【研究ノート】 The Pragmatic Functions of manage to-infinitive

抄録

This study investigates which of the Gricean sub-maxims is flouted when manage to-infinitive implicates humor or irony. Conventionally, the target to-infinitive describes that someone has strived to accomplish something to the benefit or credit of him or herself. However, humor or irony is implied when a conventional interpretation would lead to a contradiction; e.g. “Mike managed to upset his mother yet again today. (humorous)” (MED 2002: 855) and “He managed to muddle it (irony)” (COD 1976: 739). The implicature of humor or irony is created when the target to-infinitive describes a situation where a disadvantage or discredit to the person concerned is implied. Ten native speakers of English (henceforth, NSEs) were surveyed to verify the lexicographic explanations. Although the NSEs‟ interpretations of the samples varied, humor or irony was usually found to be invoked when the target structure was used. The conclusions are that flouting the sub-maxims “Do not say what you believe to be false” (Grice 1975: 45) and “Avoid obscurity of expression” (Grice 1975: 45) results in implied humor or irony. This study proposes that the target structure can impose an element of indirectness so that the people who are referred to can save face (Brown and Levinson 1987).