Conversational Perspectives in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart’’

The paper titled Conversational Perspectives in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” was undertaken to determine the conversational style deployed in a dialogue between Mr. Brown, a representative of the colonial masters, and Akunna, one of the elders in Umuofia. J. L. Austine and J. Searle Speech Act Theory, and H. P. Grice Conversational Implicature Theory were used to analyze the text. It was found out that two major illocutionary speech functions of Representative and Directive were prominent in the conversation. The conversation also revealed some perlocutionary acts. With Grice’s Implicature Theory, the conversation yielded a maxim of quality. It was found that with perlocutionary act, layers of hidden meanings were revealed, leading to a wider level of understanding of the text.