The Practical Application of Relation Maxim in TV Series

Abstract：The Relation Maxim of Cooperative Principle put forward by H.P.Grice can be effective in analyzing peoples conversation and sometimes the violations of the four maxims can lead to conversational implicature to achieve certain conversational functions such as humor，irony，etc.This paper attempts to analyze how the maxim is applied in the TV series The Desperate Housewives.

Key words：Cooperative Principle；the Relation Maxim of CP

1 Chapter One Introduction

The Desperate Housewives，a popular US TV series，has been sweeping the world，especially attracting many Chinese young people attention，for its humorous language，interesting plots and perfect television-making.Conversation in the series shows viewers the American way of talking and communicating and their life values by the way of deliberately violating Cooperative Principle.As a result，more and more researchersattention are attracted to focus on the scripts and to explore speakersreal intention and the effect they want to express.

2Chapter Two Relation Maxim

Normally people are likely to follow the potential principle when talking：“make your conversational contribution as is required，at the stage at which it occurs，by the accepted purpose or direction of the exchange in which you are engaged”（Grice，cited by Liu，2012）.That is，what he called the Cooperative Principle.To explain the principle further，Grice introduced quality maxim as follows：

“The Maxim of Relation

Be relevant.”

3 Chapter Three Violation of the Maxim of Relation

3.1Lynette：So your boss made you return her underwear？

Claire：Yeah.After she had already worn them once.

Lynette：Couldnt you have just said no？

Claire：You dont say no to Alexis...If you want to keep your job.

Here we can see when Lynette asked why the Claire didnt refuse her bosss rude request，Claire seemed say something that was irrelevant to answer Lynettes question directly.She changed subject to “you” just to refer to herself.What she implied was that if she wanted to continue her work，she had to do what her boss asked her to do no matter she liked or not.By saying this，Claire expressed her unwillingness of being suppressed by her boss and her anger about Alexiss mighty and power over servant.Thus we can see here that the violation of the maxim of relation may seemingly be inconsistent with the topic of discussion，but in fact the respondent just convey his message in an indirect way，trying to transfer the topic in order to get his implicature understood better.

3.2 Bree：Oh，Andrew，Im gonna want you home by 11 on Saturday.

Andrew：11？Mom，its not even a school night！

Rex：Bree，a curfew isnt gonna do any good.

Bree：You may be able to abdicate all your parental responsibility.But I cannot.

Just several days ago，Bree found a condom at home when she was cleaning.Then she was shocked being told it didnt belong to her husband.She cared so much about her children that she was afraid of them doing something wrong badly.So she asked her son going back early at partys night.However，Rex held different opinions about the thing.He believed that children needed their own space and right to choose what they should do and not.When their opinions were collided，Bree insisted that talking to children directly and forbidding was correct to do.On another hand，she thought Rex didnt do what a responsible father should do.Here Brees response seemed irrelevant to Rexs utterances that she was seemingly blamed Rex for his inability of educating children.By saying in that way，actually she was trying to urge Rex to go back to his position and do the right thing，standing with her.Brees words didnt just aim at saying or informing；instead her real purpose was to require Rex to behave what she believed appropriate and correct.

4 Chapter Four Conclusion

Therefore，after analyzing the previous examples，it is not difficult to see that even though the maxim of relation demand people to say pertinently to the communicational theme and adjust to the speakers purpose，thus promoting a successful conversation，there is still quite possibility for participant to violate the maxim.The effect produced can be various，such as humor，intention to cover real feelings，changing current circumstance，conveying the meaning or transfer the implicature in a less flatly way based on the speakers willingness.

參考文獻

[1]Georgia M.Green.Pragmatics and Natural Language Understanding [M].Mahwah，New Jersey：Lawrence Erlbaum Associates，1996.

[2]Grice H P.Logic and Conversation in Pragmatics [M].edited by Steven Davis.Oxford：Oxford University Press，1975.

[3]劉潤清.新編語言學教程[M].北京：外語教學與研究出版社，2012.

作者簡介

黃皓（1993—），女，山西省臨汾市人，山西財經大學研究生在讀，外國語言學及應用語言學，研究方向：英語教學。