Pragmatics: Crash Course Linguistics #6

We don’t always say exactly what we mean, and yet we’re still pretty good at understanding each other. That’s because we don’t just use meaning to figure out what’s going on, we also use context. This episode of Crash Course Linguistics is all about pragmatics, the area of linguistics that deals with context. We’ll cover the four main assumptions we make about context in language, also known as Grice’s Maxims, as well as the ways that languages can use grammar to convey politeness, and the different types of conversational styles within and between languages.
Want even more linguistics? Check out the Lingthusiasm podcast, hosted by the writers of Crash Course Linguistics: lingthusiasm.com/
Carefree by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
***
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[@ethanmcdermott8738]

Talking about using pragmatics to imply viewers should subscribe while using pragmatics to imply viewers should subscribe was super meta

[@isauro13]

Damn, I thought that was just a pretty good example of implicature but now I think Taylor just doubled duped us into subscribing.

[@soundlyawake]

2:41 okay so I literally just tweeted a picture of a head of lettuce I bought at the grocery store that came with a “boneless” tag on it so this is a very timely video for me

[@nathanwalker6360]

Personally i prefer boneless bananas!

[@mystickotodama1911]

@@nathanwalker6360 😂

[@ashah8656]

@@nathanwalker6360 is that why you like bananas, because they have no bones?

[@mikerich32]

B O N E L E S S P I Z Z A

[@AkankshaSingh-hx4db]

Hindi has all of these features for making requests polite: 1. We use "na" also the word for no to make it sound polite: "baitho na" sit no 2. We repeat the word: "baitho, baitho" sit sit. 3. We have not one, not two but three second person pronouns based on formality: tu, tum and aap.

[@BlueberryHobbit]

The “hedges” to make requests more polite are a huge talking point in our home because my husband has a form of autism. It’s been eye-opening to realize that the polite “brr it’s chilly” is stressful to him because I didn’t tell him outright “I want you to close the window.” What is abrasive to me is clear and concise to him.

[@zprine]

“Great job, Sherlock” - communicating the actual saying without getting demonetized

[@vaughnjohnson8767]

Gav used Life Story! It’s super effective! Duck can’t talk! Duck used interrupt! Gav is annoyed! Duck used Can you let me talk for even a single second?! It’s super effective! Gav Left the conversation! Duck wins!

[@HyTricksyy]

The Cooperative Principle is still one of my favourite things to have learned about in Linguistics.

[@ericBorja520]

How heated was the discussion of how GIF should be pronounced when making this video?

[@kingmongkut2202]

Clearly not heated enough, as they ended up on the wrong pronunciation

[@vaughnjohnson8767]

Very.

[@ItsRadishTime]

every take I said it I went "oh cool the comments are gonna talk about this and nothing else fun"

[@risipieces]

@@ItsRadishTime WAIT WHAT I JUST REALIZED THATS YOUR CHANNEL? dang! i’ve been eyeing your videos & adding them to my watch later list, but i’ve been loving these linguistics vids. definitely going to binge as many of your videos as possible soon, i love the way you present!

[@ReverendMeat51]

I thought she would've rolled that into the video, given that GIF sayers and GIF sayers can still understand one another and that fits with the topic of the video.

[@lhfirex]

Gav is cute and an excellent sidekick for these lessons!

[@TheAndrewSchneider]

Gav will definitely need a fan club manager by the end of this series!

[@shcxatter2]

So basically they're giving us a crash course not only on linguistics, but humor also. Humor is basically all of these expectations and unspoken rules, broken in a socially acceptable manner. Really useful info in this one

[@beardieboo]

Didn't realize that philosophy plays such an important role in linguistics. That's awesome.

[@anne12876]

Here, you can buy a container of sea salt labeled "without GMOs and gluten free". Never knew sea salt could have genes!

[@CaptainBohnenbrot]

I hate to break it to you: but so far you have always bought salt, that was mined by genetically engineered superhumans in the deep mines of Rasrugaz.

[@peterii3512]

or gluten

[@IceMetalPunk]

I once saw a package of apples and peanut butter labeled "gluten free" and I was like, "Um... find me a peanut or an apple with gluten and I'll find you a mad scientist who's breeding gluten apples just to mess with you".

[@laurenmiller4824]

@@peterii3512, plain salt is gluten free but some salts with added flavoring might contain smoke flavoring which can be made from barely and will have gluten. So people with actual celiacs have to be careful with special seasonings. Just for general information.

