Grice (1975) Cooperative Principle and associated maxims


Grice (1975) proposed a theory of conversation which consists of a Cooperative Principle and associated maxims:

-        The maxim of quantity, relates to the amount of information provided in conversations where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.
-        The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence. This requires information contributed to be authentic in each turn of the conversation.
-        The maxim of relation, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion. Grice proposed this maxim as a conversational regulatory in regards to the relevance of information being contributed.
-        The maxim of manner, relates to the way information is provided when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.

As Grice pointed out, these maxims are not always observed and are quietly violated or openly flouted. Quiet violations being that it is not obvious at the time of occurrence that the speaker has deliberately lied, supplied information, or been ambiguous, irrelevant or hard to understand. According to Grice, these violations might distort communication but do not lead to implicatures. The latter happens when a maxim is openly flouted. In this situation, the hearer is aware that the speaker has deliberately and openly failed to observe one or more of the maxims at the time of utterance.

An example of quietly violating the maxim of quantity:
[A and B are both at a Mathematics conference]
A: What do you study now?
B: Mathematics.
In this scenario B has provided less information than is required. Replying “Mathematics” in response to A’s question is not enough here, as A already knows that B studies Mathematics because of the nature of the conference. An appropriate answer could be “Combinatorics” or “Number Theory”, where the right amount of information is contributed.

Example of flouting the same maxim:
[B is female (wife)]
A: I heard that you bought a new house. Congratulations!
B: [smiling] No, actually my husband bought it.
Here, B is giving more information than is necessary. Since buying a house is considered a family matter, both parties understand what A meant. But for the sake of comedy, B gives more information about the ownership.

References
Tsojon, I. Y., & Jonah, P. K. (2016). An Analysis of the Pragmatic Implicatures of Selected Advert Billboards around Jos Metropolis in Terms of Grice (1975) Maxims of Cooperative Principle. International Journal of English Language Teaching, 3(1). doi:10.5430/ijelt.v3n1p42

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