An Analysis of the Reason Why Tess Loses Virginity from Her Conversations with Alec in Tess of the D'Urbervilles Based on the Cooperative Principle

摘要

Cooperative Principle is an essential linguistic theory in Pragmatics which is used to analyze the conversation. And the violation of maxims in Cooperative Principle can imply the conversational implicatures other than what is literally said. Based on the Cooperative Principle, this paper aims to exploit the implicatures and reasons after violating related maxims in conversations that happens between Tess and Alec in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and also aims to explain why Tess fails to protect herself and Alec succeeds in inducing Tess, Finally, It can be found that individual personality also contributes to Alec's success and Tess' s losing virginity. Besides, data collection and analysis are applied to provide deeper evidences.