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Title: CONVERSATIONAL%20IMPLICATURES

1
CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES

by Don L. F. Nilsen

2
CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES

I. Quantity
A. Be informative
B. Dont give more information than is required
II. Quality
A. Dont lie or mislead
B. Dont make statements unless there is
adequate evidence
III. Relation
A. Be relevant
IV. Manner
A. Avoid obscurity
B. Avoid ambiguity
C. Be succinct
D. Be orderly
(Grice Logic and Conversation 47)

3
Violations of Conversational Implicatures

BILL CLINTONS VIOLATION OF THE MAXIM OF QUALITY
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vKiIP_KDQmXs
QUENTIN TARENTINOS VIOLATION OF THE MAXIM OF
QUANTITY (FROM RESERVOIR DOGS LIKE A VIRGIN)
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vGyR4RK0LA_E
FOREST GUMPS FRIENDS VIOLATION OF THE MAXIM OF
RELATION
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vWhfK98f5S00

4
OTHER COOPERATION SYSTEMS

Geoffrey Leech offers four tact, generosity,
approbation and irony.
(Leech 131ff)
Horn has only two Maxims Quantity and
Relation
(Horn 15)
Sperber and Wilson have a minimalistic theory
that needs only one concept relevance.
(Sperber and Wilson 161)
Nilsen and Nilsen also have a minimalistic theory
that needs only one concept tendency.

5
TENDENCY 1

Norlich and Clarke (in press) note that
conversation has certain purposes. It is
designed to be entertaining, humorous,
knowledgeable, witty, conspicuous, etc.
(Mey 136)

6
TENDENCY 2

In working with Artificial Intelligence, James
Meehan developed a program that understands the
elements of a story, and continuously creates new
stories on the basis of the original one. Here
is one of his stories
One day Joe Bear was hungry. He asked his
friend Irving Bird where some honey was. Irving
told him there was a beehive in the oak tree.
Joe threatened to hit Irving if he didnt tell
him where some honey was.
(Meehan 217)
Irving Bird clearly missed the tendency of Joe
Bears statement.

7
VIOLATIONS OF QUANTITY 1

I. Quantity
A. Be informative The Eiron (Huckleberry Finn,
Bartleby the Scrivner), The Politician (Bush,
Cheney, Rumsfeld)
B. Dont give more information than is
required The Boor (Ignatius Riley, Confederacy
of Dunces)

8
VIOLATION OF QUANTITY 2

Jacob Meys six-year old daughter, Sara, is
bouncing a rubber ball at a friends house, and
it bounces away from her field of vision.
Meys friend says, Why dont you look behind
Volume 6 of Dostoyevskis Collected Works?
This is too much information, and also too little
information.
For legitimate communication, he should have said
something like, Its behind one of those fat
brown books in the middle of the bottom shelf.
(Mey 73)

9
VIOLATION OF QUANTITY 3

SALES CLERK Youre over 21, arent you?
CUSTOMER Well, er, yes. My birthday was
actually yesterday, and were having a party
tonight
SALES CLERK May I see your ID?
VIOLATES RULE ABOUT DEALING WITH AUTHORITIES
Never volunteer information.
(Mey 150)

10
VIOLATIONS OF QUALITY 1

II. Quality
A. Dont lie or mislead The Lover (Casinova,
Humbert Humbert, Don Juan), the Politican
(Clinton, Nixon), The Trickster (The Fox Who Eats
the Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hoods
Wolf, Peters Wolf, Tom Sawyer)
B. Dont make statements unless there is
adequate evidence The Alazon (Paul Bunyan, Pecos
Bill), The Braggert (the Gingerbread Man), The
Pedant

11
VIOLATIONS OF QUALITY 2

Jacob Mey says that readers want to be fooled (up
to a certain point).
Therefore, good authors always have something up
their sleeves, and allow their writing to
contain, deliberate omissions, misleading
statements, uninformative or disinformative
remarks and all sorts of narrative tricks in
order to better develop the plot.
(Mey 78)

12
VIOLATIONS OF RELATION

III. Relation
A. Be relevant Crazy People Don Quixote

13
VIOLATIONS OF MANNER 1

IV. Manner
A. Avoid obscurity Animal Farm, Big Brother in
1984, Doublespeak, Fine Print, Newspeak
B. Avoid ambiguity Prophets, Soothsayers,
Witches (3 Witches in Macbeth)
C. Be succinct The Shaggy Dog Story
D. Be orderly Alice in Wonderland

