a sore throat with vomitting! However, he is a doctor, and in his eyes I suppose it IS all relative. It is funny how in certain settings one maxim can mean one to 1 person and something completely opposite to another. What do you guys think? Do you think in a doctor setting it is important to never flout?

Leslie's post made me realize that in my job I ALWAYS have to show negative politeness. I am currently an intern for Aflac insurance, but I am liscensed to sell as well. When I am out cold calling on businesses I must keep use negative politeess at all times. I usually ask "Hello, I am wondering if it's possible to meet with whoever is in charge with your employee benifets?" I've realized however that the gatekeepers are more reluctant to use positive politeness though. They just say yes or remain more casual as I remain more formal. It is possibly just an unconcious reaction. I wonder why this is though? Any ideas?

Since spring break has just past, I have some really good examples of spatial expressions in sentences; more specifically gestural expressions. The airlines use gestural expressions in every single flight. I am sure we have all noticed, but until this class I never knew what exactly they were doing. At the beginning of the flight a flight attendent says something along the lines of "buckle your seat belt". While they are speaking this they have a seatbelt they are holding with gestures showing how to do so. Secondly they use gestural expressions when they illustrate putting the oxygen mask on in case of an emergency. The usual sentence is along the lines of "In case of an emergency, the oxygen mask will drop down and put it over your head". Without using gestural expressions, some people would really be lost!

The subject of this post has to do with more semantics than pragmatics however I couldn't pass up on the opportunity. Last night I was watching TV... Bravo to be more specific. A commercial came on for the new TV show "Make Me a Supermodel". In this commercial it said "Tune in next Thursday for the PREMIERE of the Make Me a Supermodel FINALE". It caught my attention right away. I may be alone in this, but this seems like such a paradox in the sense that the finale is the end of the show, and the premiere would be the first episode. However, I guess if you wanted to get really technical about it there is only ONE finale, so in that sense it was the premiere. It just seems odd to me. In another linguistic sense, this was a major substitution error. In fact, they could have left out anything along the lines of premiere and just said "tune in for the finale next Thursday". Does everyone agree?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Luckily today during our test, I had time to try and figure out the extra credit. I think I succeeded. In the second part of the short answer, she wrote, "How LONG does our SHORT answer have to be?" To me, this is a paradox because the whole conent was for the "short answer" section. She put the question of how long it had to be and created a paradox. By asking the legnth for the answer, she created a wrong truth value. We do these type of things all the time during school. This, however is the first time I have realized that it is a paradox.

I am still stuck on the example we had in class regarding the verb 'to like'. I understand that in order to use the present progressive form "I am liking", there must be boundaries in order to be appropriate. However, in our generation I feel this is contestable. When we say "I am liking this", its a form of slang, but I do not consider it inappropriate. When someone says "I am liking" I feel it is just much as a state of being as much as saying "I like". A state of being is able to change. For example, if you like a movie, it is a state, however it is possible to watch it so many times that you do not like it anymore. Therefore the state is changed. Why would it then be inappropriate to say "I am liking this movie." Maybe I am just over-analyzing the concept, but I find this rule somewhat contestable. Maybe I am wrong? (I DO have a habit of being a cynic about linguistics.) :)

Think of these sentences for a minute... "I believe in our team." "I believe in God." "I believe in love."

Most would perhaps use "believe" and "know" interchangeably. I would in most situations, however the word "know" is considered to be a state. I feel that believe could fall under different categories. In these three different sentences it is all referring to something different contexts.  It's a state of course, but you can stop believing in something (you cannot stop knowing something.) It could be an activity, because its an ongoing process of internal action. I feel the verb believe has many shades of gray and its part of the fine lined linguistical world. What do you guys think? State or Process?

Today I caght myself mid sentence in a tautonym. Although redundance is old news for our class, I still wanted to share this common example. As we all know there was an ice storm passing through today, well earlier this afternoon I asked someone this question: "Is it snowing outside?" After I thought about what I had just said, I realized that it couldn't snow anywhere else but "outside". We use this phrase often though when speaking of weather even though the meaning "outside" is implicit when we are talking about weather. I don't feel comfortable dropping off the outside, so I will just be redundant from now on. It's okay as long as I know I'm not correct, right?