摘 要
根据 GRICE 的合作原则，人们在会话中通常会遵循一定的准则，但人们有时会违反这些准则来表达隐藏在会话字面意义下的隐含意义，本文通过分析简爱会话中合作原则的违反来探析违反合作原则所产生的会话含义及在人物塑造和推动情节发展上的作用。
关键字：简爱；合作原则；会话含义；违反
Abstract
According to Grice's cooperative principle, people usually follow certain rules in their conversation, but sometimes people will go against these rules in order to express the implied meaning hidden under the literal meaning of their conversation.This dissertation analyzes conversational implication produced by the violation of Cooperative Principle and the role of violation of Cooperative Principle in creating characters and promoting the plot through the analysis of violation of CP in the conversation of Jane Eyre.
Key words: Jane Eyre; Cooperative principle; Conversational implication; violation
TABLE OF CONTENTS
摘要
Abstract
Chapter One Introduction
Background
Aims and significance of the study
Methodology
The content of the thesis
Organization of the Dissertation.
Chapter Two Literature review
2.1 Cooperative Principle
2.2 Conversational Implication
2.3 Previous studies
2.4 Summary
Chapter Three Violation of CP in the Conversation of Jane Eyre and Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
3.1 Violation of the Quantity Maxim and conversation implication created by Violation of CP
3.2 Violation of the Quality Maxim and Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
3.3 Violation of the Relevant Maxim and Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
3.4 Violation of the Manner Maxim and Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
3.5 Summary
Chapter Four Effects of violation CP
4.1 Effects of violation CP on creating characters
4.2 Effects of violation CP on promoting the plot
Chapter Five Conclusion
5.1 Summary
5.2 Limitations of the present study
REFERENCES
Acknowledgements
Chapter One Introduction
Jane Eyre is the representative work of charlotte Bronte who is a well-known writer of Britain in the 19th century. It is widely believed that Jane Eyre is a work
with autobiographic color of Charlotte Bronte. It tells a story about a Britain woman who becomes an orphan from childhood. She eventually gets happiness after
constantly pursuit of freedom and dignity through all kinds of hardships, besides, she holds fast of her faith. There is no lack of violation of the cooperative principle which exposes implied conversational meaning hidden under the literal meaning, embodies the bright and colorful characters and also promotes the development of the plot.
Background
"Cooperative Principle "was put forward by the famous American linguistic philosopher Grice in a speech at Harvard University in 1967.Grice believes that in the process of human communication, the two sides in the dialogue seem inadvertent to follow a certain principle in order to effectively cooperate to complete the communicative tasks. People in the actual verbal communication, however, are not always abiding by the "cooperative principle". Moreover, out of necessity, people will deliberately violate the cooperative principle. Grice called the implication created through the deliberate violation of the "cooperative principle" on the surface "special conversational implication". The special conversational implication explains how the hearer understands the speaker's conversational implication through the surface meaning of the speaker's words so as to express a different meaning.
Aims and significance of the study
There will be some phenomenon of violation of the cooperative principle in people's conversation to express conversational implication in some specific contexts in people's life. These conversations can reflect the speakers' characters and also can affect the speakers' relationship development. Learning and mastering the theory of conversational implication in order to analyze discourse is helpful to improve language learners' ability of comprehension, and then improve their communicating ability. In order to concretely analyze the violation of the cooperative principle in the conversation, this dissertation will clearly analyzes violation of the Cooperative Principle in the conversation based on the representative classic work Jane Eyre to explore the violation of the Cooperative Principle and its effects on creating characters and promoting the development of plot, which makes the readers have a clearer and more profound understanding of the language phenomenon of violation of the cooperative principle in the conversation and makes the readers have more enlightenment in the application of this language phenomenon in real life so as to improve people's comprehension ability and communication skills Last but not least, I hope I can master the methods of studying the series of subjects after finishing the dissertation.
Methodology
Search literature on the internet, such as searching literature on "How Net" and some other literature retrieval platforms. Search papers with reference value through searching key phrases "conversation in Jane Eyre” or "cooperative principle". If there are unfound or not specific information, I will go to the library to find relevant books.
