English Language & Translation

Grice's Cooperative Principle

"Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged." The Maxims are NOT a set of rigid or prescriptive rules, rather conversation is viewed as rational action.

Deixis

"pointing" words that are context-bound where meaning depends on who is being referred to, where something is happening or when it is happening. Ex. I, we, they Types: Person (pronouns -- I, you, we), Spatial (demonstratives, some adverbs, verbs of motion and prepositions -- this, that, here, there, come, go, opposite away), Temporal (time -- now, then, recently, soon, today, tomorrow, yesterday, next week), Social (social relationships -- as Johnny, John, Mr. Smith, Dr. Smith), Discourse (earlier or forthcoming segments of discourse -- "*This* is how this sentence must be interpreted")

Text Types

(AIDEN) Description, Narration, Exposition, Argumentation, Instruction Guidelines for analysis: - main illocutionary purpose and text communicative function: the text is trying to tell me something (informative function) or get me to do something (conative function) - Dominant text type and relevant sequences belonging to other subtypes: Ex. dominant text type is narration from a subjective POV but also contains descriptive passages. - External format and situation of use: where has the text been taken from? Ex. The text has the form of a scientific article and is addressed to a non-expert public. - Dominant linguistic features of surface structure: cohesion (grammatical, referential, lexical), register (formal vs. informal), visual aids.

Characteristics of Conversational Implicatures

(CDNC) Context-Dependence: an expression with a single meaning than can give rise to different conversational implicatures in different contexts. Conventional implicatures are grammatical markers or expressions that are added to a phrase that are not necessarily true, but convey a certain meaning in discourse. For example, the use of "therefore" adds some non-truth conditional meaning to the entire sentence --> "He is an Englishman. He is therefore brave" (consequence). Defeasibility/Cancellability: Conv. Implicatures can be cancelled by additional material, without contradiction. Ex. A: did the Minister attend the meeting and sign the agreement? B: The Minister attended the meeting. B1: The Minister attended the meeting. A statement will be issued later regarding the agreement. --> B1 no longer allows us to derive the implicature that the minister did not sign the agreement or if he had no intention to. Non-detachability: You do not lose the implicature by substituting synonyms. The implicature tied to meaning, not form. Ex. A: I've run out of gas B: There's a garage just around the corner B1: You'll find a gas station just beyond the bend Calculability: the recipient of a message must be able to understand the conversational implicature

Regulative Principles

--> control textual communication, rather than defining it Efficiency: communicative with a minimum expenditure of effort by the participants --> processing ease Effectiveness: leaving a strong impression, and creating conditions for attaining the goal of the text producer --> processing depth Appropriateness: correlation between the current situation and the standards of textuality Efficiency and Effectiveness run counter to each other -- plain language and lackluster content are easy to produce and receive, but are boring and leave little impression (Efficiency). Creative language and bizarre content are difficult to process, but leave strong impressions (Effectiveness). Appropriateness mediates to indicate the proper balance between the conventional and the unconventional in each situation.

Seven Standards of Textuality: Constitutive Principles

--> define and create the form of behavior identifiable as textual communicating. (CCIAISI) Coherence: the continuity that exists between one part of the text and another; connectedness at the level of sense/meaning. Cohesion: connectedness at the level of expression/form ------ Intentionality: the text producer's attitude that the product should constitute a coherent text, fulfilling his/her communicative intention Acceptability: the text receiver's attitude that the producer's utterance should constitute a coherent and relevant text ------- Informativity: the extent to which the occurrences of the text are new to the receiver Situationality: the factors that make the text relevant to a situation of occurrence ------- Intertextuality: reliance on other texts, i.e. text types with typical patterns of characteristics, or prior versions the receiver will need to be familiar with

Translation Equivalence

A variable notion defining the relation between the translation and the foreign text: Accuracy, adequacy, correctness, correspondence, fidelity, identity. Umberto Eco --> translating involves a process of negotiation, where the target text will never be totally equivalent with the source one. It is an act of saying almost the same thing. Structural properties of languages may diverge. Ex. John happens to be ill * John succede di essere malato Si dà il caso che John sia malato Target-based equivalence: the text is communicated according to the values of the target language and culture Source-based equivalence: the text adheres to the linguistic and cultural values of the source language

Translation Function

A variable notion defining the relationship between the translated text and the receiving language and culture. The potentiality of the translation to produce several effects: - communication of a content - production of a response comparable to the one of the source text in its own culture - social, economic and political effects, e.g. the emergence of languages, literary movements and national literatures.

