Pragmatics

 Gricean Maxims

Co-operative principle Grice argued that a basic foundational principle which is followed by all rational adults is to co‑operate with one another when engaged in spoken interaction. 

From Grice’s perspective, all interactions can be defined as co-operative efforts to at least some degree. His co-operative principle is as follows: Make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. (Grice 1975: 45) 

In order to illustrate this further, Grice devised four conversational maxims which logically follow on from the co-operative principle:

 Maxim of quantity 
Make your contribution to the conversation as informative as necessary Do not make your contribution to the conversation more informative than necessary 

Maxim of quality
 Do not say what you believe is false Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence 

Maxim of relevance
 Say only things that are relevant 

Maxim of manner
 Avoid obscurity of expression Avoid ambiguity Be brief (avoid unnecessary wordiness) Be orderly (Grice 1989: 27) 

Abiding by the above maxims is considered to be the prototypical way of com­municating with one another. However, it is not uncommon for one (or more) of the above maxims to be regularly flouted in everyday conversation. This does not mean that conversationalists are ceasing to be co-operative. On the contrary, when flouting of conversational maxims takes place, hearers will search for a conversational implicature of the speaker’s intention precisely because of the co‑operative principle: faced with an apparent break with a maxim, a hearer will still assume the speaker is being co-operative and will set off to find a reason why the maxim was deliberately flouted. The co-operative principle is therefore maintained by implicature. There are clear similarities here between Grice’s principles and the concepts of direct and indirect speech acts which we came across in A3. To illustrate this further, it is useful to consider some examples of the flouting of maxims. Similar to an indirect speech act, maxims can be described as being flouted when speakers are conveying a sense of implied meaning.

 Consider which of Grice’s maxims is being flouted in the following examples. Attempt to work out which conversational implicatures can be made from these scenarios:

 Between two strangers at a bus stop: ‘Lovely weather we’re having’ when it is pouring down with rain 
QUALITY

Conversation between an arguing couple: ‘Where are you going?’ ‘Out’ ‘When will you be back?’ ‘Later’ 
QUANTITY

Conversation between two students: ‘There are millions of places to eat on-campus if you’re starving’ 
QUALITY

Conversation between a couple: ‘Have you finished the laundry yet?’ ‘The Baxters over the road have bought a new dog’ 
RELEVANCE

Conversation between two friends over dinner: ‘Do you want some yoghurt?’ ‘I had yoghurt last week it was strawberry flavour really nice I do like raspberry too though the bits get stuck in my teeth I don’t like cherry or natural’ 
MANNER(unnecessary wordiness) ^ QUANTITY(too much info)

There are many different ways in which the social force of implicatures can be interpreted. They can be used to generate humour, as with irony or sarcasm, or used as expressions of annoyance or exasperation, or as metaphors or as techniques of understatement or overstatement (also known as hyperbole ), for poetic/creative effects. By flouting a conversational maxim, the speaker is deliberately drawing the hearer’s attention to a form of implicit meaning. While abiding by the conversational maxims is conceptualised as the prototypical manner in which conversation takes place, flouting maxims and searching for implicature to arrive at the implied meaning of utterances happens with regularity in everyday conversation. Consider how often you break Grice’s conversational maxims in everyday interaction, using the above examples as a guide.

Mullany, Louise, and Peter Stockwell. Introducing English Language : A Resource Book for Students, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=2129000.
Created from nottingham on 2020-11-20 08:46:09.