A CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE ANALYSIS
ON OSCAR WILDE’S HAPPY PRINCE
Faizal Risdianto, S.S,M.Hum
STAIN SALATIGA
Abstract
The title of this paper is a conversational implicature analysis on Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince. In this paper, the writer discusses conversational implicature in one of Oscar Wilde’s short story entitled Happy Prince. The objectives of the study are to identify the implicature utterances uttered by the characters in Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince and to describe the implied meaning uttered by the characters in Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince.
In this study, the writer applies qualitative research method. the data are obtained in written form and conversational implicature uttered by the characters in Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince. The source of data is taken from Oscar Wilde’s short story entitled Happy Prince and the supporting data are knowledge and comprehension of the writer as the researcher and theories related with this study. In the method of collecting data, the writer uses “recording technique” as the basic technique and is continued by “noting technique” . Meanwhile, in method of analyzing data, the writer uses contextual research to analyze the data and in analyzing conversational implicature, the writer uses Gricean theory. Gricean theory is about conversational implicature generated by four maxims. those are maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relation and maxim of manner.
In this analysis, the writer finds 10 conversational implicatures in Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince. In the short story, there are some variation’s meanings of the conversational implicature used in in the short story which closely related to the conversational implicature. They are cooperative , politeness and ironical principle. In Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince, there are six maxims of politeness principle, two maxims of cooperative principles and two maxims of ironical principles. Beside that, The reasons of the conversational implicature used in Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince are to make easy we understand the dialogue in the short story conversations and it is aimed at minimizing misunderstanding among the readers and literary critics.
Key words: Conversational Implicature, Maxims, Gricean theory, Short story.
Introduction
Language plays an important and significant roles in human communication. They use it by the aim creating common understanding between the speaker and the hearer. To know what the speaker means, the hearer should interpret what the speaker’s utterance is. Dealing with this interpretation, based on experience, it is a tricky affair. Sometimes it occurs possible misunderstandings and sometimes it seems to be the rule rather than the exception (Jacob L. Mey, 1983: 100). According to Leech, interpreting an utterance is ultimately “A matter of guesswork, or (to use a more dignified term) hypothesis formation “ (1983:30-1).
Regarding on the above statement, people have to interpret the speaker’s saying. In pragmatics, it is called as conversational implicature. Grice says that conversational implicature can be defined as “A different (opposite, additional, etc) pragmatic meaning of an utterance with respect to the literal meaning expressed by utterance” (Jacob L. Mey, 1998: 371).
In a case of conversational implicature the hearer crucially makes the assumption that the speaker is not violating one of the conversational maxims, relevance, informativeness, or clarity. This, in fact, has a contradition in real daily conversation. It makes possible for the use of implicature to give more elaboration on the lingual phenomenon.According to James R. Hurford, implicature is a concept of utterance meaning as opposed to sentence meaning. Furthermore, implicature is related to the method by which speakers work out the indirect illocutions of utterance (1983: 278). This kind of case can be easily found conversation taken from literary work of arts like novel or short stories. Short story is one of the popular genre of fiction which sometimes contains implicature in the conversation among the characters. In this paper, the writer will try to elaborate more about conversational implicature in Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince but it will be described about the synopsis of this famous classic short story.
The Synopsis Of Happy Prince
One cold night a little swallow flew over the city where a beautiful statue stood. The swallow’s friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had not because he was in love with the most beautiful reed. The other swallows had told him that his love was ridiculous because the reed had no money and too many relations, and she was always flirting with the wind.
While he was flying he saw the statue. It was covered by thin leaves of fine gold; for eyes he had two sapphires and a large red ruby glowed on his sword. When the prince whom the statue was made after he died he did not know what tears were - he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed. The court used to call him the Happy Prince, and when he died the Town Councillors decided to build the statue, which was set up so high that he could see everything in the city.
The swallow decided to sleep on the statue’s feet, but just when he was putting his head under his wings, he felt a drop of water, and then another. When he looked up he realized that the Happy Prince was crying because he could see the misery and ugliness of his own city. So the Happy Prince asked the swallow to be his messenger. Through a small window the Happy Prince could see a very poor seamstress who was embroidering passion flowers on a satin gown, and he could also see her ill boy. They had no food to eat, so the Happy Prince told the swallow to take out the ruby from his sword and give it to them.
