Implicatures in film: Construal and functions in Bridget Jones romantic comedies

Drawing on insights from relevance theory, film studies, and multimodality, this paper offers a study of implicature in the polysemiotic context of films. A cognitive-pragmatic definition of implicature is proposed where relevance-theoretic concepts are adapted accordingly to cater for the semiotic complexity of film communication. The present case-study explores the construal and functions of the implicatures identified in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). It is demonstrated that implicatures are not conveyed by the film dialogue alone but, rather, via the co-deployment of verbal and non-verbal cinematic signifiers. Implicatures in the two romantic comedies have been found to fulfill comedic and/or narrative functions in tandem with mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and/or non-verbal soundtrack. In particular, implicatures emerge as an organic element of the two films because of their multifaceted contribution to the creation of humour, intimacy between the protagonists and plot per se.

► This paper proposes a methodology for the investigation of implicatures in films.
► The methodology is applied to a case-study of implicatures in Bridget Jones films.
► The case-study examines implicature construal and functions.
► Implicatures are multimodally construed in the two films.
► Implicatures serve comedic and/or narrative functions.