I will read and study these papers and books to inspire my own thought, and finish the outline after making clear my thought, then I will full the content of outline step by step to finish paper and I will record the information of references in this process so that I can organize the references later.
The content of the thesis
Cooperative Principle exactly requires that each speaker's words said in the conversation shall conform with the target and direction of the conversation in the process of the talking, and the theory of conversational implication is a theory closely connected with the cooperative principle .Grice believes that people in conversation often deliberately violate cooperative principle on the basis of abiding by the Cooperative Principle with the purpose of expressing the true meaning of a potential meaning, namely the conversational implication. Conversational implication is not literal meaning expressed word by word in the normal sense, but the real meaning or real intention which the speakers want to convey .The study of violation of the Cooperative Principle with the example of conversations in Jane Eyre is helpful to analyze the conversational implication produced by violating Conversational Principles and the real intention of the speakers so as to achieve the goal of studying the effects of violating conversational principles on creating characters and promoting the development of plot. Classic work Jane Eyre is an influential masterpiece. In English, the classic work tells the story of Jane Eyre who became an orphan from childhood and was sent to her aunt's home but was not well treated, then she was sent to an orphanage, having a tough passage in the orphanage. When she grew up, she went to the Mulberry Seinfeld’s manor and met her final lover Mr. Rochester .After various difficulties, they harvest their love. The novel vividly shaped the role of Jane Eyre, a female image. She was unwilling to bear the social pressure and she had the courage to pursue personal happiness. Her poor low social status or her frustration in her life are both true reflection of the British underclass’s life. In the novel, the author vividly describes a new female image awakening from the social underclass and praises the characters’ resistance to oppression and social prejudice, admires her force for independent personality and dignity and appreciates her tenacious struggle in pursuit of happy life. The plot twists and turns in the novel, which is fascinating.Conversation between roles plays an important role in the novel for all above.violation of the cooperative principle has indispensable role to uncover the characters’ inner world and the real intention, and shape characters and promote plot.
Organization of the Dissertation
This dissertation has five chapters in all. The first chapter is the introduction. The main content of this chapter mainly includes: Background, Aims and significance of the study research, purpose and significance, Methodology, the content of the thesis， Organization of the structure of the Dissertation .The second chapter is literature review which includes theoretical basis and the previous study. The third chapter's main content is the violation of the Cooperative Principle in the conversation of Jane Eyre which respectively introduces the violation of four principles of the cooperative principle and the conversational implication produced by the violation of the cooperative principle. The fourth chapter is mainly about the influence of the violation of cooperative principle on shaping characters of roles in Jane Eyre and the influence on promoting the development of plot. The fifth chapter is conclusion of the dissertation, mainly introducing the shortcomings of the present study and putting forward a few suggestions.
Chapter Two Literature review
2.1 Cooperative Principle
Participants of the conversation have to conform to the goal and the direction of the conversation in the process of talking to make sure the conversation successfully continue and eventually successfully finished, which is called cooperative principle in pragmatics put forward by American linguistic philosopher Grice. Grice's cooperative principle includes four criteria: quantity maxim, quality maxim, relevant maxim and manner maxim.
2.1.1 Quantity Maxim
The maxim of quantity: the words said by the speakers should be consistent with information needed for the purpose of the conversation, not lacking the required information, and meanwhile don't include unnecessary information.
2.1.2 Quality Maxim
The maxim of quality: participators of the conversation don't say words not tallying with the facts; don’t say words lacking of sufficient evidence.
2.1.3 Relevant Maxim
The maxim of relation: participators of the conversation should speak considering context that is to say, their conversation should be contextual; speakers of the conversation should not discuss the content having nothing to do with the conversation before and should not only talk about the topic which is not necessary and not important.
2.1.4 Manner Maxim
The maxim of manner: speakers' way of expression should not be obscure and it should not have ambiguity; it should be concise and be organized. These guidelines are explained in detail for dialogue participants. In order to make the ommunication the most effective, reasonable and cooperatively continue, they must do things like these: dialogue participants should speak sincerely, relevant and clear, at the same time, they should provide efficient information. These guidelines, to some extent, ensure people’s daily verbal communication can go on smoothly.
