ABSTRACT：Grice proposed Cooperative Principle (CP) in 1967. According to him, people have to obey cooperative principle when talking. Communication requires cooperation. But people may violate one or several maxims of Cooperative Principle to convey their implications beyond literal meaning. Grice called the implications Conversational Implicature. Grice’s Cooperative Principle and Conversational Implicature made a great progress in the development of pragmatics. Many scholars applied the theories into various research fields. The paper tries to make a deep research on Modern Family (season 7) which is popular today and make an analysis on the conversations selected from the sitcom from the perspective of Cooperative Principle in order to explore how the Conversational Implicature generated.

The four maxims of Cooperative Principle can be listed as follows: the quantity maxim, the quality maxim, the relation maxim and the manner maxim. According to the four maxims, the author classifies twelve conversations selected from Modern Family (season 7) which violate the Cooperative Principle into four parts and makes an analysis on how the Conversational Implicature is generated. The author draws the following conclusions: the reason why speakers violate the maxims differs from person to person. Some are out of politeness and their concern for others. Some people violate the maxims in order to make an explanation. Some people tell lies to refuse others’ invitations or avoid unnecessary troubles. Some speakers may violate the maxims to emphasize his meaning. Sometimes people may violate the maxims unconsciously. Some people may use ambiguity unconsciously; listeners may make a wrong understanding because of different context. This paper hopes to make a contribution to the study of situation comedy, so that more readers can understand the cooperative principle, conversational implicature and situation comedy. The author also hopes the paper can be helpful to improve people’s ability to communicate with others.

Keywords: Cooperative Principle; Conversational Implicature; situation comedy

摘  要：格赖斯1967年提出合作原则。他表示，人们在沟通时都要遵守合作原则。沟通需要合作。但是人们会违反一个或多个准则从而表达自己的言外之意。这种言外之意被格赖斯称为会话含义。格赖斯的合作原则和会话含义对语用学的发展起到了很大的作用，很多学者将这两个理论运用到各种各样的研究领域中。本文从违反合作原则而产生会话含义的角度出发，对现在很受欢迎的情景喜剧《摩登家庭》第七季进行研究，通过举例分析研究会话含义是如何产生的。

合作原则的四个准则列举如下：数量准则、质量准则、关系准则和方式准则。作者从《摩登家庭》第七季中挑选出12组违反合作原则的对话，根据这四条准则进行分类，然后对其产生的会话含义进行分析。作者得出以下结论：作者通过分析发现，剧中人物违反合作原则的理由大都不同，有的出于礼貌或对他人的关心，有的是为了向别人做出解释。有的说谎是为了拒绝或者避免不必要的麻烦，有些是为了强调自己的意思。也有人在不自觉的情况下产生了歧义。本文希望对情景喜剧的研究做出一点贡献，让更多读者认识到合作原则、会话含义和情景喜剧。

关键词：合作原则；会话含义；情景喜剧

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study 1

1.3 Layout of the Paper 2

2 Literature Review 2

2.1 Grice’s Cooperative Principle 2

2.2 Grice’s Conversational Implicature 4

2.3 Studies on Cooperative Principle 4

2.3.1 Previous Studies Abroad 4

2.3.2 Previous Studies at Home 5

2.4 The Introduction of Situation Comedy 6

3 Analysis on Conversational Implicature in Modern Family 7