Prof A. Elhaloui

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The Cooperative Principle

• Prof A. Elhaloui

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• H. Paul Grice
• (1975, Logic and conversation.)

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Grice

• H.P. Grice was a philosopher interested in
  questions about language use.
• His research involves understanding how
  speakers meaning arises from sentence meaning

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The original question

• Formal logic embodies a set of axioms that allows
  lawful deductions.

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Formal Logic

• Example, a simply syllogism like
• All psycholinguists are clever.
• Jim is a psycholinguist.
• implies that Jim is clever.

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Conversational Logic

• If I say
• Can you be quiet?
• what inference do you draw?
• If a colleague asks me how a student did in
  class, and I reply
• She always came to class on time and her
  penmanship was very neat.
• what inference do you draw?
• WHAT IS THE LOGICAL BASIS FOR THESE INFERENCES?

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The Cooperative Principle

• Grices answer involves understanding the basic
  principle that gets conversations going
• Cooperative principle
• "Make your contribution to the conversation such
  as is required, at the stage at which it occurs,
  by the accepted purpose or direction of the
  exchange in which you are engaged."

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The Cooperative Principle

• The Cooperative Principle is expressed in erms of
  a set of maxims

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Grices Maxims

• Maxims of Quantity
• 1. Make your contribution as informative as
  required.
• 2. Dont make your contribution more informative
  than is required.
• Maxims of Quality Be truthful.
• 1. Dont say what you believe to be false.
• 2. Dont say what you lack adequate evidence
  for.

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Grices Maxims, contd

• Maxim of Relation
• Be relevant.
• Maxims of Manner Be perspicuous.
• 1. Avoid obscurity of expression.
• 2. Avoid ambiguity.
• 3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
• 4. Be orderly.

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The Nature of the Maxims

• Although the maxims have the form of prescriptive
  statements, they are not.
• Rather, they are observations that encode the
  assumptions that speakers are using in actual
  discourse situations.
• We can see how people follow these maxims to
  deduce speakers meaning in simple examples

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Example (a mini-conversation)

• A Have you done your homework?
• B Ive done my math.
• A Then get busy and do your
  English.
• (imagine A parent, B child)

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Example (a mini-conversation)

• A Have you done your homework?
• B Ive done my math.
• A Then get busy and do your English.
• (imagine A parent, B child)

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Illustrating

• The speaker B does not assert anywhere that the
  English homework is not done this is not part of
  the literal meaning
• But by quantity, the speaker A understands that
  the math homework is done, but other subjects
  have not been attended to

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Relevance

• Consider another example this one is a letter of
  recommendation
• Dear Admissions Committee
• I am pleased to write on behalf of John Smith,
  who is applying to your program. Smith has
  excellent handwriting and is typically clean.
• Sincerely,
• Professor Throckmorton W. Bullfinch
• A reader of this letter would understand this to
  be the best that Prof. Bullfinch can say about
  Mr. Smith.

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Implicatures

• These maxims (or, more precisely, their
  violation) form the basis for inferences that we
  draw in conversation, which Grice called
  implicatures(to distinguish them from formal
  logical implications).
• Grice asserted that different ways of violating
  these maxims give rise to different types of
  implicatures.

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How to Violate Conversational Maxims

• Quietly and unostentatiously
• I ask Do you love me?And you answer .
• supposing you dont really quietly violates
  maxim of quality hence, a lie no implicature
  possible.

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How to Violate Conversational Maxims

• Overtly opting outof a maxim
• A colleague asks How is the job search going?
  and I respond Sorry, thats confidential.
• explicit information that maxim of quantity
  cannot be satisfied, no additional
  implicatureneeded.)

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How to Violate Conversational Maxims

• Coping with a clash between maxims
• Another student asks you Where does Professor
  Gajout live? and you answer Somewhere in
  Marrakesh.
• You know that the student wants the exact
  address, but you dont know exactly where Mr
  Gajout lives. To avoid violating Quality, you
  violate Quantity providing less information than
  was asked for possible implicatureis that you
  dont know exactly where G live.

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How to Violate Conversational Maxims

• Flouting a maxim in order to exploit it
• Unlike someone who is simply violating a
  maxim, someone who is flouting a maxim expects
  the listener to notice.
• Flouting the first Quality (avoid falsehoods)
• A Tehran's in Turkey, isn't it?
• B Uh-huh, and Boston's in Armenia.

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How to Violate Conversational Maxims

• Flouting the first Manner (obscurity)
• A What are you baking?
• B Be I are tea aitch deeay wyesee ay kayee.
• Flouting the third Maxim of Manner (prolixity)
• A I hear you went to the opera last night how
  was the lead singer?
• B The singer produced a series of sounds
  corresponding closely to the score of an aria
  from '"Rigoletto."

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How to Violate Conversational Maxims

• Flouting the second Maxim of Quantity
• A What can you tell me about Catherines ability
  to concentrate on a task?
• B Catherine is a butterfly flitting from flower
  to flower.
• (invites a metaphorical interpretation)
• Flouting the Maxim of Relation (be relevant)
• A What on earth has happened to the roast beef?
• B The dog is looking very happy.