The Unsaid in Titles: A Critical Look at Bernard Nanga’s “Les Chauves-Souris” [Bats]

Abstract

Having in mind the basic pragmalinguistic principle which argues that traces of the unsaid are always present in our communication and guided by Jacob L. Mey’s assertion that titles can be tricky, this study seeks to explore the elements that influence authors’ choice of titles and the opaque meanings of such titles. This research adopted a pragmatic approach to discourse analysis with the aid of the notions of presuppositions, inferences, argumentative orientations, argumentative scales and the theory of possible worlds. Results indicate that the setting of a literary work, the cultural origin, beliefs and philosophies of its author, the era within which the work is written, and the use of figures of speech, among others, are elements that influence an author’s choice of a title of a literary piece. This study has further revealed that careful consideration of these factors could play a critical role in helping a reader unravel the deeper meaning of the title of a piece of work as well as the entire text. This study is a scholarly contribution to titrology, pragmatics, and discourse analysis.

Keywords

• unsaid
• pragmatics
• title
• context
• inference
• metaphor