The following night the Happy Prince saw a man in a cold garret trying out to finish a play, but he was too cold to write, so the Happy Prince asked the swallow to take out a sapphire from his eyes and give it to him in order to buy wood. The following day, he saw a match-girl whose matches had fallen in the gutter, whose father would hit her if she did not bring home some money. In order to help her, the Happy Prince asked the swallow to pluck the sapphire from his other eye to give to the girl. As a result of this action he became blind and the swallow had to fly over the city in order to tell him what he had seen. He saw two children crying of hunger and a lot of poverty, so the Happy Prince decided to take out all the golden leaves so as to give them to the poor children.
At last the swallow realised that he would die because of the cold winter, and he decided to stay with the Happy Prince. The Prince asked the swallow to kiss his lips as he loved him, and once the swallow did so he fell down at the Prince's feet. At that moment a crack sounded inside the statue as the Prince's heart broke.
Early the next morning, the Mayor saw the statue but, as it was not beautiful, he decided it was no longer useful, so he decided to pull it down. The statue was melted in a furnace and reused. The broken lead heart, however, did not melt, and so it was thrown away on a dust-heap alongside the dead swallow, the Prince's final friend.
However, an angel charged by God to find "the two most precious things in the city" returned with the dead bird and the Prince's broken heart. God approved of the angel's choice, and decreed that both the swallow and the Prince would live happily in His presence forever.
Interestingly in this short story Wilde personifies the statue of Happy Prince and The swallow as his creative means of giving social criticism. Eventhough this is a fairy tale which at the first time intended just for Wilde’s two sons but its educational and humane value go far beyond the fairy world of children. The story develops children's compassion and sympathy for the poor and makes adults look back on their attitude toward the unfortunate people around them. All the good actions of the Happy Prince are so worthy and touching that he deserves our respect and admiration.
One of them is the Happy Prince's actions of helping the poor .Without the ruby from his sword hilt, the seamstress's son may die of fever. His immediate and valuable action also helps the playwright out with a sapphire to buy food and firewood and escape from hunger and coldness. Again, the Happy Prince prevents the poor little match seller from being beaten by giving her the remaining sapphire. He is not hesitant to strip himself of all fine gold leaves to help the homeless children. Although the Happy Prince is a beautiful statue, a splendid work of art, he accepts his dull and grey appearance to help the needy to have a happy and sufficient life. His actions deserve being appreciated and praised.
About Oscar Wilde
This beautiful short story was written by Oscar Wilde. He was was an 19th century Irish writer whose works include the play “The Importance Of Being Earnest” and the novel “The Picture Of Dorian Gray”. He is also one of the Victorian era's most famous writers, a wit whose good-humored disdain for convention became less favored after he was jailed for homosexuality. Wilde grew up in a prosperous family and distinguished himself at Dublin's trinity college and London's Oxford. He published his first volume of poems in 1881 and found work in England as a critic and lecturer, but it was his socializing (and self-promotion) that made him famous, even before the 1890 publication of “The Picture Of Dorian Gray”. In 1895, at the height of his popularity, his relationship with the young poet Lord Alfred Douglas was declared inappropriately intimate by Douglas's father, The Marquess Of Queensberry. Wilde sued for libel, but the tables were turned when it became clear there was enough evidence to charge wilde with "Gross Indecency" for his homosexual relationships. He was convicted and spent two years in jail, after which he went into self-imposed exile in France, bankrupt and in ill health. His other works include the comedies “Lady Windermere's Fan” (1892), “A Woman Of No Importance “(1893) and an “Ideal Husband” (1895), several collections of children's stories and the French drama “Salomé” (1896).
