A Gricean Analysis of Fixed Expressions (based on the Paremiology of the Concept ‘suffering’)
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This study analyzes English proverbs and fixed expressions relating to 'suffering' usingH.P. Grice's theory of conversational implicature. When we look past just the direct meaning of proverbs(a purely semantic analysis), we propose that these formulaic expressions purposefully go against(systematically flout) the Gricean maxims of conversation (Quality, Quantity, Relation, and Manner) tocreate strong cultural implicatures. By examining examples like "No pain, no gain," "Misery lovescompany," and "hell on earth," this paper shows that the pragmatic force and cultural endurance of thesesayings come from (are fundamentally rooted in) their violation of conversational logic. This violationmakes listeners find deeper, implicit meanings about resilience, inevitability, and shared human experience.This Gricean analysis gives us an explanation for how complex cultural framings of suffering arelinguistically made and communicated.
Institution: Namangan State Institute of Foreign Languages
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W7204266271