Your browser does not support the PubReader view.
Go to this page to see a list of supporting browsers.
The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 24, No. 0, pp.852-869
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2024
Received 29 Jul 2024 Revised 20 Aug 2024 Accepted 27 Aug 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.24..202408.852

Metapragmatic Awareness and Relationship Dynamics: A Pragmatic-Discourse Analysis of Gricean Maxims in a Literary Work

Ying Wang ; Jung Sook Kim
Doctoral Student, Dept. of English Language and Literature Cheongju University 714360143@qq.com
Assistant Professor, Dept. of English Language and Literature Cheongju University jskim8015@cju.ac.kr


© 2024 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study investigates how the relationship dynamics in a literary work can be constructed by the metapragmatic strategies deployed by the characters. To illustrate the significance and rhetorical functions of metapragmatic awareness, this study conducted a pragmatic-discourse analysis of conversations among the protagonists in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Employing Grice’s Cooperative Principle (CP) as an analytical framework, the study focuses primarily on how the protagonists utilize their metapragmatic strategies during their interactions and how the strategies impact their relationship dynamics. Verbal exchanges between the main characters were systematically analyzed based on the four maxims of the CP: Quantity, Quality, Relevance, and Manner. Instances of both compliance and violation of these maxims were identified and selected as representative examples to illustrate the arguments.

Keywords:

Gricean maxims, cooperative principle, metapragmatics, dynamics of relationship, Pride and Prejudice

References

  • Attardo, S. 1993. Violation of conversational maxims and cooperation: The case of jokes. Pragmatics 19(6), 537-558. [https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(93)90111-2]
  • Austen, J. 1995. Pride and Prejudice. London: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
  • Birner, B. J. 2012. Introduction to Pragmatics. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Brown, P. and S. C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085]
  • Caffi, C. 1994. Metapragmatics. In R. E. Asher, ed., Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2461-2466. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
  • Caffi, C. 1999. On mitigation. Journal of Pragmatics 31 (7), 881-909. [https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(98)00098-8]
  • Caffi, C. 2007. Mitigation. Amsterdam: Elsevier. [https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00392-8]
  • Caffi, C. 2016. Revisiting metapragmatics: “What are we talking about?”. In K. Allan, A. Capone and I. Kecskes, eds., Pragmemes and Theories of Language Use, 799-821. Dordrecht: Springer. [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43491-9_40]
  • Carnap, R. 1955. On some concepts of pragmatics. Philosophical Studies 6, 59-91. [https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02341065]
  • Davies, B. 2007. Grice’s cooperative principle: Meaning and rationality. Journal of Pragmatics 39, 2308-2331. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2007.09.002]
  • Dong, T. and X. Huang. 2019. Violations of the cooperative principle: Analysis of conversations in The Little Prince. Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 4(9), 587-591. [https://doi.org/10.36348/SJHSS.2019.v04i09.003]
  • Dynel, M. 2010. Irony from a neo-Gricean perspective: On untruthfulness and evaluative implicature. Intercultural Pragmatics 10(3), 403-431. [https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2013-0018]
  • Ephratt, M. 2011. Linguistic, paralinguistic and extralinguistic speech and silence. Journal of Pragmatics 43, 2286-307. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.03.006]
  • Fashina, N. O. 2009. Of what sex is the text? A new reading of gender characterization as a trope of harmony, cooperative principle and joint heroism in Gabriel Okara’s The Voice. African Study Monographs 30(2), 71-87.
  • Gong, Y. L. 2023. An analysis of conversational implicature in Pride and Prejudice. Open Access Library Journal 10: e9893. [https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1109893]
  • Grice, H. P. 1975. Logic and Conversation. In P. Cole and J. Morgan, eds., Syntax and Semantics, Vol 3: Speech Acts, 41-58. New York: Academic Press. [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004368811_003]
  • Grice, H. P. 1989. Studies in the Way of Words. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
  • Haugh, M., 2018. Corpus-based metapragmatics. In A. Jucker, K. P. Schneider and W. Bublitz, eds., Methods in Pragmatics, 619-643. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110424928-024]
  • Hewitt, J. and R. Stokes, 1975. Disclaimers. American Sociological Review 40 (2), 1-11. [https://doi.org/10.2307/2094442]
  • Hutahaean, D. T. 2020. The cooperative principle violation in classroom teaching learning process. Wiralodra English Journal 4(1), 82-96. [https://doi.org/10.31943/wej.v4i1.74]
  • Jia, L. I. 2008. The violation of cooperative principle and the four maxims in psychological consulting. Canadian Social Science 4(3), 87.
  • Johansen, J. D. 2002. Literary Discourse: A Semiotic-Pragmatic Approach to Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. [https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442676725]
  • Leech, G. N. and M. Short. 1981. Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose. London: Longman Group Limited. [https://doi.org/10.2307/1772012]
  • Leech, G. N. 2014. The Pragmatics of Politeness. Jericho: Oxford University Press. [https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341386.001.0001]
  • Lindblom, K. 2001. Cooperating with Grice: A cross-disciplinary metaperspective on uses of Grice’s cooperative principle. Journal of Pragmatics 33(10), 1601-1623. [https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(00)00069-2]
  • Liu, L. 2017. Application of cooperative principle and politeness principle in class question-answer process. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 7(7), 563. [https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0707.10]
  • LoCastro, V. 2012. Pragmatics for Language Educators: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. New York: Routledge. [https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203850947]
  • Pan, W. 2012. Linguistic basis of humor in uses of Grice’s cooperative principle. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature 1(6), 20-25. [https://doi.org/10.7575/ijalel.v.1n.6p.20]
  • Pratt, M. L. 1977. Toward a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press.
  • Rashid, B. N. 2019. Flouting of cooperative principle in Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics 10 (SP), 1176-1185.
  • Overstreet, M. 2012. Metapragmatics. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics 1-6. [https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1470]
  • Silverstein, M. 1976. Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description. In K. Basso and H. Selby, eds., Meaning in Anthropology, 11-55. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
  • Silverstein, M. 1993. Metapragmatic discourse and metapragmatic function. In J. Lucy, ed., Reflexive Language, 33-58. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. [https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511621031.004]
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. 2004. Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures. London: Continuum.
  • Verschueren, J. 1999. Understanding Pragmatics. London, England: Edward Arnold.
  • Verschueren, J. 2000. Notes on the role of metapragmatic awareness in language use. Pragmatics 10(4), 439-456. [https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.10.4.02ver]
  • Yus, F. 2000. On reaching the intended ironic interpretation. International Journal of Communication 10(1-2), 27-78.
  • Zhao, H. 2011. A relevance-theoretic approach to verbal irony: A case study of ironic utterances in Pride and Prejudice. Journal of Pragmatics 43(1), 175-182. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.028]
  • Zhou, Y. 2022. Analysis of Hemingway’s short story “the killers” from the perspective of cooperative principle and politeness principle. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 12(3), 577-582. [https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1203.18]