2.2 Conversational Implication
Conversational implication theory is a theory closely connected with the cooperative principle .Grice believes that people in conversation often deliberately violate the principles on the basis of observing the cooperative principle with the purpose of expressing the potential real meaning, namely the conversational implication. Conversational implication is not literal meaning expressed word by word in normal sense, but the real meaning or real intention which the speaker want to convey. “Conversational implication theory "is a theory essentially about how people use the language, having the significance in pragmatic level, besides, the theory formed the basis of pragmatics. When words of speakers in the communication violate cooperative principle, the hearer will judge the purpose and implied meaning according to the context. Cooperative principle does not necessarily lead to smooth communication, on the contrary, the action of deliberate violation of the cooperative principle tends to produce special conversational meaning and pragmatic meaning, which will help smoothly and effectively transfer conversation and information."
2.3 Previous studies
Cooperative principle has always been the hot spot in the study of pragmatics, and the violation of the cooperative principle in the conversation is an important subject studied by many scholars. Most of them pay much attention on the study of conversational implication produced by the violation of cooperative principle and conversational effects created by the violation of cooperative principle. Some scholars study the reason and purpose to violate the cooperative principle in conversation.
Wang Xiaoxiao and Li Xing (2009) make the conclusion that the violation of the cooperative principle in conversation is often the need of communication strategy in some communicative situations. The violations of the cooperative principle can embodies the richness of discourse and achieve the result not expected in conversation by analyzing violation of the cooperative principle in the communicative conversation in Violation of the Cooperative Principle and Conversational Implication. Many literary works also violated the cooperative principle, for example, Qin Menyang (2015) considers that conversation violating Cooperative Principle can make female voice better listened by general public, ,make readers to see a world of equality between men and women, create rich pragmatic meanings, make the roles’ different language and behavior characteristics clear and let the roles’ sharp, witty, humorous or ironic language styles reveal in The Violation of the Cooperative Principle in Novels Written by Female Writer. In conversation, the violation of the cooperative principle has become scholars’ one of the important study topics and their research results established the basis for the present studies which will be continually improved.
2.4 Summary
This chapter introduces that there are some rules obeyed by speakers in a conversation to ensure the successful continuing of the conversation. The rules can be concluded as Cooperative Principle. People often convey their conversational implication by observing or going against Cooperative Principle. Conversational implication is the real meaning or the real intention of speakers expressed in a conversation which hidden under the literal meaning of a conversation. Nowadays, as a hot subject in pragmatics, there have been a lot of studies on exploring the violation of the Cooperative Principle in conversation which provide references for the present study.
Chapter Three Violation of CP in the Conversation of Jane Eyre and Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
3.1 Violation of the Quantity Maxim and conversation implication created by Violation of CP
3.1.1 Violation of the Quantity Maxim
If the speaker provide more information or less information than what the conversation needs， the conversation will produce the implicit meaning, namely the conversational implication, so violation of the maxim of quantity has two cases: less information than needed and more information than needed. For example, Jane asked Mr. Rochester if he was going to be married. Mr. Rochester answered her：“Exactly, precisely: with her usual acuteness, she had hit the nail straight on the head.”.
3.1.2 Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
It can be seen from this conversation that when Jane asked Mr. Rochester whether or not get married. Mr. Rochester answered with more information than needed, which violated the maxim of quantity. Mr. Rochester doesn’t let the hearer Jane detect that he violates the cooperative principle so that he let Jane misunderstand that he will marry with another woman, however, it can be seen from the next plot that when Jane cried her heart out, he spoke it was Jane that he wanted to get married with.
3.2 Violation of the Quality Maxim and Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
3.2.1 Violation of the Quality Maxim
If the speaker's discourse does not tally with the facts, is false or lack evidence, the discourse will produce conversational implication. The speaker will use metaphor, irony, exaggeration, or words not real or meaningless, contradictory to violate the maxim of quality. For example, Mr. Rochester asked Jane where she gets her copies.Jane answered,“Out of her head.”. Mr. Rochester asked if it was that the head he saw on it’s her shoulders. Jane answered,“Yes，Sir.”
