🔠Intro to Semantics and Pragmatics Unit 7 – Pragmatic Principles & Gricean Maxims

Key Concepts

• Pragmatics studies how context influences meaning in language use beyond literal semantic meaning
• Gricean maxims are conversational principles proposed by philosopher Paul Grice
• Cooperative principle assumes speakers make contributions appropriate to the conversation's purpose
• Implicature refers to implied meaning not directly stated in an utterance
• Flouting a maxim deliberately violates it to convey an implicature
• Presupposition is background knowledge assumed by the speaker to be shared with the listener
• Speech acts are actions performed through utterances (promises, requests, apologies)
• Deixis involves words whose meaning depends on context (here, now, I, you)

Historical Context

• Paul Grice, a British philosopher, introduced the concept of conversational implicature in 1975
• Grice's work built upon earlier ideas in philosophy of language, particularly ordinary language philosophy
• The cooperative principle and maxims were proposed as part of Grice's William James Lectures at Harvard
• Grice's ideas significantly influenced the development of pragmatics as a subfield of linguistics
• Relevance theory, developed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in the 1980s, expanded on Gricean ideas
  • Relevance theory emphasizes the role of cognitive effects and processing effort in communication
• Neo-Gricean approaches, such as Horn's Q and R principles, have refined and formalized Grice's original framework

Pragmatic Principles Explained

• The cooperative principle states that participants in a conversation generally cooperate to achieve effective communication
  • Speakers shape their utterances to be understood by hearers given the context
  • Hearers interpret utterances assuming the speaker is being cooperative
• Grice proposed four conversational maxims as guidelines for cooperative communication
  • Maxim of Quantity: Make your contribution as informative as required, but not more informative than necessary
  • Maxim of Quality: Try to make your contribution one that is true; do not say what you believe to be false or lack evidence for
  • Maxim of Relation: Be relevant; make your contributions pertinent to the discussion
  • Maxim of Manner: Be clear, brief, and orderly; avoid obscurity and ambiguity
• Speakers can flout (deliberately violate) a maxim to convey an implicature
  • Example: Responding "It's raining" to the question "Are you coming to the party?" flouts the maxim of relation to imply "No, I am not coming because of the rain"
• Speakers may also violate, opt out of, or clash with maxims in different situations

Gricean Maxims Breakdown

• Maxim of Quantity
  • Provide enough information to advance the conversation, but avoid irrelevant details
  • Underinformativeness can prompt hearers to draw implicatures (A: "Did you eat the cookies?" B: "I ate some of them" implies B did not eat all)
  • Overinformativeness can suggest unstated meaning (A: "How was the date?" B: "The food was good" implies other aspects were not good)
• Maxim of Quality
  • Speakers should aim to be truthful and sincere in their contributions
  • Hearers generally assume speakers are being truthful unless given reason to doubt
  • Flouting quality can signal irony, sarcasm, or hyperbole ("I could eat a horse")
• Maxim of Relation
  • Contributions should clearly connect to the topic at hand
  • Apparent irrelevance can prompt hearers to seek an implied connection
  • Topic shifts are generally marked ("By the way...", "Speaking of...") to maintain relevance
• Maxim of Manner
  • Speakers should organize their utterances to be easily understood
  • Avoiding obscurity, ambiguity, and unnecessary prolixity aids clear communication
  • Marked phrasing can generate implicatures (A: "What did you think of the movie?" B: "Let's just say it was memorable" implies B did not like it)

Real-World Applications

• Understanding implicature is crucial for successful communication in social interactions
  • Indirect speech acts rely on implicature to politely convey requests or refusals
  • "It's cold in here" can function as a request to close a window or turn up the heat
• Advertising often exploits implicature to suggest product benefits without explicitly false claims
  • "Nothing is better than Brand X" implies Brand X is the best, but asserts only that Brand X is not worse than nothing
• Political discourse frequently involves implicature to garner support or criticize opponents
  • "My opponent has never denied cheating on his taxes" implies the opponent has cheated without directly asserting it
• Humor, particularly irony and sarcasm, often relies on flouting maxims
  • "I just love getting stuck in traffic" flouts quality to express the opposite meaning
• Cross-cultural communication can be impacted by differing norms around the maxims
  • Some cultures prefer more indirect communication that relies heavily on implicature

Common Misunderstandings

• The maxims are not inviolable rules, but rather general principles speakers follow and expect others to follow
  • Deliberate flouting is common and does not indicate uncooperativeness
• The maxims do not apply equally to all utterances or contexts
  • Phatic communication, such as small talk, may prioritize the maxim of relation over quantity or quality
• Implicature is not the same as entailment or presupposition
  • Entailments are logically necessary ("John killed the plant" entails "The plant died"), while implicatures can be canceled ("Some students passed, maybe even all of them")
  • Presuppositions are backgrounded assumptions ("John's sister is visiting" presupposes "John has a sister"), while implicatures arise from apparent violations of the maxims
• The cooperative principle does not mean speakers always have shared goals or stances
  • Cooperation in Grice's sense refers to working together to communicate, even in adversarial contexts like debates or negotiations

Related Theories

• Speech Act Theory, developed by J.L. Austin and John Searle, shares Grice's focus on utterance meaning in context
  • Locutionary acts are the literal meaning of an utterance
  • Illocutionary acts are the intended meaning or force (promising, requesting, asserting)
  • Perlocutionary acts are the effects on the hearer (persuading, inspiring, frightening)
• Politeness Theory, proposed by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson, connects to the maxims in explaining indirect speech
  • Positive face is the desire to be approved of and accepted
  • Negative face is the desire to be unimpeded in one's actions
  • Face-threatening acts like requests or criticism can be mitigated by implicature to maintain face
• Relevance Theory, an influential neo-Gricean approach, recasts the maxims in terms of a balance of cognitive effects and processing effort
  • Relevant inputs are those that produce positive cognitive effects (strengthening, revising, or abandoning assumptions)
  • Optimal relevance is achieved when cognitive effects justify the processing effort
  • Implicatures arise as hearers seek relevance to justify departures from literal meaning

Practice and Examples

• Identify the implicature:
  • A: "How was the blind date?" B: "Well, she was punctual."
    • Implicature: B did not enjoy the date; punctuality was the most positive thing he could say
• Which maxim is flouted?
  • A: "Did you clean your room?" B: "I cleaned some of it."
    • Maxim of Quantity; B's underinformative response implies the room is not completely clean
• Generate an implicature by flouting the maxim of quality:
  • A: "Did you like my presentation?" B: "It was certainly unforgettable."
    • B's response flouts Quality to imply the presentation was memorably bad without stating so directly
• Explain how the implicature arises:
  • A: "Are you going to the party?" B: "I have to work."
    • B's response flouts Relation; work is not directly relevant unless it prevents B from going to the party
• Identify the presupposition:
  • A: "Why did you stop playing guitar?"
    • Presupposes that the hearer used to play guitar but has stopped
• Analyze the indirect speech act:
  • A: "I don't suppose you could pass the salt?"
    • The literal meaning is about A's suppositions, but the illocutionary force is a polite request for B to pass the salt