1、毕业论文 文客久久 本科 毕业论文 (设计 ) 题 目： An Analysis of Fictional Dialogue on Jane Eyre from Gricean Conversational Implicature Theory 学 院： 学生姓名： 专 业： 英语 班 级： 指导教师： 起 止 日期： 文客久久 Contents Abstract . 1 Introduction. 3 1. Theoretical Framework for Analysis . 3 1.1 Introduction of Jane Eyre . 3 1.2 Grices Cooperati
2、ve Principle . 4 1.2.1 Definition . 4 1.2.2 Four Conversational Maxims . 4 1.2.3 Violation of the Maxims . 4 1.3 The Necessity and Feasibility of Analyzing Fictional Dialogue in Jane Eyre by CP . 5 1.3.1 Necessity . 5 1.3.2 Feasibility . 5 2. An Analysis of Conversational Implicature in Jane Eyre. 6
3、 2.1 Violation of the Quantity Maxim . 6 2.1.1 Overstatement . 6 2.1.2 Understatement . 6 2.2 Violation of the Quality Maxim . 7 2.2.1 Metaphor . 7 2.2.2 Irony. 7 2.2.3 Hyperbole . 8 2.3 Violation of the Manner Maxim . 8 2.3.1 Being Obscure . 8 2.3.2 Being Ambiguous . 9 2.3.3 Failure to Be Brief . 9
4、 2.3.4 Failure to Be Orderly . 10 2.4 Violation of the Relevance Maxim . 10 3. Functions of Conversational Implicature in Jane Eyre . 11 3.1 Revealing the Social Phenomena. 11 3.2 Showing the Personality of the Main Characters . 11 Conclusion . 11 References . 131 摘要 英国女作家夏洛蒂勃朗特的经典小说简爱深受读者喜爱，对它的研究可谓
5、不胜枚举。但是，从语用学的角度分析简爱里颇为丰富的会话含义则不多见。 本文从语用学的视角，运用 Grice 提出的合作原则，分析简爱中男女主人公会话的含义。在此基础上分析了会话含义的运用在简爱中的作用，从而进一步说明了运用语用学理论分析简爱中会话含义的必要性和可行性。 通过研究， 本文发现简爱中人物往往多违背常规，采用迂回曲折的表达方式，以产生言外之意。 Grice 的会话含义理论正适合于解释这些现象。合作原则及其会话准则一方面应证了夏洛蒂勃朗特小说创作的现实主义和女性意识；另一方面证明了运用语用学理论对文学作品进行文本分析的有效性及其对小说创作与欣赏的启示。 关键词 ： 简爱 ；会话含义；合
6、作原则；会话准则 2 Abstract Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre enjoys great popularity from generation to generation and has been studied fully since its publishing. However, few studies explored it from the perspective of pragmatics. From the perspective of pragmatics, this paper applies Grices CP to analyze conv
7、ersational implicature of hero and heroine in Jane Eyre. This lays a solid foundation for analyzing the function of conversational implicature in Jane Eyre which makes a further explanation to its feasibilities and necessities of the conversational implicature from the pragmatic approach. After stud
8、ying, we discover that characters in Jane Eyre always use indirect expressions to produce conversational implicature by flouting the CP and conversational maxims. Gricean conversational implicature theory is right to interpret these phenomena. The author thinks that the CP and the conversational max
9、ims, on the one hand, reflects Charlottes realism and Jane Eyres female consciousness; and on the other hand, it proves the validity of applying pragmatic theory into literary works. It also provides writers and readers with inspiration during the process of novel creation or appreciation. Key Words
10、: Jane Eyre; conversational implicature; cooperative principle; conversational maxims; 3 An Analysis of Fictional Dialogue on Jane Eyre from Gricean Conversational Implicature Theory Introduction There has been a great deal of study and analysis over Janes personalities from perspective of feminism.
