Principles of Conversational Implicature in Generating Humor

(An Applied Study on the Book of (Jam’a Al-Jawahir fi Al-Mulah Wannawadir) by Al-Qayrawani, (413AH))

Abstract

This research examines the analysis of humorous dialogues in the book of (Jam’a Al-Jawahir fi Al-Mulah Wannawadir) by Al-Qayrawani, studying them from a pragmatic perspective, specifically concerning conversational implicature, which is one of the most important aspects of pragmatic linguistics. This is because conversational implicature is based on the principle of communication, which focuses on the interlocutors and the connections between the participants in their dialogues. Paul Grice describes the phenomenon of conversational implicature through a general principle called the "Cooperative Principle," which consists of a set of conversational rules that the interlocutors adhere to in order to achieve a meaningful and fruitful conversation. When one of these rules is violated, it results in implicature. Interlocutors may violate a rule while still maintaining the general principle and this violation is often the cause of generating many forms of humor. The study aims to analyze humorous dialogues based on Grice's Cooperative Principle and its complementary principles (such as the Politeness Principle) by exploring these principles in examples of anecdotes and humor found in the book of (Jam’a Al-Jawahir fi Al-Mulah Wannawadir) through the interlocutors’ violation of these principles and highlighting their role in the process of generating humor, and identifying the conversational implicature principles that lead to humor when violated, and classifying them according to their established rules, and analyzing them by adopting the descriptive analytical method. The study concluded with several findings indicating that humor arises from the violation of more than one of the conversational implicature rules and the more complex the violation, involving multiple principles (such as Cooperation and Politeness), the deeper the humor.