3.2.2 Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
Rochester was so startled when he saw Jane's paintings that he suspected she copied strange people's works, so he asked her where she got her copies. He was asking a place or person, but Jane answered, “Out of her head.”She gave an answer, following the guidelines, but violating the maxim of quality, and then asked whether it was the head on her shoulder. There is no actual conversation content, so it violates the maxim of quality.
3.3 Violation of the Relevant Maxim and Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
3.3.1 Violation of the Relevant Maxim
Relevant maxim requires participators’ dialogues should be related. If the conversation violates relevant maxim, the parts of the conversation context will not be related and speakers will go over the content discussed before, only talking about irrelevant topics. The first example is that Mr. Rochester asked Jane if she would go .Jane answered she was cold. Mr. Rochester continued, “cold? Yes, standing in a pool!, then, Jane went!” Jane answered that she thought she heard Mrs. Fairfax move.The second example is in the final chapter of Jane Eyre, fire took Mr. Rochester's all property away and ruined his appearance, but Jane resolutely came back to his side.
At that time, Jane inherited a large fortune from her relatives and met an outstanding cousin St. John. Rochester had no confidence that Jane still loved him or that Jane did not fall in love with another person, so he applied many irrelevant questions as the beginning of the dialogue but the real question he wanted to ask was if Jane loved John. He asked Jane if a good man meant a respectable, well-conducted man of fifty or what else it meant. Jane shrugged her shoulders when she heard John’s talk who meant well. Rochester asked Jane if John was an able man, a thoroughly educated man, if John’s manners were not to her taste and asked about John’ appearance, because he forgot the description from Jane.
3.3.2 Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
In the first example, it is the conversation made after Jane saved Mr. Rochester from the fire and at that time she wants to leave for the third time. Mr. Rochester, felt anxious for her leaving. He asked Jane if she was leaving. Jane did not want to be against the wish of the master, so she went contrary to the relevant maxim and told Mr. Rochester she felt very cold. She felt the sound of walking of Mrs. Fairfax, hinting in indirect way that she must immediately leave Mr. Rochester .In the second example, it seems that Rochester asked a lot of irrelevant questions, such as talking about John's virtue, mind, education, etiquette and appearance etc. These irrelevant questions show Mr. Rochester's inferiority, reveals his heart’s flutter and his fear of losing Jane Readers can see Mr. Rochester's love to Jane and ambivalence from the fear. On the one hand, he comforted himself that John was inferior to him; On the other hand ,he thought himself didn’t deserve Jane then, which makes reader impressed that Jane's personality charm was respected by the patriarchal groups and she obtained fairness in love and in her life.
3.4 Violation of the Manner Maxim and Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
3.4.1 Violation of the Manner Maxim
If the speaker intentionally uses obscure, ambiguous, not clear or repetitive way to talk, he violates the manner maxim .For example; Mr. Rochester asked Jane if she had expected a gift and if she was fond of presents. Jane answered him she hardly knew; she had little experience of them; they were generally considered as pleasant thing because she had little experience of them. When Mr. Rochester continued to ask her what she thought of presents. Jane said that she should have duty to take time before she could give him a response which is worthy of his acceptance: a present had a lot of faces to it, and one should consider all before he or she pronounced his or her perspective as to its nature
3.4.2 Conversation Implication Created by Violation of CP
In the face of Adele's request of present, Mr. Rochester asked if Jane liked gifts. This question is a little bit sudden and embarrassing for Jane. It is very difficult for her to answer yes or no. If the answer is yes, it looks like she is asking gift from Mr.Rochester, If the answer is no, she will hurt Adele's face and Mr. Rochester's face, so she chose an ambiguous way. She used people's general attitude as an answer to his question. In front of the second inquiry pointed out by Mr. Rochester, Jane still didn’t express her real view, but responded with the versatility of presents.
