Kris’ semantics and pragmatics

This does not count as a post but I thought I'd show you what I found in a shop.

P4040056

Is this the last post or the last we have a deadline for?  Why does last never really mean last?

I was remembering the phone conversation Dr Myers shared with us in class and I remembered two typical conversations:

1. Elevator.

A: Morning, how are you?

B: Ok thanks

A: Everything ok at home and all?

B: Yes

A: So you are getting better?

B: Yes

2.  Little girl and Dad

Dad: What are you doing?

girl: something

Dad: What is something?

girl: something means I am not just doing anything.

I was thinking of adjacency pairs and how we so subconciously comply to them.  In conversation 1, B may not be giving the expected answers, but even if he or she does not want to give an answer, a silence would be worse.

In the second conversation, I also thought of the maxims being broken, can you tell me which they are. (This was a real conversation between a father and his daughter)  There are also some implicatures for the second sentence the gilr uttered, can you think of them? 

When I was reading the article on overlapping and interruptions, I couldn't help remembering my childhood.  It was very common to hear "Kristina, don't interrupt!" from my father, but my mother would never tell me that, and we would just speak at the same time and understand each other.
With my best friend it is the same, only we can understand each other when we are talking overlapped.  Everyone says we are crazy and they don't understand how we can talk so fast and at the same time and still pay attention.
That's why I think it has a lot to do with culture but also with the personal relationship you have with your listener.

I also thought of the news, whenever a foreign speaker was being interpreted into Spanish and I could hear both languages overlapping, I could basically listen to the conversation twice, because the translation was always a little delayed from the speech, overlapped, and if I could listen to both at once, why would I not be able to listen to two conversations, mine and someone else's or even two other speaker's in the same language at once?

The first thing a foreigner says when they don't understand is "What?"

My grandad always told me off for saying what like that, he said we Spanish kids were very impolite.

Now I have thought of how culture influences the maxims of politeness, and how different our politeness in Spain was from my grandad's and even my dad's, who are British.

For example:

Dad can I go to the party on Saturday?

Dad: You mean "Dad MAY I go to the party, please"?

It is also interesting when we use non verbal communication such as the example we did in class with the tv blockage, but also with the way we move our hands when we speak, and even the tone of our voice.  Spanish people seem to use many more words for everything (at least that's what Brits have told me) and be more rude with hints.

We even have an expression which I was trying to explain to a friend today, that would be useful for someone to move out of your way and it is similar to "Was your daddy a glass maker?" but more rude:

Carne de burro no transparenta (literally: you cannot see through donckey's flesh, i.e. i can't see through your stupid body)

Just as we were walking out of class, I asked Ashley if the letters on her hoody were for West Kentucky University.
Then I asked her if she knew what WSU standed for because I have a friend who goes there.  I had to tell her it is West Sydney University.  She asked "Sydney Australia?"  And Dr Myers said that was a good conversation we had just had, because it had to do with relevance, as there can be other places called Sydney and I was assuming that it was that city in the biggest island in the world.
Another example is my conversation with a boy in my class last semester:
-Where are you from?
-Paris
-You don't sound French at all.
(Boy looks at stupid foreigner...) -Paris Kentucky!
(Kris feels stupid because she didn't know there was such a place in this state, or a London, Glasgow, Versailles, or a Lebanon!)

Whenever you ask my brother a question, he tries to answer with as few words as possible.  He is not often never polite to me, as I am just his sister, but does he brake maxims of politeness?  Sometimes he will just give a really short answer as in "Pablo, did you lay the table?" "It's not my turn".
I think a very good example of a violation of the quantity and manner maxims is that of the King of Spain.  I don't know if you have heard about this, but it is even in t-shirts now.  Here's a video of it:

When you live in a campus residence hall, it is difficult not to get sick if other people who live door to door with you are too.  I came to think of the many implicatures the sentence "I'm sick" can have.

Example 1.
Can I have some of your drink?
I'm sick.

Example 2.
Are you coming to the party this weekend?
I'm sick.

Example 3.
How are  you?
I'm sick.

Example 4.
Why did you miss class today?
I'm sick.

Can you think of an example where it would be positive?  I think example 4 could be if the class you missed is really boring.  What other implicatures can you see or what other dialogues can you put "I'm sick" in?

By listening to the words in these Disney scenes songs, can you imagine the perlocutions intended?
I would say the illocution of all this famous song I used to love in this movie is request? Or maybe just dream.
Obviously, Sebastian's (the crab's) perlocutions were not achieved?  But Eric's were?

I thought these might be some examples of deixis, can you tell me which type they are?

You have something on your face, there, on the right.
This is the day when I decide to start a new life.
Whatever I do she always looks at me like this.

There is also a verb in those examples which could be peformative, decide, but I am not completely sure, because:

I hereby decide to change my life.
You decided you didn't want to come.

Do these examples prove it is not performative? Or that it actually is?  How weird does the sentence with hereby sound?

What do you call that thing that you can use to cut paper with?

My French friend is hilarious.  But I'm as confused as her most of the time.  We keep confusing languages we know and mixing words.

So I though these could be examples of innapropriateness?  Maybe...  They could also be incongruities dependieng on the context?  SOS!  What are these examples that make me laugh and remind me of my blog and of semantics?

Can I have a scissor to open de box? (French speaker)

I am not really interested in that. (me)-   Actually? (Arabic speaker)

I always told her to do that, but she is never listening to me. (Arabic)

You always eat, and these food is so unpleasant. (don't remember)