An Analysis Of Character Utterances In Moment In Peking From The Perspective Of Conversational Implicature And Presupposition

Based on the presupposition and conversational implicature, this paper carried out the analysis of character utterances in Moment in Peking by exploring the following three problems, namely, first, how is implicature in character utterances produced? Second, what kinds of presuppositions are used in character utterances in Moment in Peking ? Third, what are the functions of presupposition in implicature inference and character utterances comprehension?The novel, Moment in Peking, was written in 1938 when China was suffering from Japanese aggression at the beginning of the Second World War. This magnum opus depicts the profound change of Chinese society during the two decades from the Boxers Uprising(1900) to Anti-Japanese war(1937-1945) through the description of three large families in Peking—the Yao Family, the Tseng Family, and the New Family. It is not only regarded as a classical one in describing modern Chinese society, but also as a masterpiece full of literary values.Nowadays, many Chinese scholars are carrying out various studies on this novel from the perspectives of the subject of Moment in Peking, Lin Yutang's philosophy of life, also from the angle of the mixing of Chinese and Western culture, and comparative studies of different versions of Moment in Peking. But it is a great pity that few of them study character utterances from the perspective of pragmatics.First, the author conducts an overview of the study of novel in domestic area and points out the feasibility of analyzing character utterances with presupposition and conversational implicature. Then a review of relevant literature is rendered, which includes a review of the previous studies on character utterances, an overview of the presupposition theory and an overview of conversational implicature. Two theoretical frameworks for the present study are illustrated. Cooperative principle, Four Maxims, violation of the maxims, classification of implicature and the steps of inferring implicature are illustrated. Meanwhile, it elaborates the philosophical background, two approaches to presupposition, properties and categorization of presupposition. The two theories provide theoretical framework for the case study in the following two chapters.Character utterances in the novel Moment in Peking are chosen to be analyzed from the perspective of conversational implicature and presupposition. Firstly, the problem of how implicature is produced is to be solved with the analysis of the chosen character utterances and five reasons of causing conflict of different implicatures are illustrated. Secondly, presuppositions used in character utterances in the novel are divided into conventional presuppositions and non-conventional presuppositions and the latter one is classified into context presupposition, background presupposition etc. At last, functions of presupposition in conversational implicature inferences and character utterances understanding are explained. Through case analysis, it is. proved that in the aspect of conversational implicature, presupposition is the foundation of conversational implicature understanding; in the aspect of character utterances understanding, presupposition is the key of realization of communication and the source of humorous effect.