English Discourse and Pragmatics - Assignment 2 James Madison University

[This assignment will be marked only as a sufficient or insufficient effort. Give it your best shot. :-)]

1. Give an example of an expression that uses the conduit metaphor, and explain why it is an example.
2. How does the conduit metaphor provide a misleading view of linguistic communication? Give an example of how reliance on this metaphor can lead to failed communication.
3. Which Gricean maxim does the caller in the example below either ignore or at least exploit incorrectly? Explain your choice.
   A man spoke frantically into the phone, "My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!" The doctor asked, "Is this her first child?" "No, you idiot!" the man shouted, "this is her husband!"
4. Explain the miscommunication in the following example in terms of mutual knowledge. Who do you think made the mistake here?
   (Two friends traveling to different places bump into each other at the airport and talk for awhile. B leaves for a minute and then returns.)
   A: I just heard that the plane's going to be delayed.
   B: Well, it's not a big deal.
   A:What do you mean? I told you I have an important meeting to get to!
5. Underline the one referring expression in the following quote that clearly refers to an "anaphoric use" of a referring expression as described in the Clark and Marshall article.
   The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. (Mark Twain)