Conversational Maxims

8/6/2019 Conversational Maxims

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CONVERSATIONALCONVERSATIONALMAXIMSMAXIMS

Paul Grice, a British-educated philosopher oflanguage who spent the final two decades of hiscareer in the U.S., noted that all conversationsfollow a basic set of rules which people use toexpress themselves when speaking.


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y Imagine what would happen to language if there were

no rules to follow during conversations. It would beperfectly acceptable to follow Hi, how are you doing?with birds fly in the sky, or to simply lie with everystatement you make. But then conversations would beimpossible to have.

y And while everyone follows Grices rules, it doesntnecessarily mean that people are aware of what therules are or how they work. In fact, Grices maxims

often work outside of our immediate awareness.

y The question now is, what exactly are these rules?


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Cooperative PrincipleCooperative Principle

y 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 iscalled the Cooperative Principle.

y Grice further identified 4 groups ofmaxims which people implicitly obey

when communicating.


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The four Conversational MaximsThe four Conversational Maxims

y A. Maxims of quality1. Do not say what your believe to be false.2. Do not say that for which you lack adequateevidence.

y B. Maxims of quantity

1. Make your contribution as informative as required.2. Do not make your contribution more informativethan is required.

y C. Maxim of relation1. Be relevant.

y D. Maxims of manner1. Avoid obscurity of expression.2. Avoid ambiguity.3. Be brief.4. Be orderly.


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Maxim of Quality.Maxim of Quality.

y According to the first rule, people areexpected to say what they know to betrue.

y When talking with each other we expectthe others to tell us the truth.

y Example:

If your friend asks, have you seen mydog? an honest answer is expected.


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Maxim of QuantityMaxim of Quantity

y According to this rule, when talking, we areexpected to providejust enough informationto get our point across.

y We usually assume that people are telling useverything we need to know. If they dontsay something, then we assume they simplydont know that information.

y To be as informative as required, anutterance must (most of the time...) at leastbe informative at all.


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y We can get a grip on this minimal requirementusing inference. The key idea is that an utterance

must contain something new to be informative.The content of the utterance must not beimplied by the preceding information.

y Example:

Mary has a husband.

and

If Mary is married then she has a husband. She ismarried.

y Minimal and lesser information is enclosed in theformer sentence.


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Maxim of RelationMaxim of Relation

y According to this rule, you are expected tostay on the topic.

y In other words, make sure that what yousay is relevant for what is talked about.

y Example: If asked:

y Isnt Larry the biggest jerk you ever met?you certainly wont be on topic if youanswer by saying:

y Uh, it sure is nice for this time of year, eh?


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Maxim of Manner.Maxim of Manner.

y The last rule states that your commentsshould be direct, clear, and to the point.

y

This maxim relates to the form of speechyou use. You shouldnt use words you knowyour listeners wont understand or saythings which you know could be takenmultiple ways.

y You should also not state something in along, drawn-out way if you could say it in amuch simpler manner.


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y Example:

y Miss Singer produced a series of sounds

corresponding closely to the score of The

Star-Spangled Banner

y vs.

y Miss Singer sang The Star-Spangled

Banner.


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PRESU

PPOSITION

PRESU

PPOSITION


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y A presupposition (or ps) is an implicit

assumption about the world or backgroundbelief relating to an utterance whose truth istaken for granted in discourse.

y Examples of presuppositions include:Do you want to do it again?

Presupposition: that you have done it already,at least once.

y Jane no longer writes fiction.

Presupposition: that Jane once wrote fiction.


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y Example:

The utterance:

John, are you going to the caf?

Presupposed:

John is going to eat or buy something in the caf. The speaker wants to know whether John can go

to the caf with him.

The speaker wants John to buy something forhim.

y What does the word him in the abovepresuppositions presupposed?


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y The utterance:

John regrets that he stopped doinglinguistics before he left Cambridge

y Has the following presuppositions:

There is someone uniquely identifiable tospeaker and addressee as John.

John stopped doing linguistics before he leftCambridge.

John was doing linguistics before he leftCambridge.

John left Cambridge.

John had been at Cambridge.


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y Crucially, negation of an expression does notchange its presuppositions:

y 1st Example:

I want to do it againand

I don't want to do it again

both presuppose that the subject has done italready one or more times.

y 2nd Example:

My wife is pregnantand

My wife is not pregnantboth presuppose that the subject has a wife

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