1. What is pragmatics? What are the two major dimensions along which contrastive pragmatics may be made?
2. What is meant by phatic communion? Contrast ways English speakers and Chinese speakers conventionally use to open and close conversations.
3. Why is B’s response odd in each of the following two conversations?
A: Good morning!
B: What’s so good about morning?
A: [to a friend who just arrived from a trip] 路上辛苦了！
B: [the friend] 你怎么知道我辛苦不辛苦？
4. Can L1 discourse conventions transferred to L2 performance lead to breakdown in communication? If so, give some examples.
5. Contrast the way compliments are paid and modesty shown in English and Chinese.
6. Implicature is meaning implied by a speaker who infringes upon the conversational maxims but whose hearers still assume that he complies with them and are capable of deducing what he is talking about. What does the hearer need to possess in order to deduce or interpret correctly the implicatures intended by the speaker?
7. Contrast the linguistic marking of familiarization in Chinese and English.