The Co-operative principle and Implicature Done by Ihtiyorjon (이튼)

The maxim of relation / relevance (“Stick to the point”)

• Make your contributions relevant.
• Example:

A: why do you learn English?

B; Yes, I learn it because of my hobby.

The maxim of manner (“Be clear”)

• Be perspicuous:.
• Avoid obscurity of expression.
• Avoid ambiguity.
• Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
• Be orderly

Example

A: what do you think about Ha Long Bay?

B: I like Ha Long Bay, it has a lot of beautiful caves.

The Co-operative Principle

There are four ways in which the speaker can behave with respect to the CP; the speaker can:

• Observe the maxims,
• Violate a maxim,
• Flout a maxim, or
• Opt out of the maxims.

Violate the maxim

• Fail to observe any maxim, but to do so inconspicuously, with the assumption that hearer won’t realize that the maxim is being violated. Violations are ‘quite’ in the sense that it is not obvious at the time of the utterance that the speaker has deliberately lied, supplied insufficient information or been ambiguous, irrelevant or hard to understand. In Grice’s analysis, these violations might hamper communication, but they do not lead to implicatures.