[@Felishamois]

Probably some are processed in factories which also handle GMOs and/or gluten, so there could be trace quantities. Not alarming for GMOs, although it could be in the public eye, but for allergies it certainly is noteworthy.

[@GarrettEderer]

In case anyone else was curious…. The collective noun used for a group of ducks depends on where they are. For example, a group of ducks can be referred to as either a raft or paddling on the water. On the ground, a group of ducks can be called a waddling and a badelyng or badling - which is a common term to describe a brood of ducks.

[@ItsRadishTime]

is it the right time to admit that i had never seen the at least ten ducks gif until this very now

[@icedragonaftermath]

Yes. Now come and join us as we bask in the joy of just so many cute duckies as one.

[@awesomemilkshake6612]

Saaame, it was cute tho

[@rrrosecarbinela]

I hadn't either. Good video, Taylor, thanks!

[@NourFt1128]

first time studying this at uni and it's helping a lot! thank you crash course ❤

[@l-ikigai-l1730]

I’m in the point where I watch these for fun

[@Nikanike0905]

Grice's Maxims are brilliant but also problematic: it seems that there are as many utterances which follow the maxims as there are those which flout them. There is larger context to communication acts, which add to the cooperative principle. For example frame semantics (which is a part of cognitive linguistics, which does not really separate semantics and pragmatics) says that we store entrenched contextual frames (learnt skeletons of situations), which help us communicate and act without the need for adding loads of information. For example, if I say 'I had a latte in the new cafe next door', the collocutor/hearer understands without me saying that I entered, ordered with a waiter/barista, paid, etc. Different frames 'require' different ways of speaking (formal/informal, recognized formulas) and establish relations between interlocutors. So it is not only about being cooperative when communicating but also about the kind of situation we are in (does the situation allow flouting Gricean Maxims, for example?). Another problem with the Cooperative Principle is the fact that it kind of ignores non-communicative aspects of language, such as social bonding or the expression of emotions (like cursing). There are also utterances which break most of the Maxims but serve a social purpose or are indicative of the psychological state of the speaker, for instance.

[@RedPossum8806]

100% this. In Microstyle, the author, a cognitive linguist argues that really the "relevance" principle is really the only important maxim. Everything we see and hear runs through our personal frames in order to interpret their relevance. Which is why people can be sarcastic (e.g. saying "Wow, what a wonderful day" during a hurricane), flouting the maxim of truthfulness, and still get across an intended meaning. Because your memories recall how a certain tone of voice in certain situation interprets and predicts a certain meaning.

[@jasonalangriffin]

Are you sure?

[@Ekevoo]

My deepest and most intimate conversations had LOTS of silence between words. Sometimes minutes.

[@phyrruskarimarmalgold3660]

Me watching this at 2AM💪💕🎉

[@emmymaria6173]

i started my first linguistics class this semester and these have been super helpful

[@hallemarie00]

High involvement and high considerateness are such interesting terms! I feel like I've always noticed those differences but it's so so interesting to know that there are words for it ! wow i love linguistics

[@pauls7056]

Taylor, I just watched another video on this which was very helpful and rightly deserved praise. Then I found yours. As soon as you gave the example, 'can you close the window,' bingo - it all clicked. Excellent video. Thanks for posting.

[@Maria-qy8ce]

I wrote my masters thesis in pragmatics and I got an A. It's so interesting!

[@PodcastItaliano]

In Italian we would add "pure" ("also") when we want to give someone permission to do something without making it sound like an order. "Siediti pure" ("sit also", meaning "Please have a seat, if you please!"), "dimmi pure" ("tell me also" meaning "tell me" but in a way that's not too direct). Imperatives are REALLY impolite in Italian in most circumstances and it's always a little bit of a clash when speakers of other languages (slavs, for instance, who don't have as many) don't add these little hedges; it makes them sound aggressive, which obviously they are not.

[@meluncuina]

I JUST LOVE THIS CRASH COURSE Linguistics has never been so simply explained before.

[@Mienshao11]

Japanese is known for being very context based and requiring a lot of inferring. They often omit the topic or even the subject of the sentence, and will always make demands in a subtle and indirect way.

[@awesomemilkshake6612]

ikr! I'm learning Japanese and knowing which types of verb forms or words to use depending on the context is hard but interesting.

