Language

Gricean Pragmatics

Herbert Paul Grice: Logic and Conversation - University of California, Berkeley.

• Semantics: the literal meaning of the words or sentences we use.

• Pragmatics: the study of how people use language in real conversations.

Conversational Implicature

Implicature: whatever is meant, but not literally said. Things that are suggested, implied, or hinted at.

• implicatures that come about due to general features of conversation
• in general, conversations are cooperative efforts
• there is generally some goal or purpose to the conversation
  • understand and be understood
  • influence and be influenced
  • give and receive

• Facts about:

  • the purpose of a conversation
  • the context of a conversation
  • our knowledge of the world

  Allow us to calculate the implicature.

Cooperative Principle

Make a conversational 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.

The Four Maxims

Not conventional rules of conversation, rather rules that govern rational cooperative activity in general.

1. Maxim of Quantity

   • make your contribution as informative as is required
   • do not make your contribution more informative than is required

2. Maxim of Quality

   • do not say what you believe to be false
   • do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

3. Maxim of Relation

   • be relevant
   • don’t be irrelevant

4. Maxim of Manner

   • avoid obscurity of expression
   • avoid ambiguity
   • be brief
   • be orderly