PRAGMATICS

MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION Grices Logic of Conversation  Conversation works - even when we dont say what we mean.  Why it works so well fascinated philosopher Paul Grice. He wondered about conversations such as this: Jack: Youve got a mountain to climb! Lily: Its better than a slap in the face.  Grice wondered just how we make meaning out of such conversation.  Grice concluded that conversation must follow its own set of logical principles or rules which spell out how rational agents behave in order to make language use efficient.  He worked out how, even when we dont mean what we say that the full pragmatic force of our utterance is easily understood, as in this third example: Lily: This bottles half empty already! Jack: Gosh - is that the time already? Grices Insights  Communication is a co-operative activity: when two people communicate, its in their interests to make the communication go as smoothly as possible in order to achieve their aims.  Speakers behave in certain predictable ways.  When we, as hearers, try to work out what someone means, we do it by assuming theyre being co-operative. Grices Co-operative Principle Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose and direction of the exchange in which you are engaged.     Assumes all speakers to be sane and desiring to communicate. In order to communicate, we must co-operate with each other by following four maxims. If someone obviously flouts the maxims, there must be a reason. Co-operation is built around a series of Gricean maxims: quality, quantity, relation, manner

GRICEAN MAXIMS 1. Quality  Do not say what you believe to be false.  Do not say that for which you lack evidence. So when someone speaks to us, we assume:  that what they say is not knowingly untruthful;  that the truthfulness of what they say does not need to be made stated. Example:

 A friend's father considers whether or not to buy your friend's old car, and you are aware that your friend's old car has broken down before. A: Should I buy your friend's used car? B Improper: Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, his car runs fine. B Proper: I don't know if that's such a good idea, his car breaks down all the time. 2. Quantity  Make your contribution as informative as is required.  Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. So when someone speaks to us, we assume:  they do not purposefully hold back anything that is important;  they do not give more information than is asked. Example:  A man stops his vehicle in the middle of the road to briefly ask you for directions. A: Where is the post office? B Improper: There are two in town, but the closest one is brand new. Down the road, about 50 metres past the second left. Also, you shouldn't stop your car in the middle of the road anymore. B Improper: Not far. B Proper: Continue on, and make the second left up there. You'll see it. 3. Manner  Be perspicuous.  Avoid obscurity of expression.  Avoid ambiguity.  Be brief.  Be orderly. So when someone speaks to us, we assume:  that what they say is being said as straightforwardly as they can say it. Example: A: Can you take out the trash? B Improper: Well, it is probable that I would take out the trash more often if someone weren't flagrantly wasteful, such that the majority of trash weren't always coming from that person. B Proper: Yes, but we need to talk about how we are assigning the chores around here when I get back. 4. Relevance  Be relevant. So when someone speaks to us , we assume: that what they say is relevant to the conversation. Example 1: A: How are you doing in school? B Improper: What fine weather we're having lately! B Proper: Not so well, I'm afraid. I'd rather not discuss it. B Proper: Mind your own business. Example 2: A: (Noticeably indicating boredom) Ugh, I wonder what time it is...

B Improper: It's 6:30. B Proper:It's 6:30. So, you have the whole night ahead of you! Have you eaten at Harrys before? B Proper: It's 6:30, I have a meeting to go to at 7:00, but maybe you'd like to do something afterwards? The Gricean Maxims 1. Be true 2. Be brief 3. Be clear 4. Be relevant In short, these maxims specify what the participants have to do in order to converse in a maximally efficient, rational, co-operative way: they should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly while providing sufficient information. Levinson (1983) The maxims in action A. How do I get to Sainsburys, mate? B. Go straight ahead, turn right at the school, then left at the bus stop on the hill. Speaker A assumes that:  B believes his directions to be genuine the maxim of quality;  B believes the information to be sufficient the maxim of quantity;  B believes the information to be clear the maxim of manner;  B believes his directions are to Sainsburys the maxim of relation. Not following the maxims Grice recognized that while we could choose not to follow a maxim, such a choice would be conscious and consequential. A speaker can choose to  violate a maxim and be intentionally misleading.  opt out of a maxim and refuse to co-operate.  deal with a clash of maxims, for instance, between saying enough and saying all that we know to be true.  flout a maxim and be intentionally ironic.

A. Violating a Maxim In this BBC interview between Jeremy Paxman and Michael Howard, the leader of the opposition violates the maxim of relation by not giving an answer that relates to the question: Paxman: Howard: Paxman: Howard: Did you threaten to overrule? I was not entitled to instruct Derek Lewis and I did not instruct him. Did you threaten to overrule him? The truth of the matter is that.

B. Opting out Here, Paxman asks the Prime Minister a question; the minister opts out of the maxim of relation: Paxman: When will war become inevitable?

PM:

Well I know you have to ask that question but its the kind of question I cannot answer.

C. Flouting  This is the most important use of Grices maxims.  Unlike violating, flouting a maxim allows a speaker to signal that although they seem to be violating a maxim, they are still co-operating. Mmm Donuts Homie, those pants look awful tight to me. Which leads us very nicely on to Grices key idea of Implicature

Conversational Implicature Gricean Pragmatics knowing what isnt said  What Grice called implicature occurs when a speaker chooses to flout a maxim.  The listener, assuming that the speaker still intends being cooperative, looks for meaning other than that which is said.  The intended meaning will be arrived at through the speaker working out the pragmatic force of the utterance rather than its semantic sense. Flouting the maxim of quantity A: I hear you went to the theatre last night; what play did you see? B: Well, I watched a number of people stand on the stage in Elizabethan costumes uttering series of sentences which corresponded closely with the script of Twelfth Night. Here, Bs verbose answer, although it doesnt say anything more than I saw a performance of Twelfth Night, invites A to infer that the performers were doing a miserably bad job of acting.

