DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 8
Trương Văn Ánh
Saigon University, HCMC

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Conversation Analysis
Conversational implicature
Something must be more than just what the
words mean. It is additional meaning, called an
implicature
Ex: A: Would you like to come to my house
tomorrow morning?
B: I will give a lecture to a DA course in
room D002 tomorrow morning.
B's utterance may implicate that B will not come
to A's house tomorrow, since B will give a
lecture to a DA course in room D002 tomorrow
morning.
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Conversational implicature promises to bridge “the
gap between what is literally said and what is
conveyed.”
Example 1:
A: Would you like to go to the karaoke club?
B: My wife may drive me away from the house.
B's utterance may implicate that B would rather
not go to the karaoke club.
Example 2:
A: Will you take a bottle of water to the class?
B: Sau or Linh Hang will bring one for me.

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Presupposition
Presuppositions are what we have known
before.
Ex:+ This is his second car.
Presupposition: He has had at least 2 cars.
+ His wife is pretty.
Presupposition: He is married.
+ He stops smoking.
Presupposition: He used to smoke.
He does not smoke.
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ENTAILMENTS
Entailment is something that must take
place after the utterance.
Ex: He has eaten a big chicken.
> He must be full.
She is absent from implicature lesson.
> She can't understand implicature.

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Unlike presuppositions and entailments,
implicatures are inferences that cannot be made
in isolated utterances. They are dependent on
the context of the utterance and shared
knowledge between the speaker and the hearer.
According to Grice, conversational implicatures are
based on the co-operative principle and its four
basic maxims:
The maxim of quality:
You say what you believe to be true and you
have adequate evidence for.
The maxim of quantity;
You make your contribution as informative as
required for current purposes of the exchange
and do not make your contribution more or less
informative than is required.
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The maxim of relevance:
You make your contribution relevant.
The maxim of manner:
Your contribution must be perspicuous and
specific.
Avoid obscurity
Avoid ambiguity
Be brief
Be orderly

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In conversations, when the maxims are
observed, the meanings are literal (no
additional meanings). However, when the
maxims are violated, the implicature must
be understood. That is, we must
understand the additional meanings.

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In short, these maxims specify what participants
have to do in order to converse in an maximally
efficient, rational, co-operative way: they should
speak sincerely, sufficiently, relevantly and
clearly, while providing sufficient information.
(Levinson, 1983: 101-102). In fact, these
conversational maxims are not always observed.
Ex: A: Where's Manh?
B: His girlfriend is in the canteen.
B's utterance shows that B does not know where
Manh is, but B sees Manh's girlfriend in the
canteen, namely Manh is there too.
B violates maxim of relevance in this case.
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Ex: A: Have you cooked dinner and washed
clothes?
B: I have washed clothes.
B's utterance may implicate that B has not
cooked dinner. In this case B violates/flouts
maxim of quantity.
Ex: A: Hoa is from Nha Trang.
B: Her boyfriend says that she is from Hue.
B's utterance may implicate that A should be
suspicious of the true of Hoa's homeland. In this
case maxim of quality is violated.

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Summary of implicature
+ The maxim of quality:
A: Mary learns very well.
B: She often gets good marks.
> No conversational implicature.
A: Mary learns very well.
B: She fails the mid-test on DA.
> The maxim of quality is violated, so there is
some conversational implicature that she
does not learn well.
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+ The maxim of quantity:
A: Mary has two cars.
B: She has a Mercedes and a Lexus.
> No conversational implicature.
A: Mary has two cars.
B: She has only an Audi.
> The maxim of quantity is violated, so there
is some conversational implicature that
she has only one car.
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+ The maxim of relevance:
A: Mary is poor.
B: Her father is broke.
> No conversational implicature.
A: Mary is poor.
B: Her father is a billionaire.
> The maxim of relevance is violated, so
there is some conversational implicature
that she is extremely rich.
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+ The maxim of manner:
A: The biscuits disappear.
B: Mary has eaten them.
> No conversational implicature.
A: The biscuits disappear.
B: Someone may have eaten them.
> The maxim of manner is violated, so there
is some conversational implicature that the
biscuits may be eaten.
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
Application of discourse analysis to
teaching grammar
We should enable teaching more natural usage
of the target language, as well as learners'
native tongue. That is, grammar should be
served as a communicative tool.

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Application of discourse analysis to teaching
vocabulary
Lexis may frequently cause major problems to
students, because unlike grammar it is an openended system to which new items are continuously
added. That is why it requires close attention and,
frequently, explanation on the part of the teacher,
as well as patience on the part of the student.
The conclusion was drawn that it is most profitable
to teach new terminology paying close attention to
context and co-text that new vocabulary appears in
which is especially helpful in teaching and learning
aspects such as formality and register. Discourse
analysts describe co-text as the phrases that
surround a given word, whereas, context is
understood as the place in which the
communicative product was formed.
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Application of discourse analysis to teaching
text interpretation
Interpretation of a written text in discourse
studies might be defined as the act of grasping
the meaning that the communicative product is
to convey. It is important to emphasize that clear
understanding of writing is reliant on not only
what the author put in it, but also on what a
reader brings to this process.
Scholars dealing with text analysis redefined the
concept of schemata dividing it into two: content
and formal schemata. Content, as it refers to
shared knowledge of the subject matter, and
formal, because it denotes the knowledge of the
structure and organization of a text.
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In order to aid students to develop necessary
reading and comprehension skills attention has
to be paid to aspects concerning the whole
system of a text, as well as crucial grammar
structures and lexical items. What is more,
processing written discourse ought to occur on
global and local scale at simultaneously,
however, it has been demonstrated that readers
employ different strategies of reading depending
on what they focus on.

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Exercise:
Read the following passage from a play and
answer the following questions:
a) What are the meanings of the underlined
words? Explain in terms of referential
coherence.
b) The symbols Ө shows that the speaker
has left out a word or phrase. What
words or phrases are they?
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What's it matter? You start a family, work
and plan. Suddenly you turn around and
there's nothing there. Probably Ө never
was Ө Ө. What's a family,
anyway? Ө
Ө Just – just kids with your blood in 'em.
There's no reason why they should like
you. You go on expecting it, of course, but
it's silly, really. Like expecting 'em to know
what they mean to you when they're
babies. They're not supposed to know Ө Ө
Ө Ө Ө Ө Ө Ө Ө perhaps.
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a-The meanings:
It  life
You  a person
They the kids
(expecting) it  the kids to like him or her
There  in life
it ('s silly)  the situation
'em  the kids

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b-left out words and phrases
-Probably (there) never was
(anything there)
- (It is ) Just – just kids
- They're not supposed to know (what
they mean to you when they are babies)

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Revision
1. Linguistic elements
2. Theme and rheme
3. Adjacency pairs
4. Sentence Sequences (Rhetoric relationship)
5. Proposition
6. Speech acts
7. Implicature
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THE END

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