A Pragmatic Study of Abdicating

Abstract

This research analyzes, pragmatically, the concept of abdicating. Its aim is to reveal how this concept is utilised in literature. It is based on the hypothesis that: 1- The speech act of (assertive, declarative, directive and expressive) can be used to express the sense of abdicating. 2- Grice's cooperative principle is frequently observed in the epic. 3- Many devices such as metaphor, repetition are used in the epic. In order to achieve the aims of the research, the steps are followed: 1. Reviewing the literature about abdicating, the poet and the epic itself. Some pragmatic notions such as speech acts, the cooperative principle, and some devices such as metaphor, repetition are also reviewed, since they are relevant to the aims of the study. 2. Analyzing five texts according to a model developed for this study. This study is limited to analyze texts from the epic "Song of Lawino ". It is written by the Ugandan poet Okot p'Bitek 1966 .