THE PRAGMATICS OF EDITORIAL CARTOONS: GRICE'S MAXIMS AND RELEVANCE THEORY INTERSECTION IN NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS

This study examined the violation of Grice's maxims, discussed the rationale for relevance theory's conceptual– procedural distinction, and looked at how these two capacities interact in editorial political cartoons from two Nigerian national newspapers by identifying the types of maxims and the implied meaning behind their violation. The study employed qualitative textual analysis from two Nigerian national newspapers, The Punch and The Guardian. The study's data consists of 10 editorial political cartoons purposively picked using the criterion sampling technique between January and December 2017. Following data collection, the researcher analyzed it using Grice's conversational maxims and reassessing the notion of procedural meaning in the relationship between the capacity to understand a communicator's meaning, on the one hand, and the capacity to assess her reliability and the reliability of the communicated content, on the other. The study's findings indicate that Nigerian cartoonists fail to adhere to all of Grice's maxims - quality, quantity, manner, and relationship - when addressing political and social issues in Nigeria. Also, there are times when there are no interactions between the communicator's meaning and the communicated content because one or more of Grice's three assumptions about verbal communication are violated. The researchers, therefore, recommended that print media management and cartoonists not only see cartoons as an entertaining medium. They should also concentrate on how graphic images and messages can be readily understood with suitable drawings, texts, and captions, thus serving as a platform for messages' dissemination.