Gricean Theories of Conversational Implicature
According to Grice there is a general cooperative principle between speakers and hearers which controls or guides the way they speak (F.R. Palmer, 1981: 173). The cooperative principle consists of four maxims with their sub maxims. The four maxims are: the maxim of quantity which has the principles of “Make your contribution as informative as required” (for the current purposes of exchange) and “Do not make your contribution more informative than is required”, the maxim of quality which has the principles of “Try to make your contribution one that is true” and “Do not say what you believe to be false” or “Do not say that for which you lack evidence”, the maxim of relation which has the principle of “Be relevant” and the last one, the maxim of manner with its principle “be perspicuous” “Avoid obscurity of expression”, “Avoid ambiguity”, “Be brief” and “Be orderly”.
It is important to recognize these maxims as unstated assumptions we have in conversations. We assume that people are normally going to provide an appropriate amount of information and they are telling the truth, being relevant and trying to be as clear as they can. These rules according which people are expected to behave when communicating with one another are frequently flouted or violated. and that is the factor which conversational implicature results from. It occurs when people do not observe the conversational maxims, it does not matter which one or how many of them.
The Politeness Principle
The other principle of conversational implicature is politeness principles. According to George Yule in “Pragmatics”, politeness can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face (1996: 60). In this sense, politeness can be accomplished in situations of social distance or closeness. Showing awareness for another person’s face when the others seem socially distant is often described in terms of respect. Showing the equivalent awareness when the other is socially close is often described in terms of friendliness, “camaraderie” or solidarity. In simple terms, George Yule distinguished two politenesses, there are: (1) positive politeness which deals with face saving act which is concerned with the person’s positive face. This tends to show solidarity, emphasizes that both speakers want the same thing and they both have a common goal. (2) negative politeness which can be defined as a face saving act which is oriented to the person’s negative face which tends to show difference. This emphasizes the importance of the other’s time or concerns and even includes an apology for the imposition or interruption.
Beside that, according to Geoffrey Leech, politeness principles distinguish into six maxims: (1) the maxim of tact which has the principle of “Minimize the expression of beliefs which imply cost to other” and “Maximize the expression of beliefs which imply benefit to other”, (2) The maxim of generosity which has sthe principle “Minimize the expression of beliefs that express or imply benefit to self” and “Maximize the expression of beliefs that express or imply cost to self”, (3)The maxim of approbation which has the principle of “Minimize the expression of beliefs which express dispraise of other” and “Maximize the expression of beliefs which express approval of other”, (4) The maxim of modesty which has the principle of “Minimize the expression of praise of self” and “Maximize the expression of dispraise of self”, (5) The maxim of agreement which has the principle of “Minimize the expression of disagreement between self and other” and “Maximize the expression of agreement between self and other” , (6) The maxim of sympathy which has the principle of “Minimize antipathy between self and other” and “Maximize sympathy between self and other”.
The Ironical Principle
The phenomenon of irony has been employed in ordinary conversation as well as in literature since ancient times and it is still a popular means of expression, especially in English culture. English liking for the use of irony in conversation in apparent from interaction among friends, television programs, radio broadcasting and a number of other ordinary speech situations and there can be no wonder that the use of this linguistic device is frequently present in fictional discourse if an author tries to make his/her work of art sound more authentic.
Irony indicates that what is meant is the contradictory of what is said. the use of irony is intentional. in other word, we employ this linguistic device in utterance if we want the addressee to encode the extra meaning hidden in the ironical remark. irony is contradicting either what the speaker has said or usually says, or, contradicting what the take to be true. to read the irony a hearer or reader do not just have to know the context, but also have to be committed to specific beliefs and positions within that context (Colebrook, 2004: 166, Martina Stykatova, 2009: 53).
Irony principle is a second order principle, which builds upon, or exploits, the principle of politeness. it allows the hearer to arrive at the offensive point of the speaker’s remark indirectly, by way of implicature (Leech, 1983: 82, Martina Stykatova, 2009: 5). Irony, as a number of other means of expression, is also frequently employed in fictional works like novels and shor stories. It provides interestingness in dialogue, it makes explicit and implicit dialogues more sophisticated and it is more laborious for readers.
The use of irony in conversation is intentional. the author of the literary works employs irony with some particular goal; They wish to achieve a particular purpose. Irony can have a function humor and ridicule. It can serve only for entertaining the the readers. The speaker or writer may want to be sarcastic, he or she may want to indicate that something is disapproved but does not want to be too direct when criticizing (Martina Stykatova, 2009: 55).