Conversational Implicature

An implied meaning that has to be inferred as a result of a conversational maxim being broken. Dependent on the context of the utterance and the shared knowledge between speaker and hearer. By participating in a conversation, a speaker implicitly signals that he/she agrees to cooperate in the joint activity and adhere to certain rules.

Constative Utterances vs. Performative Utterances

Constative: utterances that say what they mean. Can be answered with true/false. Ex. "I like the red one" -- describe a personal preference Performative: utterances that do what they say. They are not truth-conditional. Ex. "I choose the red one' -- act on that preference --> perform an act of choosing Felicitous or infelicitous --> successful or unsuccessful.

Intentionality and Acceptability

Contradictions: Ex. Less is more Paradoxes: Ex. Back to the Future Gradation: Ex. The best gets better Ambiguity: Ex. Slow children at play - reduce speed because children are playing - unintelligent children are playing

Direct vs. Indirect Speech Acts

Direct: Whenever the sentence type matches the speech act. Typical associations are declaratives (used to make a statement), interrogatives (used to ask a question), and imperatives (used to make a straight-forward command) Indirect: When there is a mismatch or no direct relationship between the sentence type and the illocutionary force. Performed by means of another. When a interrogative is used to make a request. Usually used for politeness.

Cohesive Devices

Efficient: Ellipsis -- repeating a structure and its content omitting some of the surface expressions. Ex. A: Where's my book? B: [E] on the sofa (nominal ellipsis). Joan brought some carnations, and Catherine [E] some sweet peas (verbal ellipsis). Some people were laughing and others [E] crying (verbal operator ellipsis). Brian won't do the dishes, so I'll have to [E] (clausal ellipsis) Reference -- Exophoric: situational, shared knowledge as in historical ref's. Endophoric: textual, anaphoric (referring the preceding text) or cataphoric (referring to following text). Anaphoric Ex. Take /the fish/. Cut /it/ in pieces. Cataphoric Ex. Leave /him/ alone. /The poor child/ is just playing. Personal reference -- personal pronouns (I, you, we - exophoric but endophoric/anaphoric in quoted speech; he, she, they - endophoric/anaphoric; it - can be endophoric or extended text reference Ex. it rained all day and night. My basement flooded. /It/ ruined my weekend), possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns. Demonstrative reference -- reference by means of location on a scale of proximity, space or time. Substitution -- repeating structure and its content but substituting some of its surface expressions. Grammatical function of the substitute item (nominal -- one, ones, same; verbal -- do; and clausal -- so, not). Ex. Let's go see the bears. /The polar ones/ are over on that rock ~ nominal. The words didn't come the same as they used to do ~ verbal. Would you like to be robbed, if you were me? /Certainly not/ ~ clausal. Junctives: Conjunction (same status); using "and". Disjunction (alternative status); using "or". Contrajunction (same status, but incompatible in the textual world); using "nevertheless". Subordination (since, because, although, if, so that...); Ex. She's gone for a walk /because/ Peter is at home. /Since/ Peter is at home, she's gone for a walk. Coordination (coordinators: and, but, or; conjuncts: so, for, yet, nevertheless, therefore) and parallelism: Ex. These terrorists have destroyed their own credibility. /They/ resisted arrest and /they/ gave themselves up. /They/ went on hunger strike... (parallelism). His first /and/ best novel (with coordinating conjunction) I was hungry and my wife [E] anxious (coordination and ellipsis) Syndetic: Ex. Peter is at home, /and/ she's gone for a walk. Peter is at home, /but/ she's gone for a walk. Asyndetic/Juxtaposed: Ex. Peter is at home. She's gone for a walk. Polysyndetic: Ex. Peter is at home, and it's almost tea time, but she's gone for a walk. anaphors, connectives, selection of the articles, pronominalization, consecutio temporum, thematic structure

