Abstract

The Conversational Implicature was put forward by Grice in 1967, who claimed that “Between the listener and the speaker in all speech communications, there exists tacit agreement; a kind of rule should be obeyed by them in order to achieve the very goal”. Grice named this rule as the Cooperative Principle. Later, Leech in1983 gave a more detailed explanation of the Politeness Principle which was raised by Grice. Actually in daily life, people always have to use conversational implicature produced by violating the four maxims of the Cooperative Principle to get through their implicit intentions or meanings. Nowadays, many scholars have already carried out a lot of researches to apply linguistics theories, especially the Conversational Implicature, to analyzing plays and novels.
The current study is a critical analysis of Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest from the perspective of the Conversational Implicature. It will list examples of violating the maxims of the Cooperative principle and give explanations out of the Politeness Principle respectively. Gradually, readers will have a clear idea about what purposes and goals characters want to achieve by violating rules and maxims when talking, and reasons of those violations. Finally, readers will have a good knowledge of the typical characters shaped by Wilde, their interpersonal intention and social relations, meanwhile, grasp the relationship between linguistic form and its user.

Key Words: Conversational Implicature; the Cooperative Principle; violation; the Politeness Principle

摘  要

会话含义是由格莱斯于1967年提出的，他认为“在所有言语交际中说话者和听话者之间存在着一种默契，一种为了达到共同目标共同遵守的规则”。格莱斯称这种规则为合作原则.合作原则有四个准则：数量准则，质量准则，关联准则和方式准则。
后来，利奇于1983年把格莱斯提出的礼貌原则具体化，也提出了礼貌原则的准则。实际上在现实生活中，人们需要通过违反合作原则的四个准则所产生的会话含义，来表达自己含蓄的动机和意思。如今，也有很多学者已经做了很多研究，他们用语言学的理论，尤其是会话含义，来分析剧本和小说。
本论文研究的是如何从会话含义的角度来赏析奥斯卡 王尔德的剧本《认真的重要性》。论文将会列举违反合作原则的例子并基于礼貌原则，分别给予分析，从而帮助广大读者清晰地了解剧中人物是怎样通过违反合作原则及其准则来达到交际目的。通过本研究，读者可以更好地了解王尔德所塑造的人物形象，他们之间的交际目的和社会关系。

关键词：会话含义；合作原则；违反；礼貌原则