Conversational Implicature in Examples of Malha Abdullah’s Plays A Pragmatic Study

Abstract

This research emerges within the framework of studies concerned with Saudi theater, through a dramatic corpus by an accomplished Saudi female writer: the distinguished author and critic, Dr. Malha Abdullah, a pioneer in Saudi theater both creatively and critically. The study aims to examine conversational implicature in Malha Abdullah's plays by analyzing the principle of cooperation and its sub-maxims, along with their violations in the selected corpus. Subsequently, it seeks to evaluate the efficacy of this pragmatic mechanism in evoking intended meanings and explore how it is strategically deployed within the corpus to gauge its impact on the audience. By decoding the audience's stance toward the social issues addressed in these plays, the research aspires to cultivate an informed audience position that contributes culturally, educationally, and pedagogically to societal advancement. This is achieved by stimulating critical thinking and imagination among viewers, a process that aids in diagnosing civilizational challenges and societal problems. Ultimately, the study endeavors to propose progressive solutions and ideas for building a productive society aligned with human civilization's trajectory. This artistic pursuit echoes theater's elevated status since the Greek era, when it stood at the forefront of the arts in that venerable civilization.This study is structured into an introduction, preamble, two main sections, and a conclusion. Section I examined the Cooperative Principle and its subordinate maxims. Section II analyzed the evocation of intended meanings and their pragmatic deployment within the corpus. The research will culminate in a set of anticipated findings, including: The characters in their dialogues intentionally embed information through hidden and implicit meanings to indirectly achieve partial and overall communicative goals for the audience, These purposes which are multiple and varied in the corpus most importantly include: The purpose of communication representing the essence and starting point of verbal exchange, The purpose of informing containing information that benefits the recipient and adds to their knowledge driving them to interact with the discourse, The purpose of clarification which is a condition for communication and information to occur, The purpose of self-affirmation which captured the characters' attention in serious persistent and repeated attempts to confirm their existence and achieve their identity, These purposes are controlled by several factors most importantly, The speaker's authority and their scientific and social status, The relationship between the speaker and the addressee, and The time and place of communication. This achieves the artistic value of theater which combines literary creativity and its embodiment on stage in building the social cultural and civilizational systems of Saudi society as portrayed by these plays with all their psychological social and historical dimensions during the various stages of building this blessed entity the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.