An Analysis Of The Conversational Implicature Of The Dialogues In English And Chinese Literary Works From The Perspective Of Pragmatic Principles

The theory of conversational implicature was first outlined by Herbert Paul Grice. In order to guarantee a successful, accurate and effective communication, the two sides of a conversation are required to arrive at a common aim and adopt a cooperative principle throughout communication. Grice called this "cooperative principle" (abbreviated as CP) to which the two sides should equally conform. It consists of four sub-principles, or "maxims": maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relation and maxim of manner. Thus people concerned are required to obey some principles or maxims. It is obvious that an utterance, which violates a maxim, will often lead to an extra meaning: implicatures. The hearer will have much difficulty in making a correct judgment of the extra meaning. Even the understanding of the extra meaning may vary with different individuals. On the basis of cooperative principle, Leech put forward "politeness principle" (abbreviated as PP), which enriched the CP theory. It can better conform to the communicative process of conversation. He points out that politeness problem often occurs when people communicate and it is the most important premise of communication to be considered. Therefore Leech's PP theory and its maxims may rescue and further develop Grice's CP in this regard. Leech divides it into six maxims: tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim, agreement maxim and sympathy maxim.Cooperative principle and politeness principle are the two major principles of pragmatics. The dialogue in literary works is a special kind of conversation. The language materials chosen for this thesis are from English and Chinese literary works. The study uses the cooperative principle and politeness principle to analyze different conversational effects which are caused by the violations and obeisance of the two principles. It also studies the concrete contents of cooperative principle and politeness principle and how they restrain the process of conversational implicature. By the analysis of the dialogues in English and Chinese literary works, we can offer a help for people to understand the deeper implicatures in it. And it is good for people to understand and appreciate foreign literary works.