An Analysis of Implicatures from Television Discourse

This work is based on an investigative analysis of Implicatures/intended speaker meanings. The data is generated from television discourse on topical issues during an election year-the 2007 General Elections in Kenya.The author examines intended speaker meanings under Grice's(2002) theory of meaning and, the Cooperative Principle and its maxims of quality, quantity,relations and manner. It is apparent that the tenets of Grice's theory of meaning can be applied successfully to television discourse and that a case study design is well suited for studies in pragmatics.Intended speaker meanings are not,however, exhaustively accounted for by the CP and its four maxims since intonation and even non-verbal features play a part in meaning assignment.