11、 However, this thesis deals with the application of conversational implicature theory to fictional dialogue in Jane Eyre and few studies explored it from the perspective of pragmatics. Therefore, it is worth trying to study so as to deepen the understanding of the work. It is well known that convers
12、ational implicature theory was proposed by Grice in the William James lecture delivered at Harvard in 1967. Grice (1967) develops the concept of implicature, which is essentially a theory about how people use language and means what is implicated or what is implicitly conveyed in contrast to what is
13、 said. It can be divided into two parts: conventional implicature and conversational implicature. The former depends upon the meaning of some special words regardless of the context. Different from conventional implicature, conversational implicature is closely related to the context. The aim of the
14、 present thesis is to analyze the conversational implicature in detail from the perspective of pragmatics, more specifically, the Cooperative Principle and the conversational maxims, in the hoping of gaining some insights into the application of pragmatics in examining Charlotte Brontes fiction and
15、reflecting Charlottes realism and Jane Eyres female consciousness and proving the validity of applying pragmatic theory into literary works. The structure of this thesis is as follows. Chapter one is committed to a theoretical framework for the pragmatic analysis of fictional dialogue in Jane Eyre.
16、Chapter two conducts a case study of Jane Eyre within the framework built in chapter one by analyzing fictional dialogue excerpted from the fiction. Chapter three mainly talks about functions of conventional implicature in Jane Eyre. 1. Theoretical Framework for Analysis 1.1 Introduction of Jane Eyr
17、e It is well known that Jane Eyre is a representative work of Charlotte Bronte.Jane Eyre, the main character, was an orphan who was passed into the care of Mrs. Reed, the wife of her mothers brother. After years of neglect and abuse, she was sent to a boarding school at age of ten, where she receive
18、d good education under severe conditions. After her graduation, she got a position as a governess at Thornfield where she fell in love with her employer, Mr. Edward Rochester. At their wedding ceremony, Jane got to know that Rochester had a wife, a raving maniac locked in the house. In shock and gri
19、ef, Jane left Thornfield quietly. Penniless and starving, she was saved and befriended by St. John admired Jane and asked her to be his wife and assistant in his religious service. Feeling that she still cherished a deep love for Rochester, who seemed calling her in her dream, Jane refused his propo
20、sal and returned to Thornfield, only to 4 find it a blackened ruin. Mr. Rochester was blinded when he tried to rescue his mad wife, who set the house on fire. Jane went to him at once and there they got married. 1.2 Grices Cooperative Principle 1.2.1 Definition According to Grice (1967), people coop
21、erate with each other in a conversation. Speakers shape their utterances to be understood by hearers. In a word, it means in communication both parties involved will normally seek to cooperate with each other to establish agreed meaning. There are four maxims in the CP: quantity, quality, relevance
22、and manner, which will be illustrated in the following part. 1.2.2 Four Conversational Maxims According to Grice (1975), participants are expected to observe CP in the conversation and he put forward some detailed principles called conversational maxims that underlie CP, as follows. (1) The maxim of
23、 Quality Try to make your contribution one that is true, especially: (i) Do not say what you believe to be false. (ii) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. (2) The maxim of Quantity (i) Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purposes of the exchange. (i
24、i) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. (3) The maxim of Relevance Make your contribution relevant. (4) The maxim of Manner Be perspicuous, and specifically: (i) Avoid obscurity of expression (ii) Avoid ambiguity (iii) Be brief (iv) Be orderly (Grice, 1975) According to t
25、he CP, the participants in a conversation normally communicate in a maximally efficient, rational and cooperative way. They should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly, while providing sufficient information. But in real communication, the participants often flout the cooperative principle and it
