An Analysis of Nepalese's Ability to Understand the Implied Meanings of English Expressions

Abstract

Pragmatics is regarded as one of the most challenging aspects for language learners to grasp, and can only truly be learned with experience and practice. Bearing this truth in mind, this study tries to find the pragmatic competence of the Nepalese users of English. In other words, it attempts to find out the ability of Nepali people with different mother tongues to understand the implied meanings of the expressions in English language. In order to do so, the researcher collected data from different professionals working in different fields like medicine, engineering, teaching, business, administration, media, tourism, etc. around the Kathmandu valley. The sample population consists of 120 people who were selected using random sampling procedure. On the basis of the collected data, the people's ability to understand the implied meaning of the English expressions was determined using simple statistical tools such as average, percentage and item analysis. The study compares the abilities of different people in terms of the different variables. After the rigorous analysis of the data people found better in understanding the implied meaning receptively compared to productively. Similarly, the teachers were found to be the best in understanding the implied meaning of the English expressions. In the same way, educational- qualification wise and age wise the findings were "the higher the qualification/age the better the pragmatic abilities in question." mother tongue wise, Indo-Aryan speakers were found to be more competent than the Tibeto –Burman speakers and male were found to be better than their female counterparts in this respect. The study consists of four chapters. The first chapter consists of general background, review of the related literature, objectives of the study, significance of the study and definitions of the specific (technical) terms. The second chapter deals with the methodology used in the study. It encompasses sources of data, population of the study, sample population, tools for data collection, process of data collection and limitations of the study. The third chapter consists of analysis and interpretation of the collected data. The data was analysed taking different variables like Profession, Sex, Qualification, Age, Mother tongue, etc. into account. The fourth chapter deals with the findings, recommendations and pedagogical implications made after the analysis of the collected data.