Structural Differences between EN and IT

English 7 inflectional affixes: -s plural of nouns -s 3rd person present tense 's possessive -ed past tense/past participle -er and -est comparative and superlative in adj Personal pronouns & their corresponding possessive adj's and pronouns: I/me/my/mine him/his her/her's them/their/their's Italian Morphologically very rich in inflections: Endings for singular and plural nouns & adj (-a, -o, -e, -i) Determinative articles (il, lo, la, i, gli, le) Personal pronouns: io, tu, te, ti egli, (lui), lo, gli la, le noi, ci voi, vi essi, loro, gli Suffixes for the verb conjugation (indicative, infinitive, subjunctive, conditional modes) + present participle (-ente/i), past participle (-to/a/i), and gerund (-ndo) English requires the presence of a subject, pronouns are necessarily rendered because the verbal system does not provide many clues. Italian can exploit the potential given by inflectional morphology and makes pronouns explicit only in marked contexts and when strictly required. Endocentric compounds (those characterized by being members of a hyponymy class): english is usually right-headed whereas Italian tends to be on the left. Ex. travel agency - agenzia di viaggi. Exocentric compounds: no clearly identifiable semantic nominal head. Ex. homeless (N + prep) - senzatetto (prep + N). White-collar (A + N) - colletti bianchi (N + A). Redskin - pellerossa. Asymmetries: protein granules -- composition: N2 is made of N1. Granuli proteici Morphopragmatics: studying pragmatic effects and meanings generated by morphological rules Diminutives are considered more for their connotation rather than their denotation: they express a positive or negative judgement regarding a quantity, quality, or behavior: Ex. gattino, cameretta, orsacchiotto.. Subtypes: - negative judgement (-ucolo ex. Professorucolo) - used in the presence of or in texts/discourse aimed at children (-ino ex. topolino) - aimed at creating intimacy/solidarity in specific contexts (Ex. prendiamo un gelatino? caffettino?) - mitigation (correggere errorino/mi fai un piacerino?) In English, alteration with diminutives and augmentatives is reduced: -y: doggy -ette: kitchenette -let: booklet, leaflet -ling: darling, duckling -o: smoko -so: fatso -sy: tootsy The expression of "very small size" occurs through adjectives such as tiny or small

Eugene Nida's Types of Translation Equivalence

Formal equivalence: the message should match as closely as possible the different elements in the source language. Attention focused on the message itself, in form and content (poetry to poetry, prose to prose). Focus on the message of the source text, following the content and linguistic structures as closely as possible. "gloss translations" - translator aims to reproduce as literally and meaningfully as possible the form and content of the original text, mostly used in academic settings. Meant to enable the reader in the target culture to identify as fully as possible with the person in the source language content and to understand the customs, manner of thought and means of expressions. Characterized by; - reproduction of grammatical units - consistency in word usage - consistency of meanings in terms of the source context Dynamic equivalence: the closest natural equivalent to the source-language message. The effect on the target language is as similar as possible to the effect on the ST reader. Requires the translator to adjust the text to the target culture. Equivalent effect: principle in which the message tailored on the target culture aiming at maximum naturalness typical features: grammatical adaptation and adaptation of cultural references. Pursues: - complete naturalness of expression - conformance of a translation to the receptor language and culture as a whole - translation in accordance with the context of the message which involves the stylistic selection and arrangement of message constituents - adaption of lexicon and grammar is key

Macrostructure

Global coherence is concerned with the essential points of a text. Ex. a book title, book summary, news report... Producing a macrostructure: Deletion, generalization, and construction

Reiss' Types of Translation

Informative, Expressive, Operative text types. Translation according to sense and meaning: The SL text is aimed at conveying a content. What is implicitly conveyed in the SL should be explicated in the TL with no redundancy. The task of the translator is the transmission of a content in plain prose. Aim to preserve semantic equivalence. Ex. press releases, commentaries, news reports, users' manuals, patent specifications, official documents, non-fiction, specialized books, essays, reports. Translating by identification: the SL text is aimed at conveying artistic content. The translator identifies with the artistic and creative intentions of the SL author to keep the artistic quality of the text. The SL style is a priority. Transmission of the aesthetic and artistic form of the ST. The task of the translator is not to produce identical content, but to create a formal analogy. Ex. literary prose (essays, biographies), imaginative prose (anecdotes, short stories, romances), poetry Adaptive translation: the SL is written to convey persuasively structured content to trigger special types of behavior. The use of persuasive language should be adopted to the needs to the new linguistic community. It should aim to transmit the ST's intended effect. The aim of the translator is not to reflect the content or the form of the SL text, but to render its function. Ex. commercials, ads, texts related to missionary work, propaganda

