ABSTRACT
The lack of existing work in stylistics and modern drama, The Bald Prima Donna seemed an obvious and useful choice of text to start with, in that it is most usually known as a play specifically about, let us say, communicative incompetence. This study of The Bald Prima Donna has drawn on a broad range of work in discourse analysis, in order to account for a variety of effects created in the dialogue of the text. In particular this has focused on selecting different types of 'absurdities' that emerge as the play progresses but other interesting and accountable features have been discussed where appropriate. Whilst many of the play's effects are rather neatly accounted for in this way, this selective approach is highly problematic in terms of theory and methodology. A notable feature of this study has been the use made of apposite work in the philosophy of language as well as work on naturally occurring conversations.
