Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 11. Number3 September 2020 Pp.331-348
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no3.21
Vagueness and Withholding Information in Christie’s (1926) Detective Fiction The Murder
of Roger Ackroyd: A Pragma-Stylistic Study
Safaa K. Merzah
Department of English Language and Linguistics, College of Education for Women
University of Baghdad, Iraq
Nawal F. Abbas
Department of English Language and Linguistics, College of Education for Women
University of Baghdad, Iraq
Abstract:
This study is intended to examine the deceptive strategies utilized in the well-renown Agatha Christie’s (1926/2002) detective fiction The Murder of Roger Ackroyd to fill a gap in the literature by conducting a pragma-stylistic analysis of the novel. To do so, the researchers have set two objectives which are phrased as follows: firstly, examining the pragma-stylistic choices that are used to surface the deceptive strategies on the character-character level in the pre-dénouement stage and secondly, investigating the pragma-stylistic choices that are used to surface the deceptive strategies on the narrator-reader level in the pre-dénouement stage. The stylistic idiosyncrasies of Christie’s Dr. Sheppard are carried out through an eclectic pragma-stylistic approach to expose his deceptive strategies for the fulfillment of his selfish ends. Therefore, the study at issue follows an eclectic conceptual framework which comprises Merzah and Abbas’s deceptive principle (2020) and Chen’s (2001) self-politeness, along with the stylistic effects achieved via the manipulation of such linguistic tools, to explore the two levels of discourse, namely, character-character level and narrator-reader level proposed by Black (2006). The qualitative analysis of the novel has exhibited that Dr. Sheppard is an expert deceiver who principally relies on indirect strategies, as he is cognizant of the power of what is insinuated but left unsaid.
Keywords: Agatha Christie, deception, pragma-stylistics, vagueness, withholding information, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Cite as: Merzah, S. K.,& Abbas, N. F. (2020). Vagueness and Withholding Information in Christie’s (1926) Detective Fiction The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Pragma-Stylistic Study. Arab World English Journal, 11 (3) 331-348.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no3.21
References
Al-Hindawi, F., & Al-Aadili, N. (2017). The pragmatics of deception in American presidential electoral speeches. International Journal of English Linguistics, 7(5), 207-219. DOI:10.5539/ijel.v7n5p207
Ahmed, H. A., & Abbas, N. F. (2019). Critical stylistic analysis of the concept of extremism in DeLillo’s Falling Man (2007). Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies, 3(3), 82-106. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3447643
Ashley, M. (2000). Introduction: Hey, presto! In M. Ashley (Ed.), The mammoth book of locked-room mysteries and impossible crimes (pp .10-13). London: Robinson.
Abbas, N. F. (2020). Stylistic study of cohesion in relation to narrative techniques in religious discourse. Journal of College of Education for Women, 31(1), 1-13. DOI: 10.36231/coedw/vol31no1.17
Busse, B., Montoro, R., & Nørgaad, N. (2010). Key terms in stylistics. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Beck, C. T. (2003). Initiation into qualitative data analysis. Journal of Nursing Education, 24(5), 213-234. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299115340_Initiation_into_qualitative_data_analysis
Buller, D., & Burgoon, J. (2006). Interpersonal deception theory. Communication Theory 6(3), 203 – 242. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2885.1996.tb00127.x
Black, E. (2006). Pragmatic Stylistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Bertens, H., & D’haen T. (2001). Contemporary American fiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Booth, W. C. (1983). The rhetoric of fiction (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Christie, A. (2002). The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. London: Harper Collins. (Original work published 1926)
Castelfranchi, C., & Poggi, I. (1994). Lying as pretending to give information. In H. Parret (Ed.), Pretending to communicate (pp. 276-291). Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Carson, L. T. (2010). Lying and Deception: Theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Çelikel, M. A., & Taniyan, B. (Eds.). (2015). English Studies: New Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chen, R. (2001). Self-politeness: A proposal. Journal of Pragmatics, 33(1), 87-106. DOI: 10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00124-1
Dynel, M. (2018). Irony, deception and humour: Seeking the truth about overt and covert untruthfulness. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter.
