An analysis of how tywin lannister used conversational implicature to make threats in tv series game of thrones

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES GRADUATION PAPER AN ANALYSIS OF HOW TYWIN LANNISTER USED CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE TO MAKE THREATS IN TV SERIES GAME OF THRONES Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Linh Yên (Ph.D) Student: Phùng Minh Dương Course: QH2016 HANOI – 2020 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP PHÂN TÍCH CÁCH NHÂN VẬT TYWIN LANNISTER SỬ DỤNG HÀM Ý HỘI THOẠI ĐỂ ĐE DỌA TRONG PHIM GAME OF THRONES Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Thị Linh Yên (Ph.D) Sinh viên: Phùng Minh Dương Khóa: QH2016 HÀ NỘI - 2020 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: (Phùng Minh Dương, QH2016.E1), being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (programme) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyễn Thị Linh Yên, for supporting me with my thesis I am also thankful to George R.R Martin, the author of the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, who has written what I personally consider as one of the best literary masterpieces of all time I also admire David Benioff and D.B Weiss, the script writers of the TV series Game of Thrones, for having delivered an excellent adaptation of the novel series and provided me with materials to conduct this study ABSTRACT Walton (1992) reported that it was not uncommon for conversational implicature to be applied in the delivery of threats and warnings; nonetheless, there exists a lack of studies about the method in which conversational implicature is employed to threaten other parties The paper attempted to make contributions to this area by conducting investigations into the way Tywin Lannister, a character in the TV series Game of Thrones, used conversational implicature to convey messages of threats The Gricean framework (Grice, 1975) was the major foundation for the conduction of this research The framework relied on the violating and flouting of maxims in The Cooperative Principle (Grice, 1975) to identify and analyze conversational implicature in speeches Based on The Gricean framework, accompanied by Off-record Politeness Strategy (Brown & Levinson, 1987), the paper studied the maxims that Tywin infringed, as well as how he infringed them The paper came to the conclusion that Tywin mostly infringed the Cooperative Principle by the means of flouting, in order for the message of threats to achieve immediate effects Tywin mainly used rhetorical questions to infringe maxims of quality, aiming to express anger, expose the listener, or challenge them Regarding the infringement of maxims of relation, Tywin applied presupposition to showcase his control and social position, and employed association clues to reduce the outward aggressiveness of the threat With respect to the breaking of maxims of quantity, the usage of understatements was of similar purpose to that of association clues; in addition, Tywin also included overstatements to amplify the seriousness of the situations Lastly, the infringement of maxims of manner was conducted with the application of ambiguous wording and lengthy response, which is to increase the sense of fear and inferiority in the listeners TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of problem and research questions 1.2 The purpose of the study 1.3 Scope of research 1.4 Significance CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Implicature 2.1.1 Definition 2.1.2 Types of implicature 2.2 Conversational implicature 2.2.1 Definition 2.2.2 The contrast between conversational implicature and conventional implicature 2.3 Theoretical frameworks 2.3.1 The violating and flouting of maxim in The Cooperative Principle (The Gricean framework) (Grice, 1975) 2.3.2 Off-record Politeness Strategy (Brown & Levinson, 1987) 13 2.4 Threat 19 2.5 Existing research about conversational implicature in threats 21 2.6 Summary and conclusion 22 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Sampling 23 3.2 Data collection 23 3.3 Data analysis 23 3.4 The backgrounds of Tywin Lannister 25 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 26 4.1 The flouting of maxims 28 4.1.1.The flouting of maxims of QUALITY 28 4.1.2 The flouting of maxim of RELATION 31 4.1.3 The flouting of maxims of QUANTITY 33 4.1.4 The flouting of maxims of MANNER 36 4.2 The violating of maxims 38 4.2.1 The violating of maxims of QUALITY, using rhetorical questions to make the listener lower her guard (3 cases) 38 4.2.2 The violating of maxims of QUALITY, using rhetorical questions to sugarcoat the threat (1 case) 38 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION – IMPLICATIONS - LIMITATIONS 40 5.1 Conclusion and implications 40 5.2 Limitations 41 REFERENCE 42 APPENDIX 49 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Recognitions of maxim infringements 24 Table 4.1 The frequency of maxim infringements in Tywin’s threats 26 Table 4.2 The frequency of signals in each maxim category, found in Tywin’s threats 27 