A pragmatic analysis of a woman's talk: a case study of Agikuyu women speakers.

Abstract

Woman's language is characterized by condensed force of utterance and by avoidance of strong or aggressive language; it is also associated with natural indirect speech attributes. Does this influence conversational rules in tum making our conversation unsuccessful? That is why this study is essentially a pragmatic study on woman study based specifically on the Agikuyu women speakers. It makes a pragmatic exploration on the factors that influences the women conversation. The primary aim of the study was to examine the extent to which various linguistic strategies, politeness, indirectness and non abrasive language can b eused to demonstrate speakers' accountability on the Gricean Cooperation Principle. The data was collected from women recorded interviews. The researcher was also able to interact with some women and collect some opinions on certain selected language expressions. This was done at four different localities within Ngong Division of Kajiado. The collected data was then analyzed using Grice (1975) Second Theory of Implicature. The results of the data analysis showed that politeness, indirectness and use of non abrasive language (some aspects of a woman's talk) influenced cooperation principle in the conversations. This thesis is organized in such- a way that chapter one gives a summary of the general frame work of the study. It displays the background to the study, statement of the problem, the set objectives, hypothesis and theoretical framework.

In chapter two we present literature review and methodological frameworks that have motivated the study i.e. General studies on language and gender and general study on language use. Chapter three examines two aspects ofthe woman talk namely indirectness (non abrasiveness) and politeness to assess how they influence the cooperative principle. In chapter four the study investigates three linguistic strategies of the woman's talk and relates them to the cooperative principle. Finally, a summary of findings, recommendations and suggestions for further research

are presented in chapter five.