Pragmatics: How People Use Language

Language in use is about how language is used by theNevertheless, sometimes we may find that kind of
speaker and perceived by the hearer. Talking aboutsentence (Donut ate John). It may have meaning like:
language in use is talking about Pragmatics. PragmaticsDonut is actually a name of monster. The sentence
is one of the items in the trichotomy of generalmay be used in certain context for certain purpose.
science of signs (read: Semiotics). The trichotomy, byHere, pragmatics plays its role.
Charles Sanders Peirce is syntactic-semantics-andPragmatics concerns signs as well, but it is more about
pragmatics.how those signs are used and interpreted. How do
Syntax is about words connection; the connection ofpeople produce, offer, and interpreted language. The
grammatical structure of sentence, the form ofsentence given may be used as a joke, insult, and so
sentence. Syntax studies the connection among signson.
without considering the meaning of signs, the specificPragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as
signification, and the function of relation among signs.communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted
Example:by the hearer (or reader). Therefore, pragmatics is the
John ate donutstudy of the speaker meaning, in certain context. What
The sentence above is meaningful in a perfectmeant with context is whom they are talking to, where,
grammatical structure. Syntactically, although thewhen, and under what. Pragmatics also studies how
sentence is restructured become:more gets communicated than is said. Pragmatically,
Donut ate johnwe cannot understand the sentence "Donut ate John"
The sentence is syntactically correct. The connectionsliterally, but we should look deeper, what the speaker's
of signs are true. However, is it possible that donut canmeaning is. Pragmatics is also the study of the
eat John?expression of relative distance, or the relationship of
Semantically, the second sentence is illogic. Semanticsinteractants.
is about the meaning of the signs connection. John andPeople expressions are different each other, or people
ate is correctly connected, donut as the object isexpress their meaning for one differently to other. For
required because verb ate is transitive verb. Johnthe example, you can say "Open the door!" to your
function as the actor who performs ate and donut asfriend, your younger brother or sister, but you cannot
the patient that is the verb ate performed on. Thesay it to your lecturer that way. To do that expression,
connections among entities in the sentences are logic.you may use more polite utterance "May the door is
When the sentence is restructured become Donut ateopened?" or "It is very hot here" or other way. What
John, the connections become illogical. The meaning ofmakes you do this is the difference of relative
Donut is food, and it is impossible that a kind of fooddistance.
eats human. Here, it can be seen that the differenceIt is clear that pragmatics is about how people use
between syntax and semantics is that if syntax islanguage in certain context for certain purpose. In
about the structure without meaning, semantics studiespragmatics, we will find some tools to be used to
the structure and the meaningfulness of signsanalyze the speaker meaning, or the meaning of
connection. Therefore, syntactically the restructuredutterance in context.
sentence is meaningless or unacceptable.