Flouting the maxim of quality A: What are you baking? B: Be i are tee aitch dee ay wye see ay kay ee. By answering obscurely, B conveys to A the implicature that the information is to be kept secret from the young child who is in the room with them. Flouting the maxim of manner  When discussing an essay with a student, it is customary for a teacher to be polite and to find things to praise So let me say straight away, James,that your essay is beautifully printed, the font has been immaculately well chosen and the positioning of those staples is a work of sheer genius...

How the implicature works To James, such a comment is apparently not relevant to what he wants to hear so he assumes his teacher has flouted the maxim of relevance.

BUT James assumes the teacher is still co-operating in the conversation by taking his conversational turn leaving James to assume he is trying to convey something relevant about the quality of the essay. SO If James assumes the essay is other than worthless, then the teacher is observing the cooperative Principle. The listener assumes that the speaker assumes that the listener can work it out.

The Politeness Principle

 Geoffrey Leech proposed the need for politeness maxims as a prerequisite for conversational co-operation.  In the absence of politeness, Leech suggested, it will be assumed that an attitude of politeness is absent.  Each maxim has two forms: positive and negative.  Each maxim has a lesser sub-maxim that recognises the general law that negative politeness that we seek to minimise discord is more important than positive politeness that we seek concord. Leechs Politeness Maxims 1. Tact: minimise the cost to others [sub-maxim: maximise benefit to others] The first part of this maxim fits in with Brown and Levinsons negative politeness strategy of minimizing the imposition, and the second part reflects the positive politeness strategy of attending to the hearer's interests, wants, and needs Could I interrupt you for a second? If I could just clarify this then. 2. Generosity: minimise benefit to self [maximise cost to self] Unlike the tact maxim, the maxim of generosity focuses on the speaker, and says that others should be put first instead of the self. You relax and let me do the dishes. You must come and have dinner with us. 3. Approbation: minimise dispraise of others [maximise praise of other] It is preferred to praise others and if this is impossible, to sidestep the issue, to give some sort of minimal response (possibly through the use of euphemisms), or to remain silent. The first part of the maxim avoids disagreement; the second part intends to make other people feel good by showing solidarity. I heard you singing at the karaoke last night. It sounded like you were enjoying yourself! Gideon, I know you're a genius - would you know how to solve this math problem here? 4. Modesty: minimise praise of self [maximise dispraise of self] Oh, I'm so stupid - I didn't make a note of our lecture! Did you?

5. Agreement: minimise disagreement between self and others [maximise agreement between self and other] It is in line with Brown and Levinsons positive politeness strategies of 'seek agreement' and 'avoid disagreement,' to which they attach great importance. However, it is not being claimed that people totally avoid disagreement. It is simply observed that they are much more direct in expressing agreement, rather than disagreement. A: I don't want my daughter to do this, I want her to do that. B: Yes, but ma'am, I thought we resolved this already on your last visit. 6. Sympathy: minimise antipathy between self and others [maximise sympathy between self and other] This includes a small group of speech acts such as congratulation, commiseration, and expressing condolences - all of which is in accordance with Brown and Levinson's positive politeness strategy of attending to the hearer's interests, wants, and needs. I am sorry to hear about your father.

RELEVANCE THEORY
Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson (1986, 1995)  All Gricean maxims, inc. the CP itself, should be reduced to a single principle of relevance:  Every act of ostensive communication communicates the presumption of its own optimal relevance.  Ostensive communication:  They agree with Grice that communication is not simply a matter of encoding and decoding, it also involves inference.  But they maintain that inference has only to do with the hearer. From the speaker's side, communication should be seen as an act of making clear one's intention to express something. This act they call ostensive act. In other words, a complete characterization of communication is that it is ostensive-inferential.  Presumption of optimal relevance:  Initial version: An assumption is relevant in a context if and only if it has some contextual effect in that context.  Final Version: A phenomenon is relevant to an individual if and only if one or more of the assumptions it makes manifest is relevant to him.  EXAMPLES: 1. Mary: How many loaves of bread do we have? Bill: five. Bill did not say "five loaves". He also did not say "five loaves of bread". Both are implied with his reply. But both are somewhat redundant. What Bill said was just enough to understand his meaning. Mary fills in the missing context-mediated information, i.e. that the question was

about loaves of bread and not about something else. She understands that they have five loaves of bread from Bill's one word answer. 2. Mary: Would you like to come for a run? Bill: I'm resting today. We understand from this example that Bill does not want to go for a run. But that is not what he said. He only said enough for Mary to add the context-mediated information: i.e. someone who is resting doesn't usually go for a run. The implication is that Bill doesn't want to go for a run today.  These examples illustrate an important point: Speech radically under-determines thought. So what we say (write etc.) is small compared to the thoughts it provokes. 3. George has a big cat.  George has a tiger, a lion, a jaguar, etc.  George has a tiger.  George has a tiger or a lion, I'm not sure which.  George has a felid.