Gricean conversational maxims in Chuah Guat Eng’s Echoes of Silence / Teoh Xiu Jong

Teoh , Xiu Jong (2022) Gricean conversational maxims in Chuah Guat Eng’s Echoes of Silence / Teoh Xiu Jong. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

Gricean Conversational Maxims, for both observance and non-observance of maxims, is used to analyse the dialogues involving the Malaysian Chinese female protagonist in Chuah Guat Eng's Echoes of Silence. The framework is considered as it offers the usage of cooperative principles theory to avoid, or minimise, misunderstanding and misinterpretation between protagonist and the supporting fictional characters during the communication process (Grice, 1975; Finch, 2000). The data is coded according to the framework. Content analysis is used to qualitatively analyse the data. Findings of the study indicated that the protagonist observed maxim of relation the most in the dialogues of the novel. Further, the combination of more than one maxim do occur and pertinent examples will be presented. It can be deduced that the communication process amongst fictional characters is deemed effective when intended meanings are realised through the appropriate use of maxims but may cause the plot to be less interesting.

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