26、s maxims. In such cases, conversational implicature arise. 1.2.3 Violation of the Maxims (1) Flouting the Maxim of Quality If what the speaker says is not true or lacks adequate evidence, he/she violates the maxim of quality. For example, A: Ah, who am I kidding? I wouldnt have a shot with a girl li
27、ke that. 5 B: Dont put yourself down. You are a very attractive man. The conversation takes place at weekends when A has to accompany B in order to make compensation. When a beauty passes by, she has captured As heart. B looks down upon As behavior in his mind, but glorifies him in front of him. It
28、is obvious that B has told lies. (2)Flouting the Maxim of Quantity If the speaker provides more or less than is required, he is actually flouting the Maxim of Quantity. For instance, A: When are you backing to school? B: Sometime this morning. Here the speaker fails to provide the precise time of hi
29、s or her backing to the school because the speaker may do not know the precise time. (3)Flouting the Maxim of Relevance In some situation, the reply in a conversation may seem irrelevant to what they are talking about. For instance, A: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb? B: F
30、ish In the above short dialogue between A and B, B combines a strange answer with surrealists, which violates the maxim of relation. (4)Flouting the Maxim of Manner If people speak in a vague or ambiguous way, they may violate the maxim of manner. For example, A: Lets send the teachers something to
31、express our gratitude. B: Okay, but veto M-O-N-E-Y. Bs utterance is obscure. In fact B doesnt directly mention the money. So he avoids mentioning the word explicitly. 1.3 The Necessity and Feasibility of Analyzing Fictional Dialogue in Jane Eyre by CP 1.3.1 Necessity Fictional dialogue is a key to a
32、nalyze the novel because it reflects characters thoughts, feelings and personalities. Whats more, fictional dialogue needs to be interpreted and understood well because of its abundant implicature. As Leech and Short propose that, We must also recognize the importance of inference in the determinati
33、on of characters: in novels, as in real life, a persons characters are inferred from outward behavior, especially from speech (Leech -it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at Gods feet, equal, -as we are! (Jane Eyre: P258) It is obviou
34、s that Janes answer is overstatement. Actually she simply expresses she must go. The conversational implicature is that although she is a governess and a poor, plain girl, she strives for equality and free love. 2.1.2 Understatement Understatement is the opposite side of overstatement that speakers
35、information is less than required while stating a fact. By this way, the speaker intends to arouse the listeners working on the implicature implied. Example 2 (At Thornfield) 7 (R) Jane, do you mean to go one way in the world, and to let me go another? (R) Jane (bending towards and embracing me), do
36、 you mean it now? (J) I do. (R) And now? softly kissing my forehead and cheek. (J) I do, (R) Oh, Jane, this is bitter! Thishis is wicked. It would not be wicked to love me. (J) It would to obey you. (Jane Eyre: P323) From this conversation, we know that Jane decides to leave because of the existence
37、 of his mad wife. The sentences like do you mean it now?, I do, and It would to obey you are both understatement. They respectively mean do you really want to leave and Yes, I have to go or it would be wicked. It also reflects her feminism. 2.2 Violation of the Quality Maxim In Jane Eyre we can easi
38、ly find conversational implicatures generated by flouting the quality maxim. 2.2.1 Metaphor Metaphor is a non-literal use of words and phrases in which one thing is spoken of as if it were some other thing. Example 3 (At Thornfield) (R) One instant, Jane. Give one glance to my horrible life when you
39、 are gone. All happiness will be torn away with you. What then is left? For a wife I have but the maniac upstairs: as well might you refer me to some corpse in yonder churchyard. What shall I do, Jane? Where turn for a companion, and for some hope? (J) Do as I do: trust in God and yourself. Believe
40、in heaven. Hope to meet again there. (Jane Eyre: P323-324) This dialogue happens when Jane knows Mr. Rochester has a mad wife. Some corpse in yonder churchyard is a metaphor by which Rochester compares his mad wife to corpse. And from Janes answer that Hope to meet again there probably implies that lets meet in the heaven after death. Also we can see Janes feminism to some extent. By using a metaphor, Mr. Rochester wants to make Jane know that his life will be more miserable if she leaves him. 2
