祁晗

ABSTRACT：In the paper， Alice Through the Looking Glass is used as the material to analyze different linguistic phenomena. This paper mainly discusses the cooperative principle based on the movie transcript.

KEY WORD：Cooperative principle；Four maxims；Implicature；Transcript

The requirement of the quantity maxim is that the speakers utterances should be as informative as required.

Alice： If you dont go now and reconcile， youll be sorry. I know you will.

Mad Hatter： Maybe， later.

When young mad hatter had a quarrel over the crown of the red queen， he decided to go away. Alice came to persuade mad hatter do not leave his family， because she knew that if he left his family at this moment， his family would die on the Horunvendush Day in a certain future time. However， mad hatter hasnt known Alice at that time. Mad hatter regarded Alice as some kind of strange person who interfered other peoples family affairs. He didnt want to listen to anything Alice has said， or is going to say. He has made up his mind to leave his parents， so he responded Alices long remarks of persuading him with two simple word， perfunctorily “maybe， later”[1]

In this case， the implicature conveyed by the violation of the quantity maxim is mad hatters emotional feeling. He didnt believe in Alices words， and he didnt want her to continue talking. However， Alice had been following him. He becomes very impatient and angry， and threw these two words to Alice， hoping to let her stop talking， and escaped from his home as soon as possible.

The requirement of the quality maxim is that the speaker should not say which he or she believe to be false.

Time： I present you with a gift made entirely out of love， and also a little bit of metal and wood， of course. I know how you love the tiny things.

The Red Queen： Ill treasure it forever.

When Time sent the red queen a miniature of a guillotine as her birthday present， she said she would treasure it， but at the same time， a sense of dissatisfaction appeared on her face， and she threw the miniature away in no time. In the red queens line， she said something that was not true. She said she would treasure the gift， but in fact she didnt like that gift at all. A miniature of a guillotine was far to her satisfaction， what she really wanted is the chronosphere.

In the red queens remark， the implicature is the red queens bitter characteristic. The character expressed her discontent towards her birthday gift by praising it， which maked the effect of irony， and makes the acrid image of the red queen much more impressive to the audience.

The requirement of relation maxim is that the speakers utterances should be relevant to the context.

Alice： Please！ You havent answer my questions.

Time： One minute. Why do you carry that fallen soldier in your pocket？

When Alice told Time that she wanted Time to do her a favor， Time doesnt want to help her， because Time thought that history cannot be changed， and there was no use of him to lend Alice the chronosphere. Thus after a short period of silence， Time tries to change the topic of the conversation， and asks Alice why did she carry a dead soldier in her pocket.[2]

Here， the implicature is Times indirect refusal. He didnt refuse Alices demand directly， but he did that in a roundabout way by saying something that is not related to the topic of the conversation at that moment. By violating the relation maxim， the other person， Alice， can easily understand that Time didnt want to help her， and at the same time， didnt feel hurt or too embarrassed.

The requirement of manner maxim is that the speaker should make his or her words clear， brief， and orderly.

Time： Do you promise to be concise？

Alice： well， I can most…

Time： Because if theres one thing that I do not like， it is people who are unable， unwilling， or… uncompelled to from short sentences.

When Alice asked Time for some help， he asked Alice to make her statements as concise as possible. However， when Time was describing how wordy were those people he has ever met before， Time， himself， was making a wordy sentence， with three words that almost convey the same meaning， “unable， unwilling， uncompelled”.

Here， the implicature showed what a stupid character Time is， and also bring a sense of humor to the audience. A person who asks other people to shorten their statement are actually making a very wordy remark.

Based on the cooperative principle， the paper finds some typical example of violation of the quantity， quality， relation， and manner maxim， and analyzes how they are applied in the movie， and the implicatures behind the lines are elaborated.

Reference

[1] Pecci， J.S. （2000）. Pragmatics. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

[2] Wang Xi. （2011）. A Pragmatic Study of English Puns [D]. Qufu Normal University.