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of problem and research questions Regarded as one of the most widely used linguistic features in conversational situations (Romadhona, 2016), conversational implicature, in most cases, is applied in the aim of conveying information in a polite and implicit manner (Walker, 1975) This is either to maintain the public images of both the speaker and the hearer (Kedves, 2013), or to ensure that the speaker could conveniently deny the existence of the implied message in the case that unexpected issues arise (Thomas, 1995) Multiple researches have delved into the employment of conversational implicature within specific contexts, for instance, political speeches, daily dialogues, and literary works, exploring how the speakers and writers implicitly convey their ideas to the audience Recognized contributions to the study of conversational implicature could be refered to “Conversational implicatures in indirect replies” (Green & Carrberry, 1992); Pragmatics (Levinson, 1983); and especially “Logic and Conversation” by Grice (1975), in which the term “conversational implicature” made its first official appearance According to Walton (1992), the implicitness in the nature of conversational implicature also leads to its common use in the delivery of sensitive information Hence, Walton (1992) concluded that there are occasions in which threats and warnings are conveyed through the application of conversational implicature, due to the fact that it is sometimes deemed inappropriate to express these types of violent contents in a straightforward, unfiltered manner in public Since threats are not always communicated explicitly, it is important that people understand how to decipher them, in order to protect themselves and prevent potential harms However, so far, it seems there has been a significant lack of insightful investigations into the use of conversational implicature in threats, aside from several papers that mentioned threats in passing along with other Face threatening acts, such as “The Place of Emotion in Argument” by Walton (1992) or “Introducing Sociolingustics” (Meyerhoff, 2006) For that reason, I wish to contribute more to this particular existing gap by conducting this study, with the purpose of analyzing how one uses conversational implicature to convey the messages of threats The TV series Game of Thrones, which revolved around political wars among Nine Houses in a fictional continent, is well praised for its realistic dialogue writing, as concluded by Ivory (2013), and has employed a considerable amount of conversational implicature in the dialogues between the characters, according to Ramadhan (2017) Consequentially, the series is deemed appropriate for the purpose of the study That being the case, I choose to analyze the practice of conversational implicature in the threats uttered by Tywin Lannister, the Head of House Lannister, a feared figure in the series 1.2 The purpose of the study The study was conducted in order to investigate the methods in which Tywin Lannister employed conversational implicature to make his threats The study aimed to answer the following questions: Which maxim did Tywin Lannister infringe in order to make his threats? How did Tywin Lannister infringe the maxim in order to make his threats? 1.3 Scope of research The study focuses on the implied threats that were carried out by Tywin Lannister in the first four seasons (40 episodes) of the TV series, as the character made no appearance in the remaining seasons Within these utterances, the study analyzed the conversational maxim that Tywin Lannister infringed REFERENCE Bach, K (1999) The myth of conventional implicature Linguistics & Philosophy 22 (pp 327-366) Bach, K (2006) Review of Christopher Potts, The logic of Conventional Implicatures Journal of Linguistics 42 (2), 490–495 Bach, K (2012) Saying, meaning and implicating In K Allan & K Jaszczolt (eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics Cambridge University Press Brown, P., & Levinson, S (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Campbell, D.T (1965) Ethnocentric and Other Altruistic Motives Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press Carston, R (2005) A note on pragmatic principles of least effort UCL Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol 17 (pp 271–278) Colebrook, C (2004) Irony London and New York: Routledge Colston, H L & O’Brien, J (2000) Contrast and pragmatics in figurative language: Anything understatement can do, irony can better Journal of Pragmatics 32, (pp 1557 – 1583) Croucher, S.M (2013) Integrated threat theory and acceptance of immigrant assimilation: an analysis of Muslim immigration in Western Europe Communication Monographs, 80, 46-62 Culpeper, J (2011) Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Davis, W (2005) Implicature In E N Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 42 Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2005/entries/implicature/ (Original work published 2005) Dynel, M (2008) There is Method in The