Wildean Maxims,Gricean Maxims:dotheCharacters inEarnest Cooperate?

N.Saudo-Welby,UniversitédePicardie(CORPUS)

“itismucheasier(…)totellthetruththantoinventlies.”

PaulGrice

“Makeyourconversationalcontributionsuchasisrequired,atthestageatwhichitoccurs,bytheacceptedpurposeordirectionofthetalkexchangeinwhichyouareengaged.OnemightlabelthistheCooperativePrinciple.”

PaulGrice,“Logicandconversation.” StudiesintheWayofWords.HarvardUP,1989,p.26.

TheFourMaximsofConversation

• Quantity :Beasinformativeasisrequired,notmoreinformativethanisrequired.

• Quality :Trytomakeyourcontributiononethatistrue.Donotsaythatforwhichyoulackadequateevidence.

• Relation :Berelevant.• Manner :beperspicuous(clear).

PaulGrice,“Logicandconversation”,p.26.

ThemaximofMannerisasupermaximincluding:

• avoidobscurityofexpression.• avoidambiguity.• bebrief(avoidunnecessaryprolixity).• beorderly.

PaulGrice,“Logicandconversation”,p.27.

Implicatures

Jack. The late Mr. Thomas Cardew, an old gentleman of a very charitableand kindly disposition, found me, and gave me the name of Worthing,because he happened to have a first-class ticket for Worthing in his pocketat the time. Worthing is a place in Sussex. It is a seaside resort.Lady Bracknell. Where did the charitable gentleman who had a first-classticket for this seaside resort find you?Jack. [Gravely.] In a hand-bag.Lady Bracknell. A hand-bag?Jack. [Very seriously.] Yes, Lady Bracknell. I was in a hand-bag – asomewhat large, black leather hand-bag, with handles to it – an ordinaryhand-bag in fact.Lady Bracknell. In what locality did this Mr. James, or Thomas, Cardewcome across this ordinaryhand-bag?Jack. In the cloak-room at Victoria Station. It was given to him in mistakefor his own.Lady Bracknell. The cloak-room at Victoria Station?Jack. Yes. The Brighton line.Lady Bracknell. The line is immaterial.

(Norton p. 19)

Jack. [Slowly and hesitatingly.] Gwendolen – Cecily – itis very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. Itis the first time in my life that I have ever been reducedto such a painful position, and I am really quiteinexperienced in doing anything of the kind.(Norton,p.43)

“Itismucheasier,forexample,totellthetruththantoinventlies.”

PaulGrice,“LogicandConversation”,p.29.

ALGERNON: You had much better have the thingout at once.JACK. My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were adentist. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist whenone isn’t a dentist. It produces a false impression.ALGERNON. Well, that is exactly what dentistsalways do.

(Norton p. 10)

Algernon. It is a great bore, and, I need hardly say, a terribledisappointment to me, but the fact is I have just had atelegram to say that my poor friend Bunbury is very ill again.[Exchanges glances with Jack.] They seem to think I should bewith him.Lady Bracknell. It is very strange. This Mr. Bunbury seems tosuffer from curiously bad health.Algernon. Yes; poor Bunbury is a dreadful invalid.Lady Bracknell. Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it ishigh time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he wasgoing to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question isabsurd. Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathywith invalids. I consider it morbid. (…) Health is the primaryduty of life. (…) I should be much obliged if you would ask Mr.Bunbury, from me, to be kind enough not to have a relapse onSaturday, for I rely on you to arrange mymusic for me.

(Norton p. 14)

• JohnL.Austin,HowtoDoThingswithWords(1962).Oxford:OUP,1992.

• PaulGrice,« Logicandconversation.»StudiesintheWayofWords.HarvardUP,1989,p.22-40.Enlignesurhttp://courses.media.mit.edu/2005spring/mas962/Grice.pdf

• AlexisTadié,« “AnAgeofSurfaces” :lelangagedelacomédiedansTheImportanceofBeingEarnest »(2005)reprisinPascalAquien etXavierGiudicelli,dir.,TheImportanceofBeing Earnestd’OscarWilde.Paris,Pressesdel’UniversitéParis-Sorbonne,2015,p.135-55.