Perspectives on language

Instrumental: language as communication, expressive of thought and meaning, where meanings are either based on reference to empirical reality or derived from a primarily linguistic context. Translation as communication of objective info. Prominence of equivalence with respect to function. Hermeneutic: language as interpretation, where meanings shape reality and are viewed in relation to the changing cultural and social context (a translation needs to approach the values of the new culture, and may also get old). Translation as interpretation. The target language is seen as inscribed in the foreign text, explaining it on the basis of social functions.

Jakobson's Types of translation

Intralingual Translation: use another word to express the same content. Synonymy; even if two words denote the same content, they have different connotations. It is anti-economical for a language to have two lexemes that refer exactly to the same entity/object and can be used in identical contexts. Ex. "Bachelor" is an unmarried man, while "celibate" is a person who lives in abstention from sexual intercourse. Interlingual Translation: translated into another sign in a different language. No full equivalence between code units. Ex. determination between legno and different types of wood (not the forest) Intersemiotic Translation: interpretation of verbal signs, by means of different semiotic signs (justs like a book adapted into film) Factors involved -- rendering the signans/signatum relationships in the source text in a different semiotic system. Choosing a more specific interpretation to adopt, possibly involving cuts or changes and deciding what the highlight in the new format. New format may be more or less constraining.

Descriptive Text

Main illocutionary purpose: convey a mental picture of a scene to the receiver (with objects, people, situations) as perceived in space. Dominant communicative function: referential/informative (but also emotive - subjective) Can vary from general to detailed, objective (technical description) to subjective (impressionistic description) Objective: verifiable data (supported by diagrams, illustrations..) Formal register, technical or specialized vocabulary. Usually includes impersonal constructions (it is important that..); passives (it is commonly held that..); nominalizations (nouns in -ment, -tion, -ness..); avoidance of imperatives, direct questions, first and second person personal pronouns, and contractions; avoidance of colloquial vocabulary and idioms. Subjective: give expression to the writer's personal attitudes, feelings, etc. Informal register Often make use of the verb "to be" to describe states of affairs; make use of quality attributing adjectives and spatial prepositions and adverbs; use comparisons to help us picture the scene; employ the five senses.

Narrative Text

Main illocutionary purpose: convey to the receiver knowledge about events (factual or conceptual) as they happen in time. Related to the mental process of perception in time. Dominant communicative function: referential/informative. Structure of the narrative sequence: - chronological ordering of events/actions - order of importance - cause-to-effect sequences - general to particular Subjective or objective ("report") POV Typical Features: Exhibit action verbs (e.g. flow, eat, etc.) or verbs of change of state in the past. Cohere by means of temporal conjunctions (e.g. when) and adverbs - reference to a fixed point in time (two years ago, the day before yesterday..) - reference to an indefinite point in time (first, then, next, finally, afterwards..) - " to a brief moment in time (at once, in no time, in a minute..) - " to a time span (in the morning, in May, in spring, in 1999..) - " to frequency (once a week, twice a month, three times a day..) - indefinite frequency (constantly, often, usually, sometimes, seldom, now and again..)

Expository Text

Main illocutionary purpose: explain and clarify concepts that make up the receiver's encyclopedic knowledge. Related to the mental process of comprehension of concepts either through a more detailed analysis or through synthesis. Dominant communicative function: referential/informative function The text producer is usually an expert explaining to a non-specialist receiver, who wants to know more about a given topic. Analytic exposition: expository essays are examples of subjective exposition, while definitions and explications are examples of objective exposition Synthetic exposition: summary Structure: - provide info in a clear way - the verb "to be" is often used to identify a phenomenon - frequent recourse to a specialized vocabulary - frequent use of: illustrative expressions (namely, that is, thus, for example..), expressions introducing a more detailed section (especially, mainly, particularly..), expressions introducing topic transition (as for, with reference to, with regard to..), additive expressions (moreover, furthermore, also..)