Humorous Speaker’s Madness: Humour and Grice’s Model Lodz Papars in Pragmatics Special Issue on Humour 4(1), 159-185 Dynel, M (2013) Being cooperatively impolite: Grice’s model in the context of (im)politeness theories In I Kecskes & J.R Trillo (Eds) Research Trends in Intercultural Pragmatics Mouton Series of Pragmatics (pp 55-83) Mouton de Gruyter Dynel, M (2014) A survey of Intercultural Pragmatics and its outlook on the Gricean theory of communication International Review of Pragmatics 6, 307-319 Fowler, H W (1983) A dictionary of modern English usage Oxford University Press Goldin, P R., Manber, T., Hakimi, S., Canli, T & Gross, J J (2009) Neural bases of social anxiety disorder: emotional reactivity and cognitive regulation during social and physical threat Arch Gen Psychiatry 66, (pp 170–180) Green, M S (1995) Quantity, volubility, and some varieties of discourse Linguistics and Philosophy, 18(1), (pp 83–112) Green, N & Carberry, S (1992) Conversational Implicature in Indirect Replies Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics Newark, Delaware Grice, H P (1975) Logic and Conversation In P Cole, & J L Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics, Vol 3, Speech Acts (pp 41-58) New York: Academic Press 43 Gruenewald, T L., Kemeny, M E., Aziz, N., & Fahey, J L (2004) Acute threat to the social self: shame, social self-esteem, and cortisol activity Psychosomatic Medicine, 66, (pp 915–924) Guerzoni, E (2003) Why even ask? 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Press 48 APPENDIX Season/Episode Code Script Season 1/Episode 1.8 An unnamed character warned Tywin about the armies of House Stark: “The Northmen, they have already crossed the neck” Tywin: “The wolf rushes into the lion’s jaws, so be it.” Season 1/Episode 1.10 Tywin’s soldiers: “We can’t continue this battle, my Lord Robb Stark has 20.000 men that 10 gained thousands of consecutive victories” Tywin: “They Have My Son.” Tywin’s soldiers: “They do, my Lord.” Season 2/Episode 2.3 Tywin has heard the news about the failure of his armies in the battle with House Stark The meeting was silent Tywin said “This is already our third loss Intolerable.” Tywin grabbed a soldier’s shirt and said: “They have 20.000 men I judged you might be good for something more than brutalizing peasants” Season 2/Episode 2.4 The guards in Harrenhal had not tidied the courtyard to welcome Tywin, for they did not know he would return sooner than expected When Tywin saw the mess on the courtyard, he asked: “What’s this?” The guards responded “We… weren’t expecting 49 you till tomorrow.” 2.6.a Tywin was asking Arya about her backgrounds and family The first question was: “Girl, where are you from?” Arya answered: “Maidenpool” 2.6.b Season 2/Episode The second question was: “Who are the Lords of Maidenpool? Remind me.” 2.6.c The third question was: “What are their sigils?” 2.6.d As Arya failed to answer previous questions, Tywin asked “You are a northerner, aren’t you?” Season 2/Episode 2.6.e Tywin Lannister believed (mistakenly) that the assassin sent to kill him belonged to Brotherhood, a group of misfits that rebelled against House Lannister An unnamed character: “My Lord, please calm down.” Tywin: “I will let you know what it means to choose the wrong side” Season 3, episode 3.1.a Tyrion, a son that Tywin hated, asked his father to give him Casterly Rock, a valuable castle of their house Tywin: “What you want?” Tyrion: “I want what is mine by right The day my older brother put on the white cloak, he gave up his claim to Casterly Rock I am your son and 50 lawful heir.” Tywin: “You want Casterly Rock?” 3.1.b Tywin and his son Tyrion continued to discuss whether Tyrion could inherit Casterly Rock Tyrion: “It is mine, by right.” Tywin: “Men’s laws give you the right to bear my name and display my colors since I cannot prove that you are not mine, and to teach me humility Gods have condemned me to watch you waddle about, wearing that proud lion that was my father’s sigil and his father’s before him But neither Gods nor men will ever compel me to let Casterly Rock turn into a whorehouse.” 3.1.c After listening to Tywin’s response in 3.1.b., Tyrion stood up and walked out of the chamber Tywin called him back and said: “The next whore I catch in your bed I will hang” Season 3, episode 3.5.a Tywin forced his daughter Cersei to marry Loras Tyrell, who was much younger than her Tywin: “You will marry Loras Tyrell and you will have his children.” Cersei: “I am a Queen, not some broodmare.” Tywin: “You are MY daughter!” 3.5.b The situation continued from 3.5.a., Tywin told both his daughter and son to marry people that they didn’t love 51 Tywin: “You are my children, and you will what I say That’s all, MY children.” 