Nandiemo, Vivere Sailas2025-02-262025-02-262024-10https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/29659A Research Project Submitted to the School of Law, Arts and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Arts (English And Linguistics) of Kenyatta University, October 2024. Supervisor John Chege GithioraThe research sought to identify and analyze Conversational Implicature in dowry negotiations among the Maragoli in Vihiga County of Western Kenya. This research adopted a pragmatic approach to the understanding of meaning in conversations using observation and interviews as data collection methods. The analysis was conducted within the framework of Paul Grice’s (1975) theory of Conversational Implicature (CI), which examines meaning beyond words that are used by speakers, that is indirect or implicit speech acts or what is meant by a speaker’s utterance that is not part of what is explicitly said (Nordquist, 2020). According to this theory, participants in a communicative exchange are guided by a principle—the Cooperative Principle (CP)—that determines the way in which language is used to achieve a desired communicative outcome. Levinson (1983) underscores the centrality of CI by stating that it is one of the most important ideas in pragmatics. This approach is complemented by Sperber and Wilson’s (1986, 2002) Relevance Theory which argues that Grice’s maxims can be replaced effectively by a single principle of ‘relevance’—that the speaker tries to be as relevant as possible in the circumstances. Using this two-pronged approach, data from two dowry negotiation events were qualitatively analyzed with three key objectives: to identify how Conversational Implicature is realized in Lulogooli during dowry negotiations; to establish the various forms of Conversational Implicature in Lulogooli as used during dowry negotiations, and to describe the linguistic/communicative functions that Conversational Implicature performs in Lulogooli during dowry negotiations. The research also sought to evaluate the universality of the Cooperative Principle, specifically whether it applies to conversations in a non-European (Bantu) language such as Lulogooli. The findings of the study revealed that Conversational Implicature in Maragoli dowry negotiations is expressed through metaphors, flattery, and irony. The findings further revealed that CI is used in dowry negotiations among the Maragoli to impress, save face and convince.enThesis