Review of the application of Gricean Maxims:A Universal Principle

【Abstract】This article reviews the Gricean Maxims （also known as Cooperative Principle） in a chronological way. Basic conception is stated and classic earlier and recent research is reviewed. Gap of current research trends and implications are discussed.

【Keywords】Gricean Maxisms; Cooperative Principle; conversational implicature

【作者簡介】姬小婷（1991.11-），女，漢族，陜西西安人，遵義醫科大學珠海校區，助教，碩士研究生（博士在讀），研究方向：應用語言學，第二語言教學，教師專業發展。

Ⅰ.Introduction

From the perspective of pragmatics， in conversations the communicators expect to make contribution as is needed with the target of talk exchange. Grice （1975） proposed a theory of Cooperative Principle （CP） which constrain peoples conversation. This paper aims to make a review of basic content and analysis of CP with concrete examples. The paper carries out the chronological review and gap to fill in is discussed.

Ⅱ.Gricean Maxims

1.Grices Cooperative Principle （CP）. The Cooperative Principle is proposed by Grice （1975） under English speaking context， his arguments of this principle is called Gricean Maxims. Grice （1975， p.45） states that the maxims constrain peoples conversations with or without speakers and listeners consciousness. Each maxis consists of some specific sub-maxims. This is the theory of Cooperative Principle which is abbreviated as CP. Grice （1975， 1978） further claims that people conform to mainly four maxims in their conversation： Quantity， Quality， Manner and Relevance according to this principle with detailed explanations.

The Cooperative Principle， according to Grice （1975， p 41）， consist of four maxims as below：

The first maxim is Quantity （Give the right amount of information）：

（1） Conduct informative talk （for the present purposes of the exchange）;

（2） Do not make overinformative contribution than is required;

The second maxim is Quality （Try to make your contribution one that is true）：

（1） Do not say what you believe to be false;

（2） Do not say anything with insufficient evidence;

The third maxim is labelled as Relation： Be relevant.

This is a terse rule literally; it means do not give information mismatch the target of conversation target.

The fourth maxim is Manner： Be perspicuous.

（1） Avoid obscurity of expression;

（2） Avoid ambiguity;

（3） Be brief （avoid unnecessary prolixity）;

（4） Be orderly.

Comparing the last maxim with the three mentioned earlier， the distinction can be seen that it is about how the conversation is conducted whilst the first three are all about what is expressed.

2.Literatures of CP in early years. The concept of cooperation in Cooperative Principle has been discussed specifically in early years. A representative argument from the view of linguistic and later research argue for and against this view compared with the original principle.

Devies （2000） suggests that cooperation is utilised majorly in linguistic literature to conclude humans talk. Burt （2002） regards the exact satisfaction of rules of CP as unmarked case and flouting of the rules as the marked case. Burt refers the unmarked one as the case which is usually used in linguistics of general meaning instead of satisfying the CP， whereas the marked one as specific but acceptable meaning. The expression of infringement or violation might be regarded as ungrammatical or unacceptable， but are acceptable for Grice. Moreover， marked cases express the implicature in certain circumstances; therefore， it is used in peoples daily communication.

Devies （2007） discusses Grices Cooperative Principle and analyses the meaning of the principle. She further proposes that many researchers focus on the definition of cooperation far from Grices original view. She emphasises researchers should model the rational action from Grices theoretical framework and his thought. The central issue is the distinction between sentence-meaning and speaker meaning and the idea of human action. As to the concept of cooperation discussed by scholars， many demonstrate it is “the relative importance” in the CP （Devies， 2007， p.2309）. She also argues against Burts （2002） argument about unmarked case. She argues that in many cases， it is implicatures， not explicit language， are the unmarked cases， and the explicit language is the marked case. Finding an example which is totally implicature-free is relatively hard. This shows that implicit language to be the unmarked case whereas explicit language is marked， contrary to Burts viewpoint.

3.Literatures of CP in recent years. In the last decade， the Grices four maxims has been the popularity among researchers and more focus the violation cases or relevant educational issues.

Thakur （2017） investigates how Cooperative Principle can be utilized on analysing literary studies and how the fiction discourses can be better understood. He thus makes discourse analysis based on the four maxims of Grices principle. Through his analysis， the characters conform the Grices four maxims but most of the time they violate them. Due to the literary artist design， the light of the characters language lies in flouting the maxims rather than observing them. The author concludes that the main motivation of the violation in the discourse is inter-personal factors （e.g.， attitude， conflict， etc.） and “socio-cultural factors （e.g.， social power， politeness， tact， etc.）. To understand the characters utterance in the discourse， the extra meaning （i.e.， the implicatures） account for the gap between the literal meaning and speakers meaning. However， although the author strongly supports Grices maxims， he believes that the CP is not powerful enough to account for the complicated conversation under all circumstances.

Also concerning educational issues of classroom teaching and learning， another article （Mora-Menjura， 2017） published in the same year is reviewed. Different from literal course， this research focuses on language instructors and learners language output through video of classroom teaching， to investigate how communication is carried out in the English language classroom. Mora-Menjura also reviews Deviess （2000） definition of cooperation， and realises that she states that Grice does not mention whether interaction is cooperative since Grice focus more on the information of talk exchange but not the human behaviour. Eleven video was recorded in classroom teaching and learning and followed by transcription and analysis， but exact time span is not mentioned.

The result of the study shows that the teacher and students flout maxims of quality and manner most. This， according to the researcher， is because English is not their native language. He realised that teachers barely study the theory of communication and sometimes they accept students utterance even it does not make any sense and teachers may switch to Spanish （native language） on teaching. But this conclusion is more likely a list of phenomenon rather than answering the question with the CP.

Therefore， recent studies start paying attention to classroom teaching. Referring to classroom teaching， especially language teaching， two main directions attract researchers： 1） what is said in class， i.e.， the instructional language of teachers and language output of learners; and 2） the content of language teaching course， which may be relevant to target language culture or context.

Ⅲ.Conclusion

This paper conducts a literature review based on the theoretical framework of Gricean Maxims （CP）. It is the classical pragmatic principle in producing effective talk exchange with conversational implicature. Thus， language background information or culture context is necessary to understand listeners for better facilitating conversation exchange. An issue needs attention is that people with high-context culture （Chinese for example） often violate the maxims under certain circumstances. Hence， such cases call for further discussion in the future research.

References：

[1]Burt， S.M. （2002）. Maxim confluence. Journal of Pragmatics. 34， 993–1001.

[2]Davies， B. L. （2000）. Grices cooperative principle： Getting the meaning across. Leeds Working Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics， 8， 1-26.

[3]Davies， B. L. （2007）. Grices Cooperative Principle： Meaning and rationality. Journal of Pragmatics 39， 2308–2331

[4]Grice， H. P. （1975）. Logic and conversation. In Peter Cole and Jerry Morgan （ed.）. Syntax and Semantics. Volume 3： Speech Acts. New York： Academic Press， 41-102

[5]Grice， H. P. （1978）. Further notes on logic and conversation. In： Cole， P. （Ed.）， Syntax and Semantics， vol. 9. Academic Press， New York， pp. 113–127.

[6]Mora-Menjura，， W. （2017）. What Happens in the Language Classroom in regards to Communication？ An analysis of the Cooperative Principle. Enletawa Journal， 10 （2）， 63–78.

[7]Thakur， V. S. （2017）. Cooperative Principle and Inferential Chains of Interpretation： Socio-Pragmatic Approach to Language and Literature Teaching. AWEJ for translation & Literary Studies， 1（1）， 171-186.