A Gricean Analysis of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia": Extending Pragmatics to Literature
Date
2000
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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Thesis (B.A.)
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Abstract
The quotation above proposes a line of inquiry which, although it may be a challenge, may
also offer tremendous rewards for the field of pragmatics and discourse analysis *. In this paper, I
will take Pratt up on her challenge to examine literature with a linguist's eye, hoping by doing so to
make headway toward the "important insights" which she writes of.
More specifically, J will examine data from Tom Stoppard's 1993 play Arcadia, and will
analyze it with respect to Grice's theory of conversational implicature as written in his 1967 paper
"Logic and Conversation". I will show that an application of Grice's theory yields an analysis of
this data which is correct but incomplete; I will then propose an expanded analysis.
Structurally, this paper will proceed as follows. First, I will provide the reader with
background information about Grice, about Arcadia, and about some general points. Second, I wiIl
present my data: several sample passages from Arcadia and the implicatures they create, which a
theory should account for. As will be seen, some quotations lend themselves to a simple,
straightforward analysis; others, however, are more complicated. I will then propose an analysis,
based in Grice's, which accounts for this data. Finally, I will speculate on the relevance of this
inquiry to other related endeavors.
inquiry to other related endeavors.