[@digitalbrentable]

Sweeping generalisations take a confidence experts rarely lack, wouldn't you agree? (we do it in English too)

[@alexanderwatt3756]

I subscribed implicitly. It is a great effort in less than 10 minutes.

[@storyspren]

I love how introductions to pragmatics always come with these hilarious and sometimes even outlandish examples.

[@lilywater3683]

6:09 * Singlish NOT Malay

[@yarop1794]

I love this course!

[@ArturoStojanoff]

I studied this for my Linguistics class in college and I FORGOT IT at the final exam, so my grade went down. I knew it, but the nerves got the best of me, and I blanked out, and now watching this triggered me a little.

[@rensvlogstyle3538]

Love it! It helps me a lot in my Maed study.

[@crestbay]

Wow! What a great presentation of an interesting topic.

[@nekkidnora]

Ths series is so good!!!!

[@valeriegarcia3247]

Good video! I’m excited for the next episode 😌

[@trinkab]

Taking a stance on Jif vs .gif

[@nickfoster8336]

Trinka B both are correct according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The creator says it is pronounced as “Jif”

[@emilypule3608]

This video was helpful,thank you.

[@joshicus_saint_anger]

This was a really good one

[@page-out-of-jd]

This couldnt have popped on my feed at a better time. I learning this in my tesol class right now, and Ive been a bit lost

[@englishlearningzone2835]

Great !

[@roytemplado-hobbies-and-more]

Thanks, it helped me in my report. 😘

[@DuranmanX]

Thou was considered informal?

[@ericeaton2386]

Yep! It only has a somewhat "formal" connotation now because we associate with the past and with Shakespeare and such, and so associate it with the court and nobility. But in it's own time, it was "you" that was the formal version.

[@sparshjohri1109]

It became so informal that people thought it was rude and just started using "you" more. It's similar to how almost no people in Latin America use "vosotros" and use "ustedes" instead.

[@sogghartha]

compare it to the German 'du' or French 'tu'

[@DerekTrowbridge]

I loved the subscribe button comment :)

[@matthewwilliams9288]

Do you have the physical strength and ability to close the window, please? LoOoOoOoL!

[@vaughnjohnson8767]

Hmm. I don’t know. Do I?

[@andrejansen3281]

'Yes' *does not close the window*

[@AnnekeOosterink]

Yes I do, thank you for asking.

[@wrathbradley9816]

Great job Sherlock was hilarious

[@geoffreywinn4031]

Educational!

[@autumnavalanche1097]

Also, again I'm not a fluent mandarin speaker, but "坐坐" feels like something you'd say to a kid? If you'd like to invite someone to sit or just ask someone to sit down I feel like you'd probably hear "请坐" or “来坐吧/啦”???? Although again, it's probably a regional thing and it might not even be correct 😅 would love to hear other opinions on this?

[@kibbynibby]

That's what I thought as well! I would've went for "坐一坐" or "请坐" because 请 already has the polite function. Not sure if it's a regional thing though, but 来坐吧 does sound more polite than 坐坐

[@boy638]

Languages can be too nuanced. But I find in general that repeating words in Mandarin makes it more casual. Even the words you mentioned can be repeated in itself to sound friendlier still: "坐坐, 坐坐" & "请坐, 请坐" etc. Like you said, this will also depend on the region. Although, I find the same applies to the Cantonese dialect at least.

[@fangjiunnewe3634]

You can say 來坐坐 to anyone of any age it sounds perfectly fine and inviting. What you're referring to is reduplication, which in English is reserved for kid-speak like peepee poopoo snacky-snack etc. In Chinese it also has that function, but there's also the grammatical version of shortening 坐一坐 into 坐坐. You can do that with any verb as an invitation like 吃吃 or 喝喝, and it's valid in formal speech and writing. Or you can think of it as in English a host asking "here, sit, sit", which is grammatically different but has the same inviting effect.

[@jackavle]

I think she meant in the sense of "坐，坐，坐..." In the sense that you make repititions to informalise the conversation

[@user-jg8dv9xk1u]

yes it doesn't make sense at any level. I don’t recall any time when I had said 坐坐, not even to kids. 快坐快坐，坐呀，坐吧

[@jasmeenmalhotra2225]

Omg okay so I can't actually speak Mandarin myself, but it just sounds to me like your Mandarin accent is awesome.

