A Pragmatic Analysis Of Dialogues In Casablanca

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A Pragmatic Analysis of the Dialogues in Casablanca Abstract: It is observed that while making conversations in the target language, language learners of English often pay little attention to the specific context, give improper expressions different from or even odd to native speakers, and then fail in communicating with others. Recognizing conversational implicatures precisely and responding with felicity can be regarded as the illustration of language learners’ pragmatic competence. In terms of Grice’s conversational implicature theory, this paper qualitatively analyzes the script of Casablanca, stating how conversational implicature is made by flouting a maxim and giving prominence to context in the recognition of such implicatures so as to improve English learners’ pragmatic awareness and competence. Key words: Context; conversational implicature; cooperative principle; maxims; Casablanca Chapter 1 Introduction Pragmatics enters a new phase with the profound work of American philosopher and linguist H. Paul Grice. His conversational implicature theory is widely applied to study the case where implicatures are made in conversational participants’ contribution. It is observed that language learners of English often pay less attention to the specific context when making conversations in the target language. The worst result it might cause is that learners give improper expressions of their ideas but these expressions just make different or even odd sense to the listeners, especially to the native speakers. Then there comes a misunderstanding or sometimes embarrassment. Based on George Yule (2000) and professor HE Zhaoxiong’s (1999) study and interpretation of Grice’s conversational implicature theory, I will try to analyze the context in the recognition of conversational implicature and, with the qualitative analysis, conceive to analyze the dialogues in
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