3.5 Summary
This chapter respectively analyses the violation of quantity maxim, quality maxim, relevant maxim and manner maxim of conversation in Jane Eyre with specific examples and explores the effects of violation of cooperative principle on creating roles’ characters with the example of the main role Jane and the effects on promoting the development of the plot with the examples of the conversation between Jane and Mr. Rochester, from which can we give a conclusion that violation of cooperative principle can help to create a vivid and colorful characters of the roles , help us understand the inner world of the speakers and make the plot full suspense ,more eye-attracting and more complicated, promoting the development of the plot.
Chapter Four Effects of violation CP
4.1 Effects of violation CP on creating characters
Violating cooperative principle so as to produce conversational implication not only can indirectly express conversational implication hidden under the literal meaning, but also can better outstand roles' characters and better interpret the inner world of roles. In Jane Eyre, violation of cooperative principle makes the conversations between the characters create special significance not only fully displaying characters’ real intention in the their mind in certain circumstances shaping more vivid characters .Taking the protagonist Jane in Jane Eyre as an example, violation of the cooperative principles in conversation is helpful to indirectly express the implied meaning of Jane’s words, On the one hand, it reflects her modest and prudent attitude as a governess and in her mind she wants to keep polite, safe distance with her master. For example, when Mr. Rochester asked her if she desired for a present, she did not give her real view to Mr. Rochester but used the general view on presents of the public as the answer for him. In this example, Jane made herself polite and cleverly kept distance with her master Mr. Rochester; on the other hand, she does not blindly servile to elderly people, and her master in the dialogue, which reflects her character traits of desiring for knowledge, respect and freedom, hatred of aristocratic privileges and commanding and desiring for equality with men .For example, after seeing Jane’s works, Mr. Rochester thought her works was a copy so he asked her where she got her copy. Actually, Mr. Rochester was asking a person or a place but Jane was not servile to Mr. Rochester to give an answer to satisfy him, instead, she gave a false answer, which show her desire for equality with the male.
4.2 Effects of violation CP on promoting the plot
Violation of the cooperative principle of conversation between roles also has impetus to plot, for example, the violation of the maxim of quality seems a word game between the characters. They give the other speaker information not conforming to the facts, lacking evidence, even being false, which make the plot more complicated and full of suspense. Hence violating cooperative principle leads to promote the development of relationship and the development of the plot. Another example is the violation of the maxim of quantity which makes the speaker provides more or less information than the needed .This kind of violation sets the stage for the development of the next plot, making the plot widely open, promoting the development of the plot.
Chapter Five Conclusion
5.1 Summary
Based on classic work Jane Eyre, this dissertation analyses the violation of the cooperative principle of conversation in Jane Eyre. Through the violation of the cooperative principle, characters' conversations convey special conversational implication, fully reflect the characters' real intention in a certain circumstance and create vivid characters of personages and promote the development of the plot. Study on violation of cooperative principle make people not only listen to the literal meaning of the conversation in some certain circumstance, but analyze the implied meaning of the conversation so as to explore other people’s true feelings, in the particular context of a conversation, which makes conversation successfully finished and improve people’s communicating skills.
5.2 Limitations of the present study
Although many scholars have studied the subject of violation of cooperative principle, which has important significance for the future studies and has laid a foundation for the future studies, there still exists the shortcoming in the form of the present studies because at the present stage, studies have been confined to literature and film materials, lacking study on violation of the cooperative principles in real conversation.
Suggestions
I hope the future studies have more analysis on violation of the cooperative principles of conversation in real life, which can widen study field, close to reality and provide more enlightenment for real life.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank a lot of people for helping me complete this essay.
First of all, I show my particular thanks to my instructor Ms. Wu who patiently gave me many suggestions and responsibly supervising me completing the thesis. Because of her help, I understand it is important to embrace a rigorous attitude when we do academic research.
I also would like to offer my enduring gratitude for my friends' kind help and friendly suggestions. Besides, I want to thank Professor Ma who conscientiously taught us relevant knowledge about writing thesis in class.
In addition，I would like to thank my parents who have supported me both morally and financially throughout my years of college. They gave me warmness and care which motivated me to finish this thesis.
