A Study On The Conversational Implication Of "Thunderstorm" In The Perspective Of Cooperative Principle

The Cooperative Principle in Grice’s Logic and Conversation provides a set of maxims for people to obey in daily conversations. In fact, people often violate some of the maxims for some purposes on the premise that they obey the Cooperative Principle,hence generating conversational implicatures. The Cooperative Principle is now applied to the study of dialogues in dramas and other literary genres. However, for the sake of their contribution to the dramatic effects intended, dialogues in modern Chinese dramas are much more complicated than daily conversations; therefore, the implicatures in them are richer and more profound for the consideration of characters’ intentions to speak,their cognitive ability, their relationships, dramatic plots and even Chinese cultural factors. This thesis makes an in-depth analysis of the conversational implicatures of 36 representative dialogues selected from Thunderstorm, on the basis of which it discusses their pragmatic effects on the drama. It can be seen from the above analysis that dialogues in Thunderstorm are extremely expressive although they are concise and common, and the analysis can also deepen understanding of the drama’s conflicts and tragic theme and the characters’ relationships,personality and inner world. It can be concluded that it is the rich and deep implied meanings of the dialogues that endow Thunderstorm with unique linguistic features and touching effects.