Single pract, multiple pragmemes: Constructing the dialectic of individual social contexts in a sample request–response adjacency

Abstract

This article appraises a sample request‒response adjacency pair in a conversation between two friends, with a particular focus on how the response pract represents the dialectic of the individual social contexts of the interlocutors. Contrary to what has been established in literature regarding pragmemes as a general situational prototype – a sociocultural concept that usually has several realisations as practs and allopracts – this article argues that a single pract can also call to mind multiple possible pragmemes in the situated context in which it could be appropriately uttered. Using Mey’s (2001) pragmatic acts theory as espoused in his theorisation of the pragmeme, the article elucidates how a single response utterance (a pract) can represent multiple situational prototypes that reflect the dialectic between the social and private conversational goals of the interlocutors. The article argues that the interface between meaning construction and comprehension is not based only on the general social context but also on the dialectical interaction of the individual speaker and hearer’s private contexts as well as salience to their conversational goals that determine how they design their utterances. Findings reveal that pragmemes of REFUSAL, REJECTION, INVITATION, PROMISE, WARNING, ADMONITION, REBUKE, CAMARADERIE, ASSURANCE, OFFER, INFORMATION GIVING, among others, have been instantiated in a single response pract. These findings seem to go beyond Searle’s conceptualisation of indirect speech acts as well as Mey’s perspective on the theory of the pragmeme.