A Pragmatic Study of Selected Utterances in Asare Konadu’s a Woman in Her Prime

ABSTRACT

This research is a pragmatic study of selected utterances in Asare Konadu’s A Woman in Her Prime. In focus, the study discusses the application of the conversational maxims in the text to interpret the implicatures arising from the breaches in the selected utterances. Findings show among other things that: The language of the text conveys, specifically, the traditional customs of the Ghanaian people and the African worldview in general; the meaning in the text is not tied to only the language use of the characters but extra linguistic features. The language use of the characters flouts the conversational maxims. In addition, the noticeable maxims flouted are those of quality, quantity, relations and manner; although there are just few cases of flouting the manner maxim. Apart from flouting, the characters also breached, opted out and violated the maxims. These flouting of the maxims leading to implicatures also affected the meaning of the characters conversations. Lastly, the flouting and implicature give spontaneity to the language use of the characters which make their conversations seem real and true to life