Argumentative Text

Main illocutionary purpose: persuade ther receiver of the validity of a given opinion. Dominant communicative function: conative. Focus on the evaluation of relations between concepts. Used to promote acceptance of certain ideas as true or false, positive or negative. Producer expresses an opinion and investigates its relation to opposing opinions. Related to mental process, judging. Comment is argumentation from a subjective POV. Scientific argumentation is characterized by an objective POV. Features: - expressions of evaluation of pros and cons though adjectives such as correct/incorrect, right/wrong, important, etc. and nouns and verbs (advantages, improve) and comparisons (better) - Concessive sequences introduced by connectives (in spite of, nevertheless, yet, however) - Contrastive sequences with connectives (but, conversely, instead, by contrast) - Illustrative cause/effect sequences introduced by because, in that, this is the reason why, hence (in order to support the text producer's claims)

Instructional Text

Main illocutionary purpose: tell the receiver what to do or get them to do something. Dominant function: conative. Related to the mental process of planning someone's future behavior. Subjective POV: practical instruction often based on the writer's authority. Objective POV: directions, rules, regulations relying on a public authority outside the text producer. Features: - language is direct: use of imperative forms ellipsis - short sentences - enumerative sequences - style: linear order; ordo naturalis

Opting out of the Cooperative Principle

Not answering or refusing to respond. In some cases, these instances can convey meanings

Primary and Explicit Performatives

Primary: the sentence is neither true nor false and is not explicit. Explicit: clarify how the action should be taken or understood. Usually in the form of a declarative sentence. Ex. "I will be there tomorrow at ten" might be an estimation as to what time I will arrive. "I promise I will be there at ten" is explicit because you cannot deny having made a promise.

Grice's Maxims of Conversation

Quantity: Make your contribution as informative as required and do not share excessive information Quality: Try to make your contribution one that is true. Don't say what you believe to be false nor that of which you lack evidence. Relation: Be relevant Manner: Be perspicuous (clearly expressed and easily understood). Avoid obscurity of expression and ambiguity. Be brief and orderly. How maxims generate implicatures: assuming that the speaker is adhering to the maxims, when a maxim has been violated, when a speaker is ostentatiously flouting a maxim (deliberately disregarding it)

Searle's Classification of speech acts

Representative/Assertive: the speaker is committed in varying degrees to the truth of the expressed proposition (affirm, believe, conclude, deny, report) Directive: the speaker tries to get the hearer to do something (ask, challenge, order, insist, request) Commissive: the speaker is committed in varying degrees to a certain course of action (promise, swear, vow, guarantee, pledge) Expressive: the speaker expresses an attitude about a state of affairs (apologize, thank, congratulate) Declaration: acts which bring about something by declaring it to exist. The successful performance of one of its members brings about the correspondence between the prepositional content and reality (I resign, I baptize, you're fired) (RDCED = RED DOLLS CAN'T EVEN DANCE)

Searle's Speech Act Theory

Speech act is the basic minimal unit of linguistic communication; talking is performing acts according to rules. Performing a speech act means to perform at least 3 distinct acts: - utterance acts: uttering words (morphemes, sentences) - propositional acts: referring and predicating - illocutionary acts: stating, questioning, commanding, promising... (pUPI)

Cohesion

The continuity that exists between one part of the text and another. Continuity provided by cohesion supplies the missing links in order for the receiver to interpret discourse, i.e. those elements not present in the text, but necessary for its interpretation. Levels of discourse: Phonological: rhyme, alliteration, parallelism (ex. making tracks and making enemies), assonance and consonance, onomatopoeia, word play. Morphological: the repetition of the same bound morphs (affixes) or free morphs (free-standing words) Ex. /Fishy fishy/ in the /brook/ /Daddy/ caught him on a /hook/ /Mommy/ fried him in a /pan/ And /baby/ ate him like a /man/. Syntactical Lexical: selection of vocabulary. Cohesive function of general nouns -- human nouns (people, person, man, woman, boy, child, girl); creature (non-human animate); thing or object (inanimate concrete noun); stuff (inanimate, concrete mass); business, affair, matter (inanimate abstract); move (action); place; question, idea (fact). Ex. Can you tell me where to stay in /Geneva/? I've never been to /the place/. A general noun always accompanied by the reference item /the/ which makes it function like an anaphoric item. Conveying familiarity: idiot, fool, dear, buddy Attitudinal modifier: Ex. I've been to see my great-aunt. /The poor old girl/'s getting very forgetful these days. --Reiteration-- Doesn't have to repeat the same lexical items but can be related such as a synonym, near synonym, superordinate, or a general word. Ex. The /boy/'s going to fall, if he doesn't take care. Boy (repetition), lad (synonym), child (superordinate), idiot (general world - derogatory, informal sense). Recurrence: straightforward repetition of items. Ex. a /unique/ education, a /unique/ experience. Partial Recurrence: the shifting of already used items to different classes (morphological variant). Ex. /Psychology/, the study of /psychic/ processes... Parallelism: re-using surface formats but filling them with different expressions. Chiasmus: the reversal form which may stress the reversal of content. Ex. There was a naughty boy, and a naught boy was he. Paraphrase: repeating content but conveying it with different expression. Ex. New York City - The Big Apple Synonymy --Collocation-- Hyponymy Meronymy Antonymy

