A Pragmatic Study of Selected short stories
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31973/bmyg1d55Keywords:
Implicature, conventional implicature, conversational implicature, cooperative principle, maximAbstract
In pragmatic studies, there must be pragmatic tools and strategies used to analyze utterances. This study is based on using conversational implicatures to conduct a pragmatic analysis. Conversational implicature is one of the most important and interesting pragmatic tool that may be produced in conversations. In literary works like short stories, characters speak to each other, communicate, argue, make fun, criticize and even lie to each other. They may convey different information and meanings by their utterances, and conversational implicature is one way to achieve that by saying something and meaning something else. This study aims at identifying and analyzing conversational implicatures produced by the characters of the three selected short stories. This study tries to answer the question: how is conversational implicature as a pragmatic strategy used by the characters of the three selected fictional works?. Grice’s cooperative principle is used in this study to explain and analyze conversational implicatures. The characters in these short stories produce utterances just like people in real life. Their utterances could be direct without any implied meanings, and they also could be indirect. The characters may violate one or more of the maxims suggested by Grice in their conversations, accordingly, conversational implicatures are produced. This study identifies the violations of the maxims and analyzes them in terms of what implied meanings are there behind that violation.
Downloads
References
Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: CUP. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511805226
Edmondson, W. (1981). Spoken Discourse. New York: Longman Inc.
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and Conversation. Syntax and Semantics, 41-58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004368811_003
Hurford, J. R. (1983). Semantics of Coursebook. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kridalaksana, H. (2011). Kamus Linguistik. Jakarta: Gramedia.
Leech, G. (1983). Principle of Pragmatics. USA: Longman Group.
Levinson, S. (1983). Pragmatics. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813313
Levinson, S. (1991). Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP.
Mey, J. L. (1998). Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics. New York: Elseiver.
Nababan, P. (1987). Ilmu Pragmatik: Teori dan Penerapannya. Jakarta: Depdikbud.
Palmer, F. R. (1981). Semantics. New York: Cmbridge University Press.
Parker, F. (1986). Linguistics for Non Linguist. London: Taylor and Francis.
Stalnaker. (1989). On Grandy on Grice. The Journal of Philosophy, 526- 527. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/jphil1989861022
Wijana, I. D. (1996). Dasar- dasar Pragmatik. Yogyakarta: Andi Offset.
Wright, R. A. (1975). Meaning non- natural and Conversational Implicature. Syntax and Semantics, Vol.3.
Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Asst.Lect. Aya Flayih Hasan Abd-Al Nabi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright and Licensing:
For all articles published in Al-Adab journal, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work.
Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers: It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyrightholder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyrightholder).
Permission is required for: Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
Substantial extracts from anyones' works or a series of works.
Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
Photographs for which you do not hold copyright.
Permission is not required for: Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.
Obtaining Permission
In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. Al-Adab Journal cannot publish material from other publications without permission.
The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgement to be followed; otherwise follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.
How to Cite