Ekman, P. (1992). Telling lies: Clues to deceit in the marketplace, politics, and marriage. London and New York: Norton & Company.
Evans, D. (2015). The dialogue thesaurus: A fiction writer’s sourcebook of dialogue tags and phrases. California: CreateSpace.
Égré, P., & Icard, B. (2018). Lying and Vagueness. In J. Meibauer (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Lying (pp. 354–369). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fischer-Starcke, B. (2010). Corpus linguistics in literary analysis: Jane Austen and her contemporaries. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Flynn, G. (2012). Gone Girl. New York: Crown Publishing Group.
Galasiński, D. (2000). The language of deception: A discourse analytical study. Sage Publication, Inc.
Grice, H. P. (1991). Study in the way of words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hickey, L. (1993). Stylistics, pragmatics and pragmastylistics. Revue belge de Phlologue et d’Historie, 71(3). 573-586. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/rbph.1993.3890
Horsley, L. (2005). Twentieth-century crime fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heyd, T. (2006). Understanding and handling unreliable narratives: A pragmatic model and method. Semiotica, 2006(162), 217-248. https://doi.org/10.1515/SEM.2006.078
Jaafar, A. E. (2020). Schema theory and text-worlds: A cognitive stylistic analysis of selected literary texts. Journal of College of Education for Women, 31(2), 52-65. https://doi.org/10.36231/coedw/vol31no2.14
Knapp, M. L., Hart, R. P., & Dennis, H. S. (1974). An exploration of deception as a communication construct. Human Communication Research, 1(1), 15–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1974.tb00250.x
Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J. E. (2015). Practical research. Planning and design (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marrelli, J. (2004). Words in the way of truth. Truthfulness, deception, lying across cultures and disciplines. Naples: Edizione Scientific Italiane.
Mahon, J. E., (2007). A definition of deceiving. The International Journal of Applied Philosophy, 21(2), 181-194. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269738290_A_Definition_of_Deceiving
Messent, P. (2012). The crime fiction handbook. Oxford: Willey-Blackwell.
McCornack, S. A. (1992). Information Manipulation Theory. Communications Monographs, 59(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637759209376245
Merzah, S. K., & Abbas, N. F. (2020). Deception in Flynn’s psychological thriller Gone Girl (2012): A pragma-stylistic analysis. European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies, 3(4), 87-117. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3766515
Marrelli, V. J., & Castelfranchi, C. (1981). On the art of deception: How to lie while saying the truth. In H. Parret, M. Sbisà, & J. Verschueren (Eds.), Possibilities and limitations of pragmatics. Proceedings of the conference on pragmatics (pp. 746-777). Urbino: John Benjamins.
Picornell, I. (2013). Cues to deception in a textual narrative context: Lying in written witness statements. (Doctoral dissertation, Aston University). Retrieved from http://library.college.police.uk/docs/theses/Picornell-cues-to-deception-2013.pdf
Priestman, M. (2003). The Cambridge companion to crime fiction. Oxford: Cambridge.
Rowland, S. (2010). The “classical” model of the golden age. In L. Horsley & C. J. Rzepka (Eds.). A companion to crime fiction (pp.117-127). Oxford: Willey-Blackwell.
Say. (2020). In Merriam-Webster Dictionary (version 5.0.5) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from https://apps.apple.com/us/app/merriam-webster-dictionary/id399452287
Scaggs, J. (2005). Crime fiction. London and New York: Routledge.
Todorov, T. (1977). The typology of detective fiction (Howard, R., Trans.). In T. Todorov (Ed.), The poetics of prose (pp. 42-52). New York: Cornwell University Press. (Original word published 1966)
Weber, J. T. (2017). When deception gets personal: An exploration into personality’s link to deception. (Master’s thesis, University of Tennessee). Retrieved from https://scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1104&context=honors-theses
Wales, K. (2011). A Dictionary of stylistics. London and New York: Routledge.
Zuckerman, M., DePaulo, B. M., & Rosenthal, R. (1981). Verbal and nonverbal communication of deception. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 1–57). New York: Academic Press.