The Gricean Study of Conversations in Mahasweta Devi's ‘Behind the Bodice’

In 1975, H.P. Grice proposed a theory of conversation entitled cooperative principles (CP) which are followed by the participants in a conversation. The CP has different maxims. The present paper studies the conversations occurring in the prominent Bengali story (translated into English) ‘Behind the Bodice’ written by Mahasweta Devi within the framework of H.P. Grice's maxims of the CP. It describes the cases of adherence as well as violation of the maxims and explains the reasons thereof. The paper also traces out the situations of implicatures peeping out in the process of conversation. The study also exposes some cases of ambiguity in spite of the application of Grice's CP. The reason for selecting the story ‘Behind the Bodice’ is that the writer has fused plenty of conversational exchanges in it. The data for the study of the conversation constitute nine pieces of interaction as available in the concerned story. The findings reveal that manner maxim is violated more frequently than the other maxims of the CP in the conversations.