Conversational Implicature in Hausa: A Study of Doctor-Patient Conversation

The paper explores the conversational implicature with the view to determine the conversational maxims that are flouted during Doctor-Patient conversations in Federal Medical Centre Gusau. The paper has analyzed the various instances where implicature could occur and the type of maxim flouted as a result of such implicature, ranging from the maxim of quantity, quality, relation and the maxim of manner. The data comes from interviews, observations and recordings while books and journals are consulted. The research uses Grice’s theory of implicature but limits its scope to particularized implicature which is evident in its analysis since the study is context-based. The study also adopts the descriptive approach in its analysis and this has helped in describing how the conversational maxims are flouted as Doctor-Patients converse. The findings of this study show that during Doctor-Patient conversations, the doctors, in about 90% of the data presented, flout the maxim of manner while the patients on their part, flout virtually all the conversational maxims; maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of manner and maxim of relation.