Analysis of Conversational Implicatures in the Film The Continent from Cooperative Principle’s Perspective

Xie Jintong

【Abstract】Cooperative Principle is a set of maxims guiding the process of communication， while few speakers actually observe the maxims to fix conversational implicatures. The film The Continent presents unique descriptive style， which is of great irony and humor， and contains special conversational implicaturess. This paper tries to investigate how conversational implicatures are generated by violating Cooperative Principle and to have a good understanding of the film.

【Key words】Cooperative Principle； conversational implicatures； The Continent

【作者简介】谢金彤（1994- ），女，布依族，贵州六盘水人，贵州师范大学外国语学院，学生，英语教育硕士，研究方向：英语教育。

1. Introduction to The Continent

The Continent， directed by Chinese author Han Han is released in 2014. Its about youth， dreams and farewells. Haohan Ma， Jiang He and Hu Sheng， being asked to relocate from their homeland， start a road trip to Jiang Hes new teaching position. After a brief visit with old friend Zhou Mo， the three stop at a dilapidated hotel where Jiang He takes a shine to enigmatic Su Mi， a damsel-in-distress， scaming Jiang He for money to give birth to a child abroad. A shakedown leads to a quick getaway， but Hu Sheng is left behind when Jiang He and Haohan abscond with Su Mi in tow. She isnt with them for long， but some reflection on love between her and Jiang He are gleamed. Then the journey continues， without Hu Sheng and Su Mi， as Haohan decides to visit his pen pal Liu Yingying， a proprietor in a snooker hall who punctures Haohans dreams for love and family. A self-aggrandizing blowhard， Haohan believes that Liu Yingying has long pined for him， but hes about to get a rude awakening. And so it continues for the traveling twosome. And finally they meet A Lǚ， a free-spirited wanderer whose existence amounts to nothing but the need to find someone to relieve the pair of their car and walk the final stretch of their journey. Their journey begets feelings of transition and maturation as the two fights.

2. Cooperative Principle and Conversational Implicature

It is H.P Grice who firstly proposed the theory in 1967. He fleshes out the Cooperative Principle in four conversational maxims， which are commandments that people tacitly follow to further the conversation efficiently. These maxims can be expressed in details as follows （胡壯麟， 2012）.

Actually， the above maxims help understand interaction not only when they are abided by， but when they are not. If we violate a maxim， it is clear that the speaker intends the hearer to infer extra meaning of what is said. So the implicature is what we refer to the extra meaning.

A sentence used in actual situations may have extra meaning. Speakers often mean more than what they say. How could this be possible？ This is the kind of questions to which the theory of conversational implicature attempts to provide a tentative answer. The theory attempts to explain how a hearer gets what is meant from what is said， from the level of expressed meaning to the level of implied meaning （Grundy， 1995）. For instance， a speaker may deliberately convey an additional meaning. He responds to the question “How did you like the guest lecturer？” with the following utterance： “Well， Im sure he was speaking English.” The utterance has an additional non-literal meaning： the content of the lecturers speech was confusing.

3. Case Analysis

3.1 Violating Quantity Maxim

（1） Jiang He： What do you do？

A Lǚ： I travel. I travel around the country on a motorcycle. I dont read a lot， but Ive biked 140，000 km.

For Jiang Hes question， A Lǚ only needs to say that he travels， but he provides more information. He violates quantity maxim by conveying extra information to show he has traveled widely. Though he is not a knowledgeable person， he is proud of visiting so many places himself.

（2） Jiang He： How did you get to know Liu Yingying？

Haohan： When I was in primary school， there was a funny program called “Hands to Hands” which linked kids in remote areas with other kids. She was my pen pal.

Jiang He： What remote area was she from？

Haohan： She wasnt. I was.

In this dialogue， Haohan provides less information as explaining the “Hands to Hands”. He doesnt clearly show its he who was the target of aid. From here， we can see he is keen on face-saving. Face-saving is an explanatory concept in human interaction which concerns Haohans change of his inner feeling.

3.2 Violating Quality Maxim

（3） Haohan： I know lots of people. My friends are everywhere. There is nothing to worry about. No matter where I shit， someone will send me toilet paper.

The example， to great extent， shows “Hanhans language style” which is full of funniness and absurdity. Obviously it is impossible that the number of his friends is countless. Actually along his way， we can see those so-called friends dont disappear at all. Even at the end of movie， a dog isnt willing to go with him. From this perspective， the use of hyperbole is to manifest the humorous sense.

（4） Zhou Mo： Life is like a slow boiled frog. Life in a city is alike the studio. It doesnt mean much.

Zhou Mo has used metaphor to express her intention metaphorically. The straightforward interpretation is that shes like a frog put into warm water， which keeps adjusting to the rising temperature. So does Zhou Mo， earning her living as a background actor in film studios every day. No matter whether she knows the potential risk or not like the “boiled frog” story， we can at least infer that she remains complacent about her current situation.

3.3 Violating Relation Maxim

（5） Su Mi： What do you do？

Haohan： Chill out. Im Ma Haohan.

What Su Mi really wants to know is Haohans job. But his answer has nothing to do with this matter， so he violates relation maxim. In other words， Haohans answer is irrelevant with the current topic. At this time， the conversational implicature has been generated naturally. He firstly tells Su Mi to be calm and then says his name. From here， we can see that Haohan is not as frank as Jiang He to tell his job. The reason may be concluded the following two points. First， he has no regular occupation； second， he is warier of stranger than Jiang He.

3.4 Violating Manner Maxim

（6） Hu Sheng： Ive never seen you drive it.

Haohan： After being away from home， you notice that buildings are so small， trees are so tiny， roads are so short and streets are so narrow.

Haohans reply is prolix and violates manner maxim. He expresses his meaning in an indirect way and reduces the face damage， which produces humor and irony. In fact， the reason is that the roads are too narrow to drive his car. From this， we can infer that the homeland is not prosperous and undeveloped.

（7） Zhou Mo： Where are you going？

Haohan： To the next place. Where are you going？

Zhou Mo： To my next play.

Here， Haohans words “To the next place” and Zhou Mos “To my next play” is not only the meaning of where he is going to go or what she plans to do next ， but also can be interpreted as their respective pursue. The meaning of these words is vague and causes ambiguity. The implicature is that their dreams are different. They are two parallel lines never intersect.

4. Conclusion

This film is successful because of gripping stories， humorous and ironical dialogues. Based on the above analysis， the dramatic conflicts and characters psychological changes can be comprehended well. This paper makes great efforts to have an investigation into conversational implicatures in The Continent by violating the Cooperative Principle. It is apparent that Cooperative Principle has played a very significant role in the comprehension of “Hanhans language style”.

Some views demonstrated in this paper are surely not perfect. Some shortcomings exit and should be modified in the future research. Meanwhile， more typical dialogues should be used to analyze to support the theoretical explanation.

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