3.5.c Tywin’s son, Jaime, was missing Tywin asked the council: “Do you know anything about my son?” The council was silent Tywin continued: “20.000 unwashed northerners have known about his escape for weeks Collectively, you control more spies and informants than the rest of the world combined Do you mean to tell me that none of you has any notion of where he is?” Season 3, episode 3.6 Orlena Tyrell, Head of House Tyrell, refused to marry her grandson Loras to Cersei, the daughter of Tywin Tywin told her that if the match between the two did not take place, he would choose Loras to be the Kingsguard Kingsguard was supposedly an honorable position for any noble man; however, taking the position meant one had to vow not to marry or bear children for the rest of his life Orlena: “This wedding is impossible” Tywin: “Why?” Orlena: “My grandson is the pride of Highgarden, the most desirable bachelor in all Seven Kingdoms Your daughter is…” Tywin: “Rich The most beautiful woman in all 52 Seven Kingdoms, and the mother of the King.” Orlena: “Old.” Tywin: “Old?” Orlena: “Old I’m something of an expert on the subject Cersei cannot give Loras children.” Tywin: “The uncerty makes you comfortable? Alright, I will remove it for you If you refuse to mary Loras to Cersei, I will name him to the Kingsguard (The Guard of the King)” Orlena: “You would have your grandson (The King) protected by someone who disgusts you?” Tywin: “ I would have my grandson protected by a skilled warrior who takes his vows seriously So shall I draw the order (to name Loras the Kingsguard) or you consent to the match?” Tywin took his pen out to prepare to write the order Orlena snatched the paper and teared it into half Season 3, episode 10 3.10 In the family meeting, there were Tywin Lannister, his children Tyrion and Cersei, and Cersei’s son Joffrey (The King) Joffrey: “I’m going to serve it (the head of Sansa’s dead father) to Sansa.” Tyrion: “No! She is no longer yours to torment.” Joffrey: 53 “Everyone is mine to torment Remember that you little monster.” Tyrion: “Oh, a monster? Perhaps you should speak to me more softly then Monsters are dangerous and just know Kings are dying like flies.” Joffrey: “I could have your tongue out for saying that.” Cersei (to Joffrey): “Let him make his threats, hmm? He’s just a little bitter man.” Joffrey: “I am The King! I will kill you” Tywin: “Anyone who must say he is a king is no true king I would make you understand that soon.” Season 4, episode 4.2 The marriage between Margaery (Orlena’s granddaughter) and Joffrey (Tywin’s son) was about to happen Tywin: “It was a little bit too much (the money that Orlena spent on the wedding), wouldn’t you say?” Orlena: “But it feels proportionate.” Tywin: “Proprotionate to what?” Orlena: “The expected extravagence.” Tywin: “All people who spend their money on this sort of nonsense will not have it for long” 4.3.a After they finished exchanging greeting lines, 54 Tywin told Oberyn: “I heard you studied poisons at Citadel” Season 4, episode 4.3.b Tywin told Oberyn “I heard you studied poisons at Citadels” (4.3.a.) and “Your hatred for my family is rather well known.” (4.3.b) Season 4, episode 4.6 People were discussing the news they heard about Daenerys, Mother of Dragons She was rumored to attack the King’s Landing with her dragons An unnamed character that supported Daenerys: “The dragons would destroy everything in a matter of seconds.” Tywin Lannister: “Dragons haven’t won a single war in 300 years Armies win them all the time.” Season 4, episode 4.7 Tywin killed Robb Stark and his family in a wedding Robb Stark was called the King of the North, so his death made Northmen angry Tyrion, a son that Tywin hated, warned Tywin about the fury of Northmen Tywin: “Do you disapprove? (of my method of killing the Starks) Tyrion: “I’m all for cheating, this is war But to slaughter them in a wedding…” Tywin: “Explain to me why it is more noble to kill 10.000 men in a battle than a dozen at a dinner?” 55 Tyrion: “So that’s why you did it To save lives?” Tywin: “To end the war To protect the family You want to write a song for the dead Starks? Go ahead! Write one.” Tyrion: “The Northeners will never forget.” Tywin: “Good Let them remember what happened when they march on South” Season 4, episode 10 4.10 When Tywin forced his daughter Cersei to marry a man she didn’t like and leave her son behind, Cersei vowed to revenge him Cersei: “Now Joffrey (her first son) is dead, Marcel (her daughter) has been sold like livestock, and now you want to ship me off to Highgarden and steal my boy, my last boy Margaery will dig her claws in him You will take you claws in him, and you will fight over him like beasts until you rip him apart I will burn our house to the ground before I let that happen.” Tywin: “And how will you that, huh?” 56 ... which Tywin Lannister employed conversational implicature to make his threats The study aimed to answer the following questions: Which maxim did Tywin Lannister infringe in order to make his threats? ... area by conducting investigations into the way Tywin Lannister, a character in the TV series Game of Thrones, used conversational implicature to convey messages of threats The Gricean framework... that Tywin mostly infringed the Cooperative Principle by the means of flouting, in order for the message of threats to achieve immediate effects Tywin mainly used rhetorical questions to infringe