An Analysis of Conversations in The Seventh Day from the Perspective of Cooperative Principle_英语论文

摘要

会话交流在日常生活中起着重要作用。不同的交流方式会带来不同的交流结果。根据格赖斯的理论，有一项原则在指导着人们的谈话，他将此原则称为“合作原则”（简称“CP”），其主要原则是数量、质量、关系和态度。他认为，在正常的语言交流中，交际者遵循着一般原则——合作原则，而合作原则本身是不可违背的。如果没有遵循这项原则，对话就会中断。到目前为止，合作原则已被运用于各种各样的领域，包括文学领域，商务领域，广告领域，翻译领域等等。本文则着重分析合作原则在文学领域方面的应用。

本文以文学作品《第七天》为研究对象。《第七天》是余华最著名的小说之一。在小说中，他用大量的对话作为载体来讽刺中国社会阴暗的一面。本文主要从小说对白和格赖斯的合作原则出发，探讨了三个问题。首先，在合作原则的基础上，小说中的两个人物如何传递信息和获取信息。第二，探讨两个人物如何委婉地表达自己的意思，并分析了他们为什么违背合作原则而间接地表达自己的思想。第三，小说中如何体现违反合作原则，并进一步研究余华到底想向读者传达什么。本文将从合作原则的角度对这部小说进行具体的分析和研究，同时也揭示《第七天》的核心思想。

关键词：《第七天》  会话含义  合作原则  格赖斯  言语幽默 

Abstract

Conversations play a significant role in daily life. Different ways of conversations may lead to different results in conversations. According to Grice’s theory, there is a general principle guiding a conversation, which he calls the Cooperative Principle (CP for short), with Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner as its main maxims. In his view, in normal verbal exchange, communicators observe the general principle --- the CP. And the CP itself cannot be violated. If not, the conversation will break down. Until now, the CP has been widely applied in all kinds of areas, including literature, business, advertisements, translations and so on. This thesis focuses on the analysis of the application of the CP in the field of literature. 

In this thesis, I take a literary work --- The Seventh Day on as the object of the research. The Seventh Day is one of the most famous novels written by Yu Hua. In the novel, he used a large number of conversations as carriers for satirizing the dark side of Chinese society. This thesis will analyze the conversations of the novel, The Seventh Day, and discuss three problems from the perspective of Cooperative Principle. First, how two characters convey information and attain information based on the Cooperative Principle. Second, how two characters convey their meaning euphemistically and analyze why they violate the Cooperative Principle to convey indirect ideas. Third, how the violation of the Cooperative Principle is shown in the novel and what Yu Hua really wants to convey to the readers. This thesis will present a specific analysis and research about the novel from the perspective of Grice’s Cooperative Principle. Meanwhile it also discloses the nature of The Seventh Day.

Key words: The Seventh Day  conversations  the cooperative principle  Grice language humor 

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  Purpose and Significance of Research 1

1.2  Method and Structure of Research 2

1.3  Brief Introduction of The Seventh Day 3

1.3.1 Background of The Seventh Day 4

1.3.2 Brief Content of The Seventh Day 5

Chapter Two  Literature Review 6

2.1  Previous Studies of CP at Home and Abroad 6

2.1.1 Previous Studies of CP at Home 6

2.1.2 Previous Studies of CP Abroad 7

2.2  Previous Studies on The Seventh Day 9

2.2.1 Previous Studies on The Seventh Day at Home 9

2.2.2 Previous Studies on The Seventh Day Abroad 10

2.3  Comment 11

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework 12

3.1  Brief Introduction to CP 12

3.1.1 Conversational Maxims 12

3.1.2 Violation of Conversational Maxims 14

3.1.3 Properties of Conversational Implicature 15

Chapter Four  Four Case Analysis of The Seventh Day from CP 17

4.1  Compliance of CP in The Seventh Day 17

4.2  Analyzing Conversational Implicature in The Seventh Day 18

4.2.1 Conversational Implicature Triggered by Violation of the Quality Maxim 19

4.2.2 Conversational Implicature Triggered by Violation of the Quantity Maxim 21

4.2.3 Conversational Implicature Triggered by Violation of the Manner Maxim 22

4.2.4 Conversational Implicature Triggered by Violation of the Relation Maxim 23

4.3  Summary 24

Chapter Five  Conclusion 26

5.1  Major Findings 26

5.2  Limitations and Suggestions for Future Study 26

Bibliography

Acknowledgments