[@Theo-oh3jk]

The vowel was a bit weird and the tone was wrong. But that's okay, I wasn't expecting native pronunciation.

[@gelbadayah.sneach579]

There's an auto repair shop by where I live that offers gluten-free oil changes. The section on relevance reminded me of that.

[@yourmathtutorvids]

Brb off to find some sugar free olive oil

[@stevegruber4724]

That part made me understand why "gluten free" thing that never had gluten bothers me so much

[@artsyjames]

@@stevegruber4724 Sometimes it's to indicate that the product was not processed/packaged in factories that also process products containing gluten, so there's no risk of cross-contamination.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

Better yet, buy some non-GMO salt! Yes, that's a thing...

[@yourmathtutorvids]

Just bought some vegan tea leaves today and thought of this video all over again 😂

[@medicallifewithjohn]

Awesome

[@-Calmyoursoul]

You are spot on "la"

[@autumnavalanche1097]

Not sure if this is just a me thing, and I'm not fluent in malay, especially not colloquial Malay :'D but as a Malaysian, saying something like "hand me that lah" actually sounds really aggressive and kind of exasperated? Of course it depends on the tone you use but generally if someone asks for something and ends with a "-lah" they're probably not too happy with you from my experience 😂 love this series, can't wait for the next episodes!!

[@CreatrixTiara]

Yeah I was going to say, "lah" is being used here in the complete opposite way! Depending on tone of voice you can make it sounds manipulative or pleading, but "polite" is NOT one of those things

[@autumnavalanche1097]

@@CreatrixTiara right!! I feel like most of the time I hear it in a joking context ("don't lah like that" or smth like that?????) Or a more flippant/dismissive "let's just do this first la", that kind of vibe??? I feel like it would be more polite to remove the la in sentences, usually 😂

[@kuhdeejugh]

As a Malay person who speaks fluent Malay (colloquial and formal), I think the Crash Course tutor should've used a proper example sentence in full Malay instead of using a Manglish sentence because in Malay, it's true that using 'lah' in a command makes it sound more polite, e.g. 'Janganlah buat tu ('Please don't do that') sounds more polite than 'Jangan buat tu' (which could be translated to 'Don't do that' without the 'please'). Whereas, in Manglish, I'd definitely agree that the 'lah' used in her example of a command sentence absolutely makes it sound rude. I wish Crash Course would consult fluent Malay speakers so this kind of misunderstanding wouldn't occur!

[@fangjiunnewe3634]

In pragmatics, we could be missing sufficient context for it to be polite, like maybe our friend is struggling to carry heavy boxes and we want to ease their burden 😂 but yeah absent a clear context just asking people to "hand me that lah" as a command is not that nice. Appreciate the continued effort to include Malay though!

[@user-ti3el8xu7q]

Love your Chinese Mandarin~

[@Mienshao11]

Relevance also helps with context like if you were standing in a china shop and someone says “these glasses are beautiful” you know they’re talking about drinking glasses, not eyeglasses. But if that isn’t the case it can be humorous.

[@stellatheseraph]

jokes on u I'm already subscribed 😌😌😌

[@dillonmyers965]

I love how Gav has remained a main character throughout this series.

[@jeffwalther3935]

Way back in ancient, (and more open and honest) times in '74, I took a course entitled General Semantics which was about the exact same subject and concepts. Are they the same study, changed ONLY with a hybridized name of "practical semantics" becoming the more understandable 'pragmatics' evolving to make the study more appealing to the general public? In any case, General Semantics and Pragmatics are a vital course by either name for those who's lives and livlihood depend upon successful communication above all else, like almost all of us now. I loved the course and got an A!

[@fiveminutefridays]

I graduated with a BA in Linguistics in 2018. I learned about things this video covers in a semantics course, and we didn't much cover it in my pragmatics course (bc the semantics course was a prereq so the prof knew we had to already know these things).

[@juniper8827]

i think in the mandarin example of particles, using "请" would have made much more sense instead of repeating "坐”，which is usually more colloquial

[@sogghartha]

one time a candy brand here put 'fat free' stickers on their packaging, as if it was healthy, not mentioning the fact it's made of mostly sugar

[@nickfcarter]

"Of course you'd expect your class to be a class." Someone's never been to community college

[@CreatrixTiara]

Yeah "lah" is inaccurate here. Tone of voice changes its meaning, but it's hardly ever polite. It's usually a demand, exasperation, manipulative, or pleading.

