| dc.description.abstract | ABSTRACT
This study investigated pragmatic mechanisms that underlie interpretation of speaker-intended
meanings in KTN's, 'Newsline' program. As an agent of ideology television perpetuates the
interests and values of those in power. Yet as a cultural commodity its audiences engage with
media material using and defining meaning in terms of their own value and reality systems. Thus
the speaker is not always certain that the audience that participates in the communication process
will interpret and understand the intended message. Discrepancies often arise between what is
said and the message conveyed by uttering specific words. The study therefore investigated
implicatures, in KTN's 'Newsline' so as to determine how audiences arrive at interpretations,
pragmatically. The study had three objectives, that is, to: identify and describe implicatures and
related aspects of context; to analyze implicatures within the Gricean CP and maxims and
finally, to establish viewers' opinions about aspects of effective communication, namely, clarity,
rhetorical strategies and relevance during selected episodes of 'Newsline'. The study adopted
Grice's (1975) theory of implicature in which he proposes that speaker's meaning is a type of
intention that the speaker discharges cooperatively with the addressee. It employed a case study
design. The study sample consisted of 10 episodes of 'Newsline'. Data was collected between
January and December 2007 from episodes of 'Newsline' through non-participant observation
and face-to-face interviews with regular viewers. 'Newsline' was a discussion program that was
selected purposively because of its dialogic structure, interpersonal mode of communication and
content, that is, discussions on topical issues. Corpora obtained through audio-visual recording
were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively. Interview schedules were availed to guide the
interv~ewprocess. The study concluded that discourse in 'Newsline' is replete with implicatures
because interlocutors infer meaning whenever they sense that information is conveyed implicitly.
This is part of the cooperative role that both the speaker and hearer play in assigning speaker's
meaning. The CP and its maxims together with other aspects of context such as shared
background knowledge regulate this process of interpretation. This study contributes to
linguistics by showing the application of the tenets of Grice's (1975) CP and maxims In
interpretation of speaker-intended meanings in television discourse. It also sensitizes TV
program presenters/hosts to moderate discussions firmly so as to ensure objective and
meaningful discussions for the benefit of their audiences. | en_US |