In contrast to all the conversational implicature discussed so far, conventional implicature are not based on the cooperative principle or the maxims. they do not have to occur in conversation, and they do not depend on special contexts for their interpretation. same with lexical presuppositions, conventional implicatures are associated with specific words and result in additional conveyed meanings when those words are used (George Yule, 1996: 45).
Conventional implicature is always conveyed, regardless of context. according Levinson, conventional implicature are non-truth-conditional inferences that are not derived from super ordinate pragmatic principles like the maxims, but are simply attached by convention to particular lexical item (1983: 127).
The Conventional Implicature Analysis
(1)"Who are you?" he said.
"I am the Happy Prince."
"Why are you weeping then?" asked the swallow; "You have quite drenched me."
This conversation is in accordance to the cooperative principle by the maxim of quantity. When the statue of Happy Prince was asked by the swallow He give an answer which is exactly provides the quantity of expected answer. He did not give an information more that needed by the swallow.
(2) "I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little swallow," said the prince, "You have stayed too long here; but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you."
"It is not to Egypt that I am going," said the swallow. "I am going to the house of death. Death is the brother of sleep, is he not?".and he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet.
This conversation is in accordance to the cooperative principle by the maxim of quantity. When the statue of Happy Prince was asked by the swallow He give an answer which is exactly provides the quantity of expected answer. He did not give an information more that needed by the swallow.
(3) "Far away," continued the statue in a low musical voice, "Far away in a little street there is a poor house. One of the windows is open, and through it I can see a woman seated at a table. Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress. She is embroidering passion-flowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the queen's maids-of-honour to wear at the next court-ball. In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying ill. He has a fever, and is asking for oranges. His mother has nothing to give him but river water, so he is crying. swallow, swallow, little swallow, will you not bring her the ruby out of my sword-hilt? My feet are fastened to this pedestal and I cannot move."
This conversation is in accordance to the politeness principle by the maxim of sympathy. Intelligently the author used Happy prince,the statue as a means of showing sympathy to the poor seamstress woman whose little boy is lying ill. This is a nice instance of politeness principle.
(4) "Swallow, Swallow, little swallow," said the prince, "Far away across the city I see a young man in a garret. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes. He is trying to finish a play for the director of the theatre, but he is too cold to write any more. there is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint."
"I will wait with you one night longer," said the swallow, who really had a good heart. "Shall I take him another ruby?"
"Alas! I have no ruby now," said the prince; "My eyes are all that i have left. they are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago. Pluck out one of them and take it to him. He will sell it to the jeweller, and buy food and firewood, and finish his play."
This conversation is in accordance to the politeness principle by the maxim of sympathy. Brilliantly Wilde used Happy prince,the statue as a means of showing sympathy to the hungry young man who felt cold that he was unable to finish a play for the director of the theatre. Then Happy Prince asked the swallow to pluck expensive sapphire from the statue’s eyes and gave it to the hungry man. It is given so that the man can buy food and firewood and finish his play.
(5)"In the square below," said the Happy Prince, "There stands a little match-girl. She has let her matches fall in the gutter, and they are all spoiled. Her father will beat her if she does not bring home some money, and she is crying. She has no shoes or stockings, and her little head is bare. pluck out my other eye, and give it to her, and her father will not beat her."
This conversation is in accordance to the politeness principle by the maxim of sympathy.Smartly the writer used Happy prince,the statue as a means of showing sympathy to the little match-girl who will be beaten by her father if she did not bring some money. Happy Prince then asked the swallow to pluck his other eye and give the rare Indian sapphire to her. This was done in order her father will not beat her.
(6) "Dear prince," said the swallow, "I cannot do that"; and he began to weep.
"Swallow, Swallow, little swallow," said the prince, "Do as I command you."
This conversation is in accordance to the politeness principle by the maxim of sympathy. Intelligently the author telling the reader about the feeling of swallow which did not have a heart to pluck the rare sapphire from the face of Happy Prince stature. This was done It is given in order to make a hungry man could buy food and firewood and finish his play.