14
VIOLATION OF ORDERLINESS

DOORMAN AT A DISCOTEQUE I need to see your ID.
Its the rule.
INGER (Jacob Meys wife) But I left it back at
the hotel.
DOORMAN Sorry maam, then I cant let you in.
INGER But Im twenty-nine and the mother of
four!
DOORMAN Yes, and Im the popes grandfather and
have six kids.
(Mey 78)

15
ADJACENCY PAIRS

In a book entitled, Lectures on Conversation,
Harvey Sacks said that conversation is dialogue
and that dialogue consists of adjacency
relationships like the following
Greeting-Greeting, Question-Answer, Request-Offer
(or Denial), Order-Compliance, Buying-Selling,
Small Talk
Openings (Hello-Hello or Excuse me-Yes?)
Closings (OK?-OK.)
(Mey 141, 146)

16
ADJACENCY ATTENTION GETTERS

Hey! Yes?
You know something? What?
Excuse me. Sure.
Whaddyaknow? I dont know.
Guess what. What?
(Levinson 346ff)

17
ADJACENCY CONTEXT

RESPONSES TO A MARINE OFFICER
Sir, Yes Sir!
UAW! UAW! UAW! (Understood and Acknowledged)

18
ADJACENCY INDIRECTNESS 1

Whats the time?
Twelve noon.
Time for coffee.
I havent got a watch sorry.
How should I know?
Ask Jack.
You know bloody well what time it is.
Why do you ask?
What did you say?
What do you mean?
(Tsui 115)

19
ADJACENCY INDIRECTNESS 2

AT A DINNER PARTY Its getting late, Mildred.
Are you bored?
Do you want to go home?
So?
Dont you like my flirting?
Yes, I need to take my pills.
(Mey 162)

20
ADJACENCY INSERTIONS

Are you doing anything tonight?
Why are you asking?
I thought we might catch a movie.
NOTE Answering of cell phones in the middle of a
conversation is becoming more and more frequent
(Mey 145)

21
ADJACENCY MARKEDNESS REQUIRES MORE POLITENESS

NORMAL MARKED
Request Acceptance Refusal
Offer Acceptance Refusal
Assessment Agreement Disagreement
Question Expected Answer Unexpected Answer
Blame Denial Admission
(Levinson 336)

22
ADJACENCY VIOLATESSPEAKER-KNOWS-BEST RULE

Two psychiatrists, Dr. Sapirstein and Dr.
Barnstone pass each other in the hallway of their
clinic
DR. SAPIRSTEIN Youre fine, how am I?
DR. BARNSTONE Thanks, youre fine too.
(Mey 170)

23
CALL AND RESPONSE

Call and Response is an important aspect of the
preaching in Black churches.
Call and Response is also an aspect of bird
language.
Call and Response also occurs in music.
You can hear it in Webbers Phantam of the Opera.
You can also hear it in Bachs Two Part
Inventions.

24
BACKCHANNELING

Scandinavian ingressive ja
Japanese ingressive sucking in of their breath
sharply
Through the Mouth (Hissing)
Through the Nose (SnortingMostly Males)
(Mey 166-167)
Even when people are on the phone, they often
smile and gesture.
(Mey 196)

25
CONVERSATION RULES

Grices Cooperative Principle
Leechs Politeness Principle
Sperber and Wilsons Economy Principle
NOTE Polite forms are not economic but are very
cooperative.
(Mey 180)

26
DAMAGE AND REPAIR 1

MACHO MALE So I was trying to pick up this chick
when
FEMINIST FEMALE Excuse ME. Did I hear that
right?
MACHO MALE Sorry. I mean woman
FEMINIST FEMALE PICK UP?
MACHO MALE Sorry. I mean, meet.
(Mey 149)

27
DAMAGE AND REPAIR SILENCE

What time is it? Silence. Please tell me what
time it is.
Somebody asks the bosss wife for a date.
Silence.
This is denied reality. I dont believe what
Im hearing, so I wont respond.
(Mey 158)

28
E-MAIL VS. CONVERSATION

Because e-mail has no information about body
posture, facial expression, etc., e-mailers have
to use smileys or emoticons.
(Mey 148)

29
ECONOMY PRINCIPLE

Punctuation . (unmarked)-- , ! ? (marked)
Telegrams, Telegraphic Speech, Delayed Speech,
Newspaper Headlines are very economical
Yelling Fire in a theater is very economical
Poetry with its schemes and tropes and
embellishments and repetitions and rhetorical
devices is not very economic.
(Mey 180-181)