Roman Jakobson's view on translation

Translation involves re-coding and transmitting a message in another language, leading to two equivalent messages in different codes. The linguist acts as an interpreter. Analyzing what unifies and differentiates languages from a grammatical POV.

Violating vs. Flouting Maxims

Violating: For example, violating "Quantity" because less (or more) information was provided than what was required. Ex. A: Where does Francois live? B: Somewhere in the South of France. --> B adheres to Quality because their contribution is true, the Francois lives in the South of France. However, violates Quantity because B provides less information than is required. Flouting: it's obvious to the hearer that a maxim has been violated, that the speaker intends for the hearer to recognize that a maxim has been flouted, and there are no signs that the speaker is opting out of the cooperative principle. A maxim in exploited and the utterance is not the be taken literally. it's an invitation to find a new meaning, beyond what is said. Generally associated with particular rhetorical effects. Ex. Flouting Quantity A: How do I look? B: Well, your shoes are nice --> B does not intentionally give A the straightforward yes/no answer which is the information that is usually required for this type of question. Flouting Quality: Mrs. Thatcher is an Iron Lady (METAPHOR) --> it's not true that Mrs. T is a lady made of iron. A: Shall we have something to eat? B: Yes, I'm starving! (HYPERBOLE) --> B provides an over-exaggeration as they are not literally starving as in they haven't had something to eat in days. Did I mention how I love waking up at 4 every morning to get to work on time? (IRONY) Flouting Manner: A: Where are you going? B: I was thinking of going to get some of that funny white stuff for somebody... --> A & B are parents and B wants to avoid saying that they are going out to get ice cream for their child as a surprise Flouting Relation: A: Did you hear about Mary? B: Yes, well, it rained nearly the whole time we were there --> an irrelevant comment. B might not want to respond directly to the question because they might not want the person in question to over-hear

What is the parallel between the notion of speech acts and conversational implicature?

We make reference to the literal utterance embedded in a specific context, and identifying the intention of the speaker by recurring to an inference.

Speech Act

branch of pragmatics that suggest that when people communicate, they do not just say things, they also do things with their words. Example: apologies and promises

Translatability

linguistic relativity/determinism: differences in languages shape different conceptualizations of the world. linguistic universalism: although languages differ in the way they realize meaning, there is a shared way of thinking and experiencing the world. Differences in terms of equivalence: Gender level -- "casa" is feminine, "house" is gender-neutral. "Teacher" is gender-neutral, "professore/professoressa" are gender-dependent. Aspect level -- morphology of verbs. Ex. English present perfect/ past simple distinction based on completion to differentiate between forms, Ex. "I have worked a lot on my thesis" (incomplete action) vs. "I worked a lot on my thesis" (I'm no longer working on it, a completed action). Passato prossimo and remoto are distinguished in terms of proximity to the present and pp is used more frequently. Semantic field level -- "siblings" may refer to the gender-neutral "fratelli" as in "hai fratelli?" or to "fratelli o sorelle" to mean "brothers and sisters."

Presupposition

referring to the logical meaning(s) associated with or entailed by a sentence

Pragmatics

the rules of language governing how language is used for social purposes and the effects of our choice on others. Linguistic phenomena: (DIPS) Deixis, Implicature, Presupposition, and Speech Acts. Example: A: Mary, the phone! B: I'm on the toilet! --> A pragmatically implies that the phone is ringing and B should answer it --> B prag. implies that they are currently not in a position to answer the phone.