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Pragmatics

The document discusses the rules or maxims that govern normal conversation. It explains that for successful communication, both parties must cooperate according to the Cooperative Principle. This principle includes four groups of maxims: (1) Quality - don't lie or make unsupported claims, (2) Relevance - be relevant to the topic of discussion, (3) Quantity - provide the right amount of information, not too little or too much, and (4) Manner - avoid obscurity, ambiguity, and be brief and orderly. These maxims allow for more efficient communication and also allow people to imply meanings or criticize indirectly.

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609 views

Pragmatics

The document discusses the rules or maxims that govern normal conversation. It explains that for successful communication, both parties must cooperate according to the Cooperative Principle. This principle includes four groups of maxims: (1) Quality - don't lie or make unsupported claims, (2) Relevance - be relevant to the topic of discussion, (3) Quantity - provide the right amount of information, not too little or too much, and (4) Manner - avoid obscurity, ambiguity, and be brief and orderly. These maxims allow for more efficient communication and also allow people to imply meanings or criticize indirectly.

Uploaded by

BlackAttila
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Rules of Conversation

Imagine what would happen to language if there were no rules to follow


during conversations.
Then it would be perfectly acceptable to follow Hi, how are you doing?
with cars are typically made from steel, or to simply lie with every
statement you made. But then communication would be virtually impossible.
It is clear that in normal conversation we dont simply say whatever we
please, but instead follow some general guidelines as to what is acceptable
and what isnt.

Linguistics 201, April 16, 2001

Kordula De Kuthy

The question now is, what exactly are these rules?


One of the most basic assumptions we must make for successful
communication to take place is that both people in a conversation are
cooperating.
This is called the Cooperative Principle. (conceived originally by the
philosopher H. P. Grice.)
Grice further identified 4 groups of maxims (principles) which people
implicitly obey when communicating. These are the Conversational
Maxims.

Conversational Maxims

Flouting a Maxim

A Maxims of Quality
If one of the maxims is violated by some utterance, and yet we are still
assuming that that person is cooperating with us in communication, we
can take that violation as a sign that something is being said indirectly.

1. Do not say what you believe to be false.


(i.e., dont lie)
2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
(i.e., dont say things which you cant back up)

This is called exploiting or flouting a maxim (deliberately violating it).

One of the main uses of the maxims, aside from describing how
communication generally takes place, is to signal the presence of indirect
speech.

(1) a. Thats great (sarcastically) (A.1)


b. Chicagos in Kansas isnt it, teacher?
Yes, and I suppose L.A.s in Idaho as well. (A.1)

Conversational Maxims

Conversational Maxims

B Maxim of Relevance

C Maxims of Quantity

1. Be relevant.
The most important maxim, since it is responsible for preventing random,
incoherent conversations lacking any continuity such as the example
above and in the book.
(2) a. Is Gail dating anyone these days?
Well, she goes to Cleveland every weekend.

1. Make your contribution as informative as is required.


(i.e., Dont say too little)
2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
(i.e., Dont say too much)
We usually assume that people are telling us everything we need to know.
If they dont say something, then we assume they simply dont know
that information.
(3) a. John and Mary have 2 children.
Are they planning on having a third?
They already have a third child. C.1
b. How did Harry fare in court the other day?
Oh, he got a fine. (But Harry also got a death sentence) C.1

b. Isnt Larry the biggest jerk you ever met?


Uh, it sure is nice for this time of year, eh?
(Larry is in earshot of speaker A)
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Conversational Maxims

Conversational Maxims

D Maxims of Manner
1.
2.
3.
4.

Reasons for Maxims:

Avoid obscurity of expression.


Avoid ambiguity.
Be brief.
Be orderly.

These maxims allow us to be more brief in communicating, since we


dont need to say everything we would need to if we were being perfectly
logical. (we dont say John has 4 and only 4 children)

These maxims relate to the form of speech you use. You shouldnt use
words you know your listeners wont understand or say things which you
know could be taken multiple ways. You should also not state something
in a long, drawn-out way if you could say it in a much simpler manner.
(4) a.

Miss Singer produced a series of sounds corresponding closely


to the score of The Star-Spangled Banner
Miss Singer sang The Star-Spangled Banner D.3
b. ?? John rode into the sunset and jumped on his horse D.4
7

Also, they allow us to say things indirectly to avoid some of the discomfort
which comes from saying unpleasant things directly.
They also allow us to insult/deride people indirectly without as much
danger of confrontation.
They allow us to imply dissatisfaction/anger without putting us in a
position where we will have to directly defend our views.
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