An Analysis Of Conversational Implicature In The Dialogues Of A Moment Of Romance From The Perspective Of The Cooperative Principle

As a comprehensive art, film also has its own artistic features. Having plungedinto people’s social life of every aspect, film plays an indispensable part in our dailylife. Film dialogue is a vital way to communicate and exchange among differentcharacters. Being lacking in dialogues, it will be hard to come into conflict amongcharacters and to present the occurrence and development of the plot, the climax andthe ending in a fuller way. Only through dialogues can film characters show theiridentity, status, personalities and characteristics respectively. It seems that, being anindividual and artistic language, film dialogue plays an important role in portraying thecharacters’ personalities and revealing the relationship among characters and thedevelopment of the plot in order to have a deep understanding of this film’ssignificance and its artistic merits. Therefore, the analysis of film dialogues is aneffective way to explore the characters’ personalities and the film’s theme.The linguistic features of film dialogues are being active; being poetic, namelyfilm dialogues should express the rich content and profound significance with theshortest and the most concentrated words; being oral, namely film dialogues should beclear, simple and easy to understand; taking the fundamental form of turn-taking; beingshort in length; carrying on around a certain topic. The reason why A Moment ofRomance is so popular is that both its language is successfully used and its dialoguesare well designed. This thesis will analyze the conversational implicature created byviolating the maxims and its sub-maxims of the Cooperative Principle in the dialoguesof A Moment of Romance under the guidance of Grice’s Cooperative Principle andConversational Implicature Theory so as to have a better understanding of thecharacters’ inner world and the effect of the violation of the maxims on thedevelopment of the plot in the film, which helps to understand and appreciate this filmin a deeper and fuller way.This thesis consists of three parts:The first part is the introduction to the thesis. It introduces the study of theCooperative Principle and that of Conversational Implicature Theory both at home andabroad. In addition, it also puts forward the realistic significance of the thesis. The second part is the main body of the whole thesis, including five chapters.In Chapter One there are three parts. The first part gives a brief introduction to AMoment of Romance, which helps to reveal the relationship among different charactersand the development of the plot in this film. The second part gives an overview of theCooperative Principle, including its definition, four maxims and the violation of itsmaxims. The third part gives an overview of Conversational Implicature, including itsdefinition and classification.In Chapter Two, it analyzes the conversational implicature generated by violatingquantity maxim in the dialogues of A Moment of Romance from the perspective of theCooperative Principle. This maxim requires the speaker to give “right” information.That is to say, the speaker should provide neither more nor less information thanneeded. There are two parts in this chapter. The first part analyzes the conversationalimplicature created by providing more information than needed in the dialogues.Introducing two forms of expression of more information, repetition and prolixity, thispart also analyzes the conversational implicature created by these two forms in filmdialogues respectively. The second part analyzes the conversational implicature createdby providing less information than needed in the dialogues. Introducing two forms ofexpression of less information, roundabout and suspension, this part also analyzes theconversational implicature created by these two forms in film dialogues respectively.In Chapter Three, it analyzes the conversational implicature generated byviolating quality maxim in the dialogues of A Moment of Romance from theperspective of the Cooperative Principle. The requirement of this maxim is to try tomake your contribution one that is true. That is to say, the speaker should provideneither false information nor rootless contribution. This chapter is divided into threeparts. The first part analyzes the conversational implicature created by intentionaldeception in the dialogues. Introducing two forms of expression of intentionaldeception, white lies and vicious cheat, this part analyzes the conversationalimplicature created by these two forms in film dialogues respectively. The second partanalyzes the conversational implicature created by rootless contribution in thedialogues. The third part analyzes the conversational implicature created by the employment of figures of speech including metaphor, irony, rhetorical questions andhyperbole, which also violate the quality maxim of the Cooperative Principle.In Chapter Four, it analyzes the conversational implicature generated by violatingrelation maxim in the dialogues of A Moment of Romance from the perspective of theCooperative Principle. This maxim requires that one’s contribution must be relevant.The relation maxim can be violated in two ways: partial irrelevance and completeirrelevance. The words of the speaker have something to do with the context instead offocusing on the topic in a close way, which are considered to be partial irrelevance.The words of the speaker have nothing to do with the current topic of the participants,which are regarded as complete irrelevance. This chapter contains two parts. The firstpart analyzes the conversational implicature created by partial irrelevance in thedialogues. The second part analyzes the conversational implicature created bycomplete irrelevance in the dialogues.In Chapter Five, it analyzes the conversational implicature generated by violatingmanner maxim in the dialogues of A Moment of Romance from the perspective of theCooperative Principle. The requirement of this maxim is to be perspicuous. That is tosay, the speaker should avoid obscurity and ambiguity, and try to be brief and orderly.This chapter has four parts. The first part analyzes the conversational implicaturecreated by obscurity in the dialogues. The second part analyzes the conversationalimplicature created by ambiguity in the dialogues. The third part analyzes theconversational implicature created by proxility in the dialogues. The last part analyzesthe conversational implicature created by disorder in the dialogues.The third part is the conclusion of the whole thesis. It not only analyzes how thecharacters in the film violate the Cooperative Principle and create conversationalimplicature in film dialogues by summarizing the linguistic features of film dialogues,but also emphasizes the contribution and shortcomings in the analysis of the dialoguesin A Moment of Romance, as well as puts forward some suggestions for future studywith the purpose of analyzing them in a more systematic and comprehensive way.