(7) "I will stay with you one night longer," said the swallow, "But I cannot pluck out your eye. You would be quite blind then."
"Swallow, Swallow, little swallow," said the prince, "Do as I command you."
This conversation is in line politeness principle by the maxim of sympathy. Intelligently the author telling the reader about the feeling of swallow which did not have a heart to pluck the other rare sapphire from the face of Happy Prince stature. The swallow afraid this will made him blind. This was done to the little match-girl who will be beaten by her father if she did not bring some money. Happy Prince asked the swallow to pluck the last sapphire in his eye and give the precicious jewelery to her. This was done in order her father will not beat her.
(8) "It is a ridiculous attachment," twittered the other swallows; "She has no money, and far too many relations"; and indeed the river was quite full of reeds. then, when the autumn came they all flew away.
This conversation is a flout and violation of the politeness principle particularly the maxim of approbation. The author told us about the conversation among the other swallows which critisize the effort of the swallow which try to flirt the female Reed. Their remarks that the Reed has no money and far too many relation is a violation of maxim of approbation.
Ideally as the speaker the swallows made a conversation which “Maximize the expression of beliefs which express approval of other” but in fact it can be clearly seen that they made a remarks which “Minimize the expression of beliefs which express dispraise of other”.
(9) He was very much admired indeed. "He is as beautiful as a weathercock," Remarked one of the town councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; "only not quite so useful," He added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.
This remark is the instance of ironical expression. In this case the words of the town councillors that the statue of Happy Prince is as beautiful as weathercock is in contradiction with his character.The readers have known that he said that just to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes whereas, in fact, he did not have any artistic tastes.This is the smart way of the autor to mildly critisize the dumb government official at that moment. It is actually offensive but the writer remark it inderectly throught the characters in the short story by way of implicature.
(10) Early the next morning the mayor was walking in the square below in company with the town councillors. as they passed the column he looked up at the statue: "Dear me! How shabby the happy prince looks!" He said.
"How shabby indeed!" cried the town councillors, who always agreed with the mayor; and they went up to look at it.
"The ruby has fallen out of his sword, his eyes are gone, and he is golden no longer," said the mayor in fact, "He is little better than a beggar!"
"Little better than a beggar," Said the town councillors.
This remark is another example of ironical expression. In this case it can be seen the funny expression of the stupid town councillors which always imitate what the major said.Actually, the town councillors has his own wish and desire but because of his vested interest towards the major he always justifies what the major said to him..This is the intelligent craftmanship of Wildle in mildly critisizing the fool government official at that moment. It is actually offensive but the writer remark it inderectly throught the characters in the short story by way of implicature.
Conclusion
Based on the data presentation and data analysis of the conversational implicature used in Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince, the writer draws some conclusion as follows:
1. In the short story, there are some variation’s meanings of the conversational implicature used in in Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince, as follows: conversation implicature connected with cooperative principles, politeness principle and ironical principle. In Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince, there are six forms of politeness principle, two forms of cooperative principles and two ironical principles.
2. The reasons of the conversational implicature used in Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince are to make easy we understand the dialogue or conversation in the short story. Beside that this is aimed at minimizing misunderstanding among the readers and literary critics.
BIBILIOGRAPHY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gricean_maxims,html, Sunday, july 31, 2011.
Sunday, July 31, 2011.
Grice, Paul. 1975. Logic and Conversation.London. Oxford University Press.
Hurford, James R. 1983. Semantics of Coursebook. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1983. Principle of Pragmatics. United Stated of America: Longman Group.
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. New York. Cambridge University Press.
Mey, Jacob L. 1983. An Introduction of Pragmatics. United States of America: Blackwell.
Mey, Jacob L. 1998. Concise Encylopedia of Pragmatics. New York: Elseiver.
Palmer, F.R .1981. Semantics. New York. Cambridge University Press.
Potter, James L. 1967. Elements of Literature. The United States. The Odysery Press,Inc.
Yule, George. 1996. Pragmatics. New York. Oxford University Press.
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