Hxe302gricetheory
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The document discusses Grice's theory of conversational implicature and speech acts. It explains that Grice proposed a cooperative principle with four maxims - quality, quantity, relation, and manner. Speakers imply meanings indirectly through implicatures by following or flouting the maxims. Standard implicatures arise from following the maxims, while flouting the maxims allows signals for non-literal meanings. Examples are provided to illustrate direct and indirect speech acts, presuppositions, and how implicatures can arise through standard or flouted uses of the maxims.
![Below are some examples of indirect speech acts. For
each one try to identify both the direct and indirect act.
• [travel agent to customer]
• Why not think about Spain for this summer?
direct=question, indirect=request
• [customer to barman]
• I’ll have the usual.direct=statement, indirect= request
• [mother to child coming in from school]
• I bet you’re hungry.direct=statement, indirect= statement](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/hxe302gricetheory-130611224117-phpapp02/85/Hxe302gricetheory-6-320.jpg)
Hxe302gricetheory
- 1. Congratulations!!!! to all of you who took part in Romeo & Juliet … I am so proud of you and hope this will the most memorable event for you during your studies at USM.
- 2. Grice’s Theory of Conversational Implicature
- 3. Speech Act • Locutionary act, is the basic act of utterance, or producing a meaningful linguistic expressions. • Illocutionary act is formed via communicative force of an utterance. We form an utterance with some kind of function in mind (illocutionary force). • Perlocutionary act reveals the effect the speaker wants to exercise over the hearer (perlocutionary effect).
- 4. Direct and indirect speech act • Direct speech act – the illocution is most directly indicated by by a literal reading of the grammatical form and vocablary of the sentence uttered (primary) • Indirect speech act – any further illocution the utterance may have (secondary) • The conventionally expected function is known as direct speech act and the extra actual function is termed the indirect speech act. • The direct illocution of ‘Can you pass the salt?’ is an enquiry about the hearer’s ability to pass the salt. The indirect illocution is a request that the hearer pass the salt.
- 5. Examples: Utterance Direct act Indirect act Could you close the window? question request I would like you to close the window. statement request I must have asked you a hundred times to keep that window closed! statement complaint / request
- 6. Below are some examples of indirect speech acts. For each one try to identify both the direct and indirect act. • [travel agent to customer] • Why not think about Spain for this summer? direct=question, indirect=request • [customer to barman] • I’ll have the usual.direct=statement, indirect= request • [mother to child coming in from school] • I bet you’re hungry.direct=statement, indirect= statement
- 7. Presuppositions and entailments • Two aspects of what is communicated but not said. • A presupposition is something the speaker assumes to be the case prior to make an utterance. • Ex. If someone tells you: ‘Your brother is waiting outside for you’. • There is an obvious supposition that you have a brother.
- 8. • Entailment is not a pragmatic concept. • It is defined as what logically follows from what is asserted in the utterance. • Speakers have presuppositions while sentences have entailments. • Ex. Susan’s sister bought two houses. • This sentence presupposes that susan exists and that she has a sister. This sentence has the entailments that susan’s sister bought something; a house and other similar logical consequences, now she has two houses. • The entailments are communicated without being said and are not dependent on the speaker’s intention.
- 9. Grice’s Theory of Implicature • What is said… and what is meant • Not always the same • In fact, what is said is rarely all that is meant • Consider the following dialogue. • Alan: Are you going to Paul's party? Barb: I have to work.
- 10. • If this was a typical exchange, Barb meant that she is not going to Paul's party. • But the sentence she uttered does not mean that she is not going to Paul's party. • Hence Barb did not say that she is not going, she implied it.
- 11. • Grice introduced the technical terms implicate and implicature for the case in which what the speaker meant, implied, or suggested is distinct from what the speaker said. • Thus Barb “implicated” that she is not going; that she is not going was her “implicature.” • Implicating is what Searle (1975) called an indirect speech act. • Barb performed one speech act (meaning that she is not going) by performing another (meaning that she has to work)
- 12. Cooperative principle and its maxims • A principle proposed by the philosopher Paul Grice whereby those involved in communication assume that both parties will normally seek to cooperate with each other to establish agreed meaning. • It is composed of four conversational maxims: quality, quantity, relation and manner. • The CP together with the 4 maxims are used as bases for explaining implicature.
- 13. Grice’s Insights • Communication is a co-operative activity: when two people communicate, it’s in their interests to make the communication go as smoothly as possible in order to achieve their aims. • Speakers behave in certain predictable ways. • When we, as hearers, try to work out what someone means, we do it by assuming they’re being co-operative. • Conversation works only with the co-operation of its participants. • Co-operation is built around a series of ‘Gricean maxims’: quality, quantity, relation and manner.
- 14. Slide 14 Maxim of Quality When engaged in conversation, the Maxim of Quality requires that you 1. Do not say what you believe to be false. 2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. H.P. Grice (1975) H.P. Grice
- 15. Example Slide 15 Jim, do you know where the Big Ben Clock Tower is ? It’s in London. One finds this normal. Why? Because the Maxim is observedJim does not contribute what he believes to be false and to be unsubstantiated. –e.g. “It’s in Hong Kong.”
