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Applying Grice's Maxims Four conversational maxims govern …krpb.pbworks.com/f/Grice.pdf · Applying Grice's Maxims Four conversational maxims govern inferences in conversations;

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Page 1: Applying Grice's Maxims Four conversational maxims govern …krpb.pbworks.com/f/Grice.pdf · Applying Grice's Maxims Four conversational maxims govern inferences in conversations;

Applying Grice's Maxims

Four conversational maxims govern inferences in conversations; Grice

suggests that cooperation in conversation is based on speakers and hearers using the

following guidelines to interpret the inferences necessary to make sense of

conversation.

1. Quantity: be informative

a) make your contribution as informative as required.

b) don’t make your contribution more informative than required.

2. Quality: be truthful

a) don’t say what you believe to be false.

b) don’t say that for which you lack evidence.

3. Relation: be relevant. (A real "catch-all" maxim that could subsume all

others. Also vague: what is "relevant"?

4. Manner: be perspicuous.

a) avoid obscurity of expression.

b) avoid ambiguity.

c) be brief. (Note: not the same thing as 1(b), which concerns amount

of information, not number of words.)

d) be orderly.

NOTE: Grice’s point is not that we always follow these maxims -- we don’t! -- but

that, when there is a need to interpret an indirect or amibuous statement, we are

guided by the maxims.

The maxims guide conversational inferences in 2 ways:

1) usually we assume that a speaker is trying to obey the maxims, so we

cooperatively infer whatever information would be needed to bring his

utterance into conformity with the maxim.

Ex: A: Does John have a girlfriend?

B: Well, he goes to Kingman every weekend.

Interpretation: B intends his answer to be relevant to A’s question. So A

infers that B believes John has a girlfriend in Kingman.

Ex: A: John has three children.

B: OK, I’ll bring home three balloons.

Page 2: Applying Grice's Maxims Four conversational maxims govern …krpb.pbworks.com/f/Grice.pdf · Applying Grice's Maxims Four conversational maxims govern inferences in conversations;

Interpretation: A is being as informative as is required; so B can conclude that John

has 3 and only 3 children. B would be very surprised to find out that John

actually has 4 children, and A knew that.

But notice that, even so, A wouldn’t literally have lied: if John has 4 children,

he obviously has 3. It’s just that we’re so used to assuming that the Maxim of

Quantity governs conversation that we automatically draw the inference that

the speaker means "3 and only 3".

Similar example: "The flag is red and white."

Inference: it’s not red, white and blue.

2) However, sometimes the speaker will FLOUT (disobey) a maxim in a very obvious way.

In that case, we also draw an inference.

Ex 1 (irony): A: John just failed another test.

B: Boy, that guy’s a a real genius!

Interpretation: B is disobeying the Maxim of Quality in such an obvious way that we

assume he must intend to be ironic.

Ex 2 (a letter of recommendation for a teaching post):

Dear Sir:

Mr. Jones’ handwriting is neat and his attendance at seminars has

been regular.

Yours very truly, Prof. X.

Interpretation: Prof. X is so obviously flouting the Maxim of Quantity that we assume

he’s trying to get the reader to infer something -- probably that Jones is a

terrible candidates.

Ex 3 (from a concert review): "Miss Smith produced a sequence of notes that closely

resembled in pitch and timbre the notes of "Home Sweet Home".