Examining Theories at Work: Speech Acts, Implicatures and Politeness in a Pragmastylistic Analysis of Anton Chekhov’s The Bear

Abstract

Through a descriptive qualitative method, Anton Chekhov’s The Bear is examined for its use of speech acts, implicatures, and politeness. To surface the said theories, a stylistic analysis is conducted, following the principles of pragma-stylistics. Pragmastylistics is used in analyzing a literary piece towards arriving at particular themes, and in which the focus of analysis is how a speaker or writer chooses to realize their speech act in consideration of the intended meaning and effect of which towards an audience. The subject of the following analysis is a one-act play considered to be a farcical comedy depicting the story of a woman mourning her husband’s recent death, amidst which she encounters and eventually falls in love with her deceased husband’s creditor. The analyses focused on the employment of the pragmatic theories of speech acts, cooperative principles and implicatures, and politeness. The paper attempted ultimately to show through an analysis of dramatic text how words could mean differently or even have meanings at all when put into context.