[@mattkuhn6634]

Awww yeah, get me some of them good Gricean maxims! Almost makes up for that awful pronunciation of "gif"... Looking forward to sociolinguistics next week!

[@smilingfoxmedia1951]

It's rough being high-considerateness in a high-involvement world. Really glad I learned about that.

[@sleep-deprived1422]

We're gonna need a gav plushie after this series

[@calvintong7795]

legend says that gav still needs that cookie

[@ammaraminuddin5685]

Hi! A native Malay speaker here. We do not add '-lah' to the end of a sentence to make it sound less impolite, in fact '-lah' is used quite differently. To make a sentence sound more polite, we say "Awak boleh tolong saya tak?" or perhaps in a more formal setting you could say "Boleh saya minta bantuan?". The first sentence means "Can you help me?" and the second sentence means "Can I ask you for help?".

[@geminikutie6141987]

I want a Sherlock Gav pin!

[@dogvetusa]

With the " sugar free" tag applied to non sugar containing foods I see "gluten free" on many products that are in no way even close to being made of a gluten containing grain. I am positive that the label gets them more sales

[@RoyYakoobAlHakeem]

So you used the example of the implicature of asking to subscribe without asking to subscribe as an implicature for asking to subscribe without asking to subscribe... Good one. You get a subscription.

[@lilywater3683]

English, english, english - a T-V distinction would be really nice.

[@splch]

i lose health talking too... thanks thought bubble

[@agathajohannbuenorosa175]

Okay, I want the Pokémon Conversation game so badly now, can anyone here turn it into a real thing? Sounds like such a creative idea

[@fbkintanar]

Great video, but no mention of illocutionary force and speech acts. It would be nice to have some coverage of reference as well, which at least according to the Pragmatics article in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is near-side pragmatics. Thanks again for the nice video.

[@greegorygrimlee5487]

gif. Acronym for "Graphics Interchange Format". I know people say jiff and that I'm being pedantic to want that hard "G", but it bugs me so much.

[@twothreebravo]

There is salt being sold in grocery stores bearing a "GMO Free" label. Salt does not nor will it ever have GMO ingredients because it does not have genes. This is misleading labeling.

[@josenellandrewtumulak2400]

dope

[@herrweiss2580]

Ok Einstein! ✔

[@felipejnnt]

PLEASE DO CRASH COURSE ART

[@glimpsee7941]

Now Im gonna tune my english teacher she being rude by ignoring the implicature, when I ask "Can I go to the bathroom" Only Im 20 years too late.

[@ancientswordrage]

Each video could have its own crash course... Please.

[@AnnekeOosterink]

Yeah, the topics they cover are really giant fields of linguistics, but crash course is always sort of an overview.

[@MakeMeThinkAgain]

I would have contrasted New Yorkers with Downeast people (speakers?). But maybe not everyone if familiar with Downeast speech.

[@720pGoatSoup]

Linguistics in 10 minutes?

[@lanaf4546]

Geology anyone ?

[@techytea2144]

I will be dead before I listen to someone who calls Gifs "Jifs"

[@ancientswordrage]

Check out Nuxalk, where the speaker isn't expected to give you context. "My wife spoke to my sister. She was upset and left." There's no need for them to say who was upset.

[@88MrsDarcy]

Well, it’s a crash course but post Gricean pragmatics are way cooler

[@yangyang5173]

zuozuo （做作）its sound is like describing someone who is so pretentious

[@ilikedota5]

I think you guys covered Grice's Maxims in Philosophy. You guys also covered implicature, although its pronounced here as im-PLI-ca-ture, not IM-pli-ca-ture.

[@xX_wiLLiam_Xx]

based, she said gif as jif

[@clovismcpony]

This was so insightful. Also helpful for those with autism and need to learn how language works

[@brookelawrence6740]

I'm autistic and I wish I memorized this video when I was five

[@michaelhenshaw-vetmedengli2064]

I didn't mind finding the thumb's up button on this one.

[@gwaptiva]

and then there are the dutch, where politeness is implied but hardly ever expressed

[@pepsdeps]

Once saw a can of tuna that said Gluten Free. I mean....

[@Ahuka]

I've seen my store advertise "gluten-free meats".

[@amasulem]

Now I want to make a carrot cake.

[@atharvabhat8089]

hey guys

[@atharvabhat8089]

how are you