- 16. Slide 16 Maxim of Quantity When engaged in conversation, the Maxim of Quantity requires you to 1.Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the purpose of the exchanges). 2.Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. H.P. Grice (1975) H.P. Grice
- 17. Slide 17 Example • Given the purpose of the conversation, the man contributes only as much information as is required. – not excessive like “it’s 9:30 at night, Greenwich Mean Time, 20 May 2009, …” – Not inadequate like, “it’s night time”. Do you have the time? Yes, it’s 9:30. One finds this normal. Why? Because the Maxim is observed
- 18. Slide 18 Maxim of Relation When engaged in conversation, the Maxim of Relation requires you to Be relevant H.P. Grice (1975) H.P. Grice
- 19. Example • The woman contributes what is relevant for the purpose of the conversation. – not irrelevant like “I like steak very much” or “What nice weather!” Slide 19 Medium rare, please. How do you like your steak cooked? Because the Maxim is observed One finds this normal. Why?
- 20. Slide 20 Maxim of Manner When engaged in conversation, the Maxim of Manner requires you to be perspicuous (transparently clear; easily understandable). Includes (but not restricted to) 1.Avoid obscurity of expression 2.Avoid ambiguity. 3.Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). 4.Be orderly. H.P. Grice (1975) H.P. Grice
- 21. Example Let’s begin by considering two propositions: P1: Laura ran to the pier. P2: Laura jumped. Slide 21
- 22. Example Slide 22 One finds this conversation normal. Why? Because the Maxim is observed Laura jumped and ran to the pier. What did Laura do when she heard that Lauri’s boat had arrived?
- 23. How implicatures arise? • In Grice’s system, there are two mechanisms: • Standard implicature - requires the assumption that the speaker is doing their best to follow the co-operative principle, even though the result may not be the best, from the point of view of the hearer
- 24. • Flouting the maxims - a deliberate flouting of the maxims, which is intended to be perceived as deliberate by the hearer, but at the same time as none the less intending a sincere communication without abandonment of the co-operative principle
- 25. Standard implicatures • A: (stranded motorist) I’ve run out of petrol. • B: (passer-by) There’s a garage just around the corner. • On the assumption that the speaker is obeying the relation maxim, B’s reply implicates that the garage both sells petrol and is open, to the best of the speaker’s knowledge.
- 26. • A: Where’s the corkscrew? • B: It’s either in the top drawer in the kitchen or it’s fallen behind the piano. • The information given is not really enough to satisfy the questioner but if we suppose that B is doing his best to follow the co-operative principle, then we must conclude that something is preventing him from giving more. A likely possibility is that he doesn’t actually know any more than he says.
- 27. Flouting the maxims • The other way in which implicatures arise is through deliberate flouting of the maxims in circumstances in which: • It is obvious to the hearer that the maxims are being flouted • It is obvious to the hearer that the speaker intends the hearer to be aware that the maxims are being flouted • There are no signs that the speaker is opting out of the co-operative principle • The hearer is thus given a signal that the utterances are not to be taken at face value, and that some sort of extra processing is called for.
- 28. Flouting the maxims • This is the most important ‘use’ of Grice’s maxims. • Unlike ‘violating’, ‘flouting’ a maxim allows a speaker to signal that although they seem to be ‘violating’ a maxim, they are still co-operating. • What Grice called ‘implicature’ occurs when a speaker chooses to flout a maxim. • The listener, assuming that the speaker still intends being cooperative, looks for meaning other than that which is said. • The intended meaning will be arrived at through the speaker working out the pragmatic force of the utterance rather than its semantic sense.
- 29. The maxim of quality • The mushroom omelette wants his coffee with. • I married a rat. • It’ll cost the earth, but what the hell. • In their most likely contexts of use, none of the above sentences is likely to be true, but equally none of them is likely to mislead a hearer. In each case some additional interpretive process will be brought into play.
- 30. • The understood message will be the the person who ordered a mushroom omelette wants his coffee served with the omelette, rather than afterwards. • The interpretive process will be a metaphoric one. • This implicates a relaxed, informal relationship with interlocutors.
- 31. Maxim of quantity • It must be somewhere. (implicates a determined search will be likely to result in success) • Boys will be boys. (implicates certain stereotypic properties of boys as being innate and unavoidable)
- 32. Maxim of relation • A: I say, did you hear about Mary…. • B: Yes, well, it rained nearly the whole time we were there. • (Irrelevant comment. Assume that A and B are having a conversation about a colleague, Mary. Mary approaches them, seen by B but not by A. The implicature is: Watch out! Here comes Mary!)
- 33. Maxim of manner • A: I’ll look after Samantha for you, don’t worry. We’ll have a lovely time. Won’t we, Sam? • B: Great, but if you don’t mind, don’t offer her any post-prandial concoctions involving supercooled oxide of hydrogen. It usually gives rise to convulsive nausea. • (Implicates that B does not want Samantha to know what she was saying)
- 34. GOOD LUCK IN YOUR FINAL EXAMS. Thank you.