30
FLOOR

Holding, Sharing, Yielding
Pausing, Interrupting, Back Channeling, Echoing,
Laughing, Prompting, Turn-Taking, etc.
Adjacency Pairs
Greeting-Return Greeting
Question-Answer
Damage-Repair
Summons-Compliance
Advice-Thanks
(Mey 137)

31
IRONY

Honestly
Does the distinguished Prime Minister realize
that
I dont mean to argue, but
I dont mean to be a fly in the ointment, but
I dont mean to be confrontational, but
I dont mean to interfere, but
To make a long story short
Im not kidding
Literally
With all do respect
(Mey 198)

32
LAUGHTER

Laughter can indicate many different things
1. Embarrassment
2. Apology
3. Understanding the punch line of a joke
(Mey 138)

33
!TAUTOLOGY?

DICTIONARY DEFINITION A cow is an animal which
lives in a barn or a corral and produces milk.
Pilate said, Quod scripsi scripsi (what I have
written I have written)
Mikhail Bakhtin said, Sentences are repeatable.
Sentences are repeatable.
(Mey 199, Bakhtin 108)

34
!!TURN TAKING 1

Turn taking is part of the cooperative principle.
It is based on quid pro quo.
It makes speech aware of the audience. Compare
the following
Bibles Golden Rule
French Universal Declaration of Rights
United Nations Freedom Charter
(Mey 268)

35
!!!TURN TAKING 2

Current speaker selects next speaker (e.g. by
passing feather, etc.)
Next speaker selects himself
Speaker runs out of things to say
Speaker runs out of breath
Speaker opens the floor to any taker
Speaker retains the floor by telling a joke or
story, unnatural breaks, or turn-threatening
noises
(Sacks 224, Mey 139-140))

References 1
Eschholz, Paulo, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark.
Language Awareness Readings for College Writers.
New York, NY Bedford/St. Martins, 2009.
Grice, H. P. Further Notes on Logic and
Conversation. In Syntax and Semantics Ed. Peter
Cole. New York, NY Academic Press, 113-128.
Grice, H. P. "Logic and Conversation." Syntax and
Semantics. Eds. P. Cole, and J. L. Morgan. New
York, NY Academic Press, 1975, 41-58.
Grice, H. P. "Meaning." Semantics An
Interdisciplinary Reader in Philosophy,
Linguistics, and Psychology Eds. D. Steinberg,
and L. Jakobovits, Cambridge, England Cambridge
University Press, 53-59.
Grice, H. P. "Presupposition and Conversational
Implicature." Radical Pragmatics. Ed. Peter Cole.
New York, NY Academic Press, 1989.

References 2
Grice, H. P. Studies in the Way of Words.
Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press, 1989.
Horn, Laurence R. Toward a New Taxonomy for
Pragmatic Inference Q-based and R-based
Implicative. in Pragmatics Crigical Concepts,
Volume IV Ed. Asa Kasher, London, England
Routledge, 383-418.
Leech, Geoffrey N. Principles of Pragmatics.
London, England Longman, 1983.
Levinson, Stephen C. Pragmatics. Cambridge,
England Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Meehan, James. Tale Spin. In Inside Computer
Understanding. Eds. Roger C. Schank and
Christopher K. Riesbeck. Hillsdale, NJ Erlbaum,
1981, 197-226.

References 3
Mey, Jacob L. Pragmatics An Introduction, 2nd
Edition. Oxford, England, 2001.
Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen.
Tendentious Puns Names with a Purpose. Etc.
48.2 (1991) 146-152.
Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen.
Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor.
Westport, CT Greenwood, 2000.
Nilsen, Don L. F. Discourse Tendency A Study in
Extended Tropes. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 19.3
(1989) 263-272.
Nilsen, Don L. F. The Importance of Tendency An
Extension of Freuds Concept of Tendentious
Humor. HUMOR International Journal of Humor
Research 4 (1988) 335-347.

References 4
Raskin, Victor, ed. The Primer of Humor Research.
New York, NY Mouton de Gruyter, 2008.
Rundquist, Suellen. Indirectness A Gender Study
of Flouting Grices Maxims. Journal of
Pragmatics 18.5 (1992) 431-449.
Sacks, Harvey. Lectures on Conversation Oxford,
England Blackwell, 1995.
Sperber, Dan and Deirdre Wilson. Relevance
Communication and Cognition, 2nd Edition.
Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press, 1995.
Tsui, Amy B. Sequencing Rules and Coherence in
Discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 15.2 (1991)
111-129.