The Conventional Implicature of Dialogues in Emma

Abstract

Criticisms and reviews on Emma have been numerous in number and various in approaches. This study, as a qualitative case study, attempts to analyze the conventional implicature of dialogues in Emma by employing cooperative principle in order to explore the way of analyzing literature works from perspective of pragmatics. By doing so, this paper hopes the present study may contribute to a better and fuller understanding of this world classic, help shed some light on the usefulness of the pragmatic approach to the interpretation of fictions, and enrich the conventional criticism on Jane Austen. Keywords—conventional implicature; cooperative principle; Emma