A Contrastive Study Of Chinese And American Conversational Implicature From A Cross-cultural Perspective

Grice believes that in the process of communication, the speaker and the listener follow the cooperative principle and the four conversational maxims under it. However, a participant in a talk exchange may fail to fulfill a maxim. According to Grice, when a maxim has been flouted, a conversational implicature is to be generated, which is what the speaker intends to communicate beyond what has been literally said. Grice’s theory has been widely discussed and applied in different fields, yet the cross-cultural contrastive study on the cooperative principle and conversational implicature has been insufficient. The present study is aimed to analyze and compare the categories of maxims flouted by Chinese and American in similar situations as well as the conversational implicatures generated by their flouting maxims. In addition, it intends to reveal the differences through the contrastive analysis and explore the differences from a cultural perspective.The present study employed qualitative method as research method and took conversations of reality TV show, Win in China, a Land of Blue Sky and Clear Waters and the Apprentice, as research data. Five different scenes were selected respectively from the Chinese and American reality TV show for contrastive study:(1) Choosing a worse player,(2) Choosing the best player,(3) Evaluating teamwork,(4) Evaluating team leader’s performance,(5) Commenting on team leader’s shortcoming. The responses provided by Chinese players and American players in the five scenes were analyzed contrastively, in order to find out if they complied with the cooperative principle and what kind of maxims they flouted. In addition, the conversational implicatures generated by their flouting conversational maxims were analyzed contrastively and explained from the perspective of culture.Through the research, it is found that Chinese players flouted all of the four maxims: the maxim of quantity(the second maxim: Do not make your contribution more informative than is required), the maxim of quality(the first maxim: Do not say what you believe to be false), the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner(the first maxim: Avoid obscurity, and the second maxim: Avoid ambiguity). The maxim of quantity was flouted in the first and the second scene and the maxim of manner was flouted in the entire five scenes except the first one. By contrast, American players only flouted the maxim of quantity(the second maxim: Do not make your contribution more informative than is required) in the five scenes. Besides, there are certain differences in terms of the conversational implicatures generated by their flouting maxims. For instance, Chinese players were willing to depreciate their performance; they were very concerned about how other people feel about their decision or remark and try not to offend people. By contrast, American players did not depreciate their performance; they were more concerned about facts rather than personal feelings and try to make their point.The present study attempts to explain the differences through the lens of culture. It provides a guideline to understand these differences in terms of cognitive pattern, social value and communication style. Chinese’s cognition is holistic; they value collectivism and use high-context communication. On the contrary, American’s cognition is analytic; they value individualism and use low-context communication. The overall cultural difference between Chinese and American leads to the different categories of maxims that Chinese players and American players flouted in the five scenes and it gives rise to the different conversational implicatures generated by their flouting maxims.The present study is of certain significance in theory and practice. On the one hand, it is beneficial to the development of the Grice’s theory and cross-cultural pragmatics; besides, it helps to promote cross-cultural communication between Chinese and American and enriches the pragmatic research on Chinese and American reality TV show. On the other hand, the present study is a helpful attempt at the comprehension of the language of reality TV show, particularly the interpretation of the conversational implicature generated by flouting conversational maxim. It is helpful for English learners to better appreciate American reality TV show and form a deeper understanding of contemporary American oral English.