Dual Implicature Analysis in Arabic Libyan Children’s Literature: A Qualitative Study Examining Conversational and Conventional Implicature Through Gricean Framework in War Narratives
Keywords:
ELT, TEFL, short stories, vocabulary, teachingAbstract
This qualitative study examines conversational and conventional implicature in Arabic Libyan children's literature, with particular focus on war narratives. Drawing upon Grice's Cooperative Principle and its associated Maxims, the analysis of extracts from two short stories by renowned Libyan authors addressed to children reveals complex patterns of meaning construction in texts addressing conflict and warfare. Through systematic examination of both speaker-meaning and conventionally-triggered implicatures, the study identifies distinctive communicative strategies employed in children's literature dealing with sensitive topics. The findings demonstrate how authors navigate the challenges of presenting war-related themes to young readers through strategic manipulation of implicature types, creating layered meanings that accommodate both immediate comprehension and deeper reflection. The study contributes to our understanding of how children's literature employs implicature mechanisms to convey complex social and political realities, while maintaining age-appropriate discourse
References
Al-Harbi, A. (2021). Trends in Modern Arabic Children's Literature: A Pragmatic Analysis. Middle Eastern Journal of Children's Literature, 8(1), 34-50.
Al-Mansour, N. (2011). The role of Arabic children's literature in the transmission of cultural values. Journal of Children's Literature Studies, 8(2), 45–60.
Al-Qahtani, M. H. (2013). The acquisition of pragmatic competence in Arabic-speaking children. Journal of Pragmatics, 55, 1-15.
Al-Qasim, R. (2021). Cultural Implicature in Arabic Children's Literature: A Case Study of Modern Storybooks. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), 12(3), 78-92.
Al-Yaqout, G. (2015). The Evolution of Arabic Children's Literature: From Didacticism to Creativity. International Research in Children's Literature, 8(1), 1-15.
Al-Zahrani, M. (2023). Implicature in Digital Arabic Children's Literature: A New Frontier for Pragmatic Development. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 17(2), 89-104.
Brown, A. M., & Green, T. L. (2023). "The role of implicature in early literacy: How picture books teach inference-making." Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 64, 123-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2023.02.007
Brown, A., & Taylor, M. (2021). The role of implicature in moral education through children's stories. Journal of Moral Education, 50(2), 123–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2021.1893150
Carston, R. (1991). Implicature, explicature, and truth-theoretic semantics. In Pragmatics: A Reader.
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics (Vol. 3, pp. 41-58). Academic Press.
Huang, Y. (2014) Pragmatics (2nd. ed.) Oxford University Press.
Khalil, I. (2018). "Contemporary Arabic Children's Literature: Trends and Challenges." Journal of Arabic Literature, 49(3), 245-260.
Levinson, S. C. (2000). Presumptive meanings: The theory of generalized conversational implicature. MIT Press.
Smith, J., & Johnson, L. (2019). Pragmatic development and the role of implicature in children's literature. Journal of Child Language, 46(3), 567–589.https://doi.org/10.1017/S030500091800050X
Smith, J. L., & Johnson, R. K. (2022). "Understanding implicature in children's literature: A developmental perspective." Journal of Child Language, 49(4), 789-810.
Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1986). Relevance: Communication and cognition. Harvard University Press.
Thompson, E. R., & Davis, P. K. (2022). "Teaching morals through implicature: A pragmatic analysis of Aesop's fables. “Children’s Literature in Education, 53(2), 167-182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-022-09489-6
Wilson, D., & Clark, E. V. (2022). "How children understand implicature in stories: A cognitive developmental approach." Cognitive Development, 63, 101-115.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101234
Primary Sources
إبراهيم الكوني (1987) ."واحة كبيرة تضج بالغناء". سلسلة قصص الجهاد، مركز جهاد الليبيين للدراسات التاريخية.
Al-Koni, I (1987). "A Large Oasis Abundant with Singing." Series of Jihad Stories, Libyan Center for Historical Studies.
خليفة حسين مصطفى . (1987) "لكنه لم يعد". سلسلة قصص الجهاد، مركز جهاد الليبيين للدراسات التاريخية.
Mustafa, K. H. (1987) "But He Never Came Back." Series of Jihad Stories, Libyan Center for Historical Studies.

Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Faculty of Languages Journal-Tripoli-Libya

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.