grice's maxims - by anastancio macuacua

Acting and Conversing: Grice’s Maxims by Anastâncio Ariel Macuácua

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Acting and Conversing: Grice’s Maxims

Presented at Universidade Pedagógica – Maputo, Mozambique/ Year 2011/ April

Subject: Sociolinguistics

Course: ELT

Author: Anastâncio Ariel Macuácua

Good afternoon everyone, in continuation, I am going to give some contributions on the matter Acting

and Conversing. I’m particularly going to talk about the Cooperative principle of the philosopher

Grice, a British philosopher of language who spent the final two decades of his career in Berkeley,

California, United States.

In the due course of my presentation I intend to define the key concepts, bring some analogy between

the conversational rules and a chess game. To carry on, I’ll state the cooperative principle then I’ll

devote most of the time to the conversational maxims, where, as you will see, there will be many

definitions and useful examples. Then, not far from the end I’ll shed some light on the theory of

implicature and to conclude I’ll give some considerations on the value of the maxims then talk briefly

about the speaking model of Dell Hymes.

Well, in a general perspective:

Utterance – something that someone says

Act – something that you do

Inference -- to form an opinion or guess that something is true because of the information

that you have

In a Sociolinguistic perspective, Grice defines utterances as various kinds of acts and

Acts are defined by Dell Hymes as: The order or sequence of events that take place during the

speech. Such as introduction, development and conclusion in some types of speech.

Conversation is defined by Grice as: the exchange of acts or exchange of utterances.

According to the philosopher Grice, in any conversation there’s a limitation of moves to make at any

given time because of the rules that govern conversation. This can be compared to a chess game (the

pawns are not allowed to move sideways not even diagonally, if it happens your piece is captured, so,

in conversation if you don’t follow one of the rules, you fail to communicate. Such rules go by the name

of Conversational Maxims and they branch from the cooperative principle.



According to Grice, the cooperative principle is the most important in conversation.

The cooperative Principle is as follows:

Make your conversational contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which occurs, by the

accepted purpose or direction of talk exchange in which you are engaged.

Not clear? To understand the cooperative principle we need to look at the maxims.

Conversational Maxims

The cooperative principle implies decisions in four major areas referred to as Maxims. They are as

follows:

1. Relation – Relevance

Be relevant

e.g.: If I’m washing clothes, I do not expect to be handed a good novel but a good washing powder.

2. Quality – Truth

a) Do not say what you believe to be false

b) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

N.B.: This maxim also suggests that we shouldn’t give utterances based on assumptions or hear-says.

We should always depart from facts.

E.g.: Don’t just say that the teacher is not coming today just because he didn’t come yesterday. You

must have proof/evidence.

3. Quantity – Information

a) Make your contributions as informative as required

b) Do not say more than is required

N.B.: You should say neither more nor less than required

E.g.: If you are assisting me to fix a computer, and at a given moment I ask for 4 screws, I expect you

to hand me just four screws, not two or six.

3. Manner – Clarity

a) Avoid obscurity of expression ( use common and current expressions)

Bizarre – Strange

Comrade – Friend

Foe – Enemy



I vouch by – I swear by, bliss – Happiness

Why is your countenance fallen? – Why are you down/gloomy?

I do not mean that these expressions must never be used, they may be used in specific occasions or,

better off, be left to literature.

b) Avoid ambiguity

c) Be brief (Short and precise)

d) Be orderly (Cohesive and coherent)

Consequences of not complying with the maxims

Grice points that speakers do not always follow these maxims and as a result they implicate something

different from what they actually say.

Or provoke a situation of a Decoding of degree zero, where the speaker’s utterances cannot be decoded

or deciphered successfully. So, if that’s the case it has to be said that communication did not take place.

Reason why speakers do not follow the maxims

The speaker may choose to violate a maxim or intentionally flout it (not obey it), or be caught in a

situation of a clash (occurrence of two maxims at the same time). Or be taken away by the desire of

impressing his audience.

Let’s quickly look at some examples of violation of maxims.

1. A and B are talking about a mutual friend, C, who is now working in a bank. A asks B how C is getting

on in his new job and B replies: Oh, quite well, I think he likes his colleagues and he hasn’t been to

prison yet.

Note: In this example B violated the maxim: Relation: Be relevant, and he implicates that C is

potentially dishonest.

2. A. What’s your name?

B. Well, it’s a long story, my parents took long to give me a name because my father had some doubts,

so uncle Joseph decided to name me after him to solve the problem.

A. I’m going to call you well

Note: In this example B violates the maxim: Quantity, and implicates that he is a bastard.

3. A.When was the fall of the Roman Empire?

B. for your information, the Roman Empire was the greatest of all times, nobody imagined it would

come to decline exactly in the year 500.

Note: B violates the maxim quantity and implicates that A is a tabula rasa.



These implications lead us to the theory of Conversational Implicature which states that the utterance

of a speaker is overly determining for the listener’s Inferencing. If A speaks with irrelevance,

inadequacy or inappropriateness B will be bound to, consequently, make a wrong inferencing.

In summary, it has to be said that the Grice’s maxims are overly important in the sense that:

Conversation is understood as a cooperative activity, so speakers and listeners share a set of assumptions

about what’s happening;

The compliance of the maxims makes conversations predictable and pleasant;

It allows speakers and listeners to figure out the relationship between the said and the unsaid;

It keeps the participants aware of the communication goals, exchanges and needs.

4. The SPEAKING MODEL OF DELL HYMES

(Speech analysis)

In order to speak a language correctly, one does not only need to learn its vocabulary and

grammar, but also the context in which words are used. In the speaking model the following

aspects of the linguistic situation are considered:

S - Setting and Scene - The setting refers to the time and place while scene describes the

environment of the situation.

P - Participants - This refers to who is involved in the speech including the speaker and the

audience.

E - Ends - The purpose and goals of the speech along with any outcomes of the speech.

A - Act Sequence - The order of events that took place during the speech.

K - Key - The overall tone or manner of the speech.

I - Instrumentalities - The form and style of the speech being given.

N - Norms - Defines what is socially acceptable at the event. The Conversational maxims

G - Genre - The type of speech that is being given.

Bibliography

Coulthard, Malcom. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis London and New York. Longman.1985

Hymes, Dell. Foundations of Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: U of

Pennsylvania P, 1974.

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grice's maxims - by anastancio macuacua

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