International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 14, Number 22 (2019) pp. 4100-4104
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
4100
Interpretations of the Gricean Conversational Maxims Violations
Ali Suleiman Awwad
1
, Amer Mohammaed Ayasreh
1,*
, Nidal Motalq Ayasrah
2
, Nada AL-Sabti
1
1
Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, College of Applied Studies and Community Service,
P.O. Box 2435, 31441 Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
2
Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Deanship of Preparatory Year and Supporting Studies,
P.O. Box 2435, 31441 Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
*
Corresponding Author: Dr. Amer M. Ayasreh
E-mail: ayasreh_amer@yahoo.com; amayasreh@iau.edu.sa
Abstract
Normal conversation anticipates that the speaker and the
hearer to achieve a successful communication. Grice's
perception of conversational maxims requires that speaker
meaning be expectable on the basis of sentence meaning
according to the violation of cooperative principles of
conversation and the ability of the hearer to understand the
speaker's meaning. However, this research reviewed serval
contexts that applied the violation of the conversational
maxims and found that the implicature change in the change
of the context, where the manipulation of the conversational
maxims plays hidden massage to color the choices to produce
particular shades of meanings in terms of production and
comprehension.
Keywords: Maxim, Conversational Maxims, Violation,
Cooperative Principles, Flouting of Conversational Maxims.
1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The linguist Paul Grice stated that the conversation is a
cooperative activity in which, the speaker and the hearer
(addressee) engaged to achieve a successful communication.
According to the Grice’s theory the speaker and the hearer
will cooperate to convey and to get the messages clearly in
each turn of speech, so the speaker intents deliver his message
clearly in an understandable fashion and the hearer intends to
understand the speaker’s message in each turn of the
conversation.
Successful conversation is a conversation which fulfills the
goals of cooperative principles; Grice (1989) summarized
these goals into one main principle and four subheadings
named as maxims. He defined his theory which is known as
Grice’s Cooperative Principle as follows: “Make your
conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at
which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the
talk exchange in which you are engaged” (p. 26). In his theory
the ''Conversational Maxim'', Grice (1975, 1978, and 1989)
identifies a set of principles that make language effective in
communication. This principle is called co-operative principle
divided into maxims of conversation; these maxims are:
maxims of quality (be truthful); maxims of quantity (be
informative as required; maxims of relation (be relevant);
maxims of manner (be perspicuous).
Grice (1975, 1969, and 1989), (Horn 2004) and (Frege 1984)
investigate the conceptual relation between natural meaning
and non-natural, linguistic meaning of utterances. Grice
suggests two notions of implicature; conversational
implicature is a generated inference when the maxims are
flouted whereas, conventional implicature is defined as a non-
truth conditional attached to particular lexical items and/or
linguistic construction.
The success of a conversation depends upon the way of
interaction between the sender and the receiver. Cooperative
principle can be identified as the way in which the speaker
and the hearer attempt to make their dialogues effective and
meaningful . To convey and to get the messages clearly in
each turn of conversation the speaker and the hearer should
cooperate among each other, so the speaker indents to deliver
his message clearly in an understandable fashion and the
hearer intends to understand the speakers’ message in each
turn of the conversation.
The conversation should follow some principles to be a
successful conversation. Grice (1975) proposed a principle
called “cooperative principle” and if the speaker and the
hearer follow those principles they will have a successful
communication and he named them as “Conversation
Maxims” and he classified them into four groups which are:
Quality Maxim , Quantity Maxim , Relation Maxim and
Manner Maxim .
Brown and Yule (1983:32) explain them as “The
conversational convention or well-known as maxims, which
support this principle are as follows: Quantity: Make your
contribution as informative as is required (for the current
purposes of the exchange). Do not make your contribution
more informative than is required; Quality: Do not say what
you believe to be false. Do not say that for which you lack
adequate evidence; Relation: Be relevant; Manner: Be
perspicuous; Avoid obscurity of expression; Avoid ambiguity;
be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity); and be orderly.” In the
next part the researcher will explain them one by one by
giving examples for each maxim. Grice’s general principle
could be explained clearly them by giving examples for each
maxim and then explains the meaning of flouting maxims,
observing maxims and implicature. The current researcher
elaborates the four maxims of cooperative principle and also
reviews some of the previous studies which relate to Grice’s
theory of cooperative principles (1975) in several contexts