الفهرس 
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Abstract
The present thesis attempts to analyze the function of language in Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer based upon a pragmatic point of view. Pragmatics, to begin with, studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others. It is a systematic way of explaining language use in context. It seeks to explain aspects of meaning which cannot be found in the plain sense of words or structures, as explained by semantics. As a field of language study, pragmatics is fairly new. Its origins lie in philosophy of language and the American philosophical school of pragmatism. As a discipline within language science, its roots lie in the work of Herbert Paul Grice on conversational implicature and the cooperative principle, and on the work of Stephen Levinson, Penelope Brown and Geoff Leech on politeness. This thesis will concentrate on analyzing the dominant themes in Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer from a pragmatic point of view. The thesis is divided into three chapters: Chapter One (Introduction and Research Approach), Chapter Two (Implicatures of the Moviegoer’s Search, Despair, and Alienation), Chapter Three (Language and Meaning in The Moviegoer: A Speech Act Perspective), and Chapter Four (Conclusion). Walker Percy (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American writer, whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Trained as a physician at Columbia University, Percy decided to become a writer following a bout of tuberculosis. He devoted his literary life to the exploration of ”the dislocation of man in the modern age.” His work displays a combination of existential questioning, Southern sensibility, and deep Catholic faith. He had a lifelong friendship with author and historian Shelby Foote. Percy spent much of his life in Covington, Louisiana, where he died of prostate cancer in 1990.