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 ID: 686642
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Slide1
Grice’s Maxims
Why conversation works.Slide2
Grice’s ‘Logic of conversation’
Conversation works – even when we don’t say what we mean.
Why it works so well fascinated philosopher Paul Grice. He wondered about conversations such as this:
Jack:
You’ve got a mountain to climb.
Lily:
It’s better than a slap in the face.
What is going on here, and how do we know?Slide3
Paul grice
(1913 –1988)
British educated philosopher of Language
Spent the last two decades of his career in the U.S.Slide4
Grice’s ‘Logic of conversation’
Grice concluded that conversation must follow its own set of logical principles or ‘rules.’
He worked out how, even when we don’t mean what we say – that the full pragmatic force of our utterance is easily understood, as in this example:
Lily:
This bottle’s half empty already!
Jack:
Gosh – is that the time already?
What does ‘pragmatic’ mean?Slide5
Grice’s insights
Grice decided that communication is a co-operative activity: when two people communicate it’s in their own best interests to make it go as smoothly as possible.
Speakers behave in certain predictable ways.Slide6
Grice’s ‘co-operative principle’
"Make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged“ (Paul Grice)
This translates into 4 maxims:
Quality - Manner
Quantity - RelationSlide7
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.Slide8
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.Slide9
3. Manner
“Be perspicuous” (clearly understood)
“Avoid obscurity of expression”
“ 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.Slide10
4. relevance
“Be relevant.”
So... When someone speaks to us, we assume:
- That what they say is relevant to the conversation.Slide11
The gricean
maxims
In short...
1. Be true
2. Be brief
3. Be clear
4. Be relevant
These maxims ensure that conversation is maximally efficient, rational and co-operative. It also ensures that we understand conversation.Slide12
Maxims in action
A. “How do I get to Sainsbury’s, 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 his directions are to Sainsbury’s – the maxim of relevance;
B believes the information to be clear – the maxim of manner;Slide13
Not following the maxims
You can choose to ignore the maxims – usually to create a particular effect
A speaker can choose to:
Violate – be intentionally misleading
Opt-out – refuse to co-operate
Flout – be intentionally ironicSlide14
Can you think of any examples of conversations you have had / heard recently where maxims have not been followed?Slide15
Examples of not following a maxim
Joke from comedian Les Dawson.
Not too bright, that particular lad. A salesman found him sitting on the doorstep one day. ‘Is your mother at home sonny?’ he asked. ‘Yes, replied the boy. So the salesman knocked on the door for a few minutes, then tried ringing the bell; finally he resorted to bashing on the window – all to no avail. ‘I thought you said your mother was at home,’ he snapped at the boy. ‘she is,’ came the reply, ‘only this isn’t our house.’
Is this violating / flouting/ opting out? Which maxim is being flouted?Slide16Slide17
‘violating’ a maxim
This is an interview between Jeremy
Paxman
and Michael Howard. The leader of the opposition violated the maxim of relation by not giving an answer that related to the question:
Paxman
: Did you threaten to overrule?
Howard: I was not entitled to instruct Derek Lewis and I did not instruct him.
Paxman: Did you threaten to overrule him?
Howard: The truth of the matter is that.Slide18
‘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 it’s the kind of question I cannot answer.”Slide19
Flouting
This is the most important ‘use’ of Grice’s 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.”Slide20
Task
1. Read the script and see if you can identify
when Grice’s Maxims are being followed
when Grice’s Maxims are being broken, and more importantly...
How? Which rules are not being adhered to?
2.Then have a go at writing your own scripted conversation in which Grice’s Maxims are broken.Slide21
More on grice’s
maxims
I
mplicatureSlide22
RECAP
Match the term to the definition
Term
Definition
Opt out
Be intentionally ironic
Manner
Do
not be perspicuous
Quality
Be intentionally misleading
Violate
Say
something relevant
Quantity
Say enough but not too much
Flout
Do
not lie
Relevance
Refuse to co-operateSlide23
Conversational implicature
What Grice calls ‘
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 the
semantic sense
?
What are semantics?Slide24
implicature
Flouting the maxim of…
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 a series of sentences which corresponded closely with the script of the
Twelfth Night.
Which maxim is being flouted?
What can we infer about the quality of the acting?Slide25
implicature
Flouting the maxim of …
A: What are you baking?
B: Be and I are tee aitch
dee
ay wye see ay
kay
ee.
Which maxim is being flouted?
What can we infer about the information being communicated to A?Slide26
implicature
Flouting the maxim of…
A lecturer to his student:
“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…”
To James, the comment is not relevant to what he wants to hear – so he assumes the lecturer has ‘flouted the maxim’ of relevance.
BUT…James assumes the teacher is still co-operating in the conversation by taking his turn, so he must be saying something relevant about the essay.
What can we / James infer about the quality of the essay?Slide27
How this implicature
works
On first inspection , such a comment is apparently not relevant to what James wants to hear – so he could assume that teacher has ‘flouted the maxim’ of
relevance
.
BUT, James assumes the is still co-operating by taking his conversational turn, leaving James to assume he IS saying something relevant about the quality of the essay. Therefor he is flouting the maxim of
manner.
SO, the listener assumes that the speaker assumes that the listener can work it out…Slide28
Grice in writing
So far we have looked at how the Maxims are adhered to, or not, in conversation.
However, many kinds of communication operate as interactions, a sort of ‘one sided’ conversation – letters,
advertisments
, and so on. Applying Grice’s maxims to written texts can allow us to develop subtle insights.Slide29
Grice in writing
It’s more difficult to flout Grice’s maxims in writing because it’s not so easy to ensure that your reader understands what is happening.
Why?
You lose prosodic features like stress and intonation. You also lose paralinguistic features like body language.Slide30
What maxims are being flouted?
What
implicatures
are being created?
To what effect?
For what purpose?Slide31
Task
We are going to look at a transcript of conversation together.
I then want you to work individually to write an analysis of this extract, looking for:
- Grice’s maxims - followed or not?
- If not, which maxim is being ignored and in which way?
Why?
- What does this say about: the context of the conversation, the speakers, their relationship to one another
etc.