The Non- Observance Maxim
nervousness, darkness, excitement may make impairment of the speakers performance, in these cases she does the infringement Thomas 74. Sometimes
speaker infringes the maxims because he is incapable to speak clearly, he does not know the culture or he has not enough knowledge of language.
For example: Someone learning English as a second language speaks to a native speaker.
English speaker : Would you like ham or salad on your sandwich? Non-English speaker : Yes
The implicature has not been generated by interlocutor; she has not understood the utterance. The answer might be interpreted as non-operative; this is a case of
different social knowledge which implied a different implicature Dornerus 7.
The difference between violating and infringing located in the fact of speakers intention; in violating the speaker is liable to mislead the hearer, whereas in
infringing the speaker unintentionally fails to observe a maxim. Violating is a kind of misleading the hearer to get implicatures, the speaker here intends to
mislead in order to save face or avoid hurting the audiences. Infringement occurs when a speaker fails to observe the maxim because he has no perfect knowledge
to communicate
.
4. Opting out the maxim
When the speaker opts out from the maxim, she seems unwilling to cooperate in the way the maxim requires Grice 71. Moreover, Thomas 74 said that the
example of opting out occurs frequently in public life, when the speaker cannot, perhaps for legal or ethical reason, reply in the way normally expected. The
speaker usually wishes to avoid generating a false implicature or appearing uncooperative. Thomas also stated that giving the requested information might
hurt a third party or put them in danger.
For example: If a doctor or a nurse, who has complete confidentiality regarding hisher patients, is asked by the police or the press to reveal something about the
patient that she is treating, he she will reply:
A: I am sorry but cant tell you anything.
The doctor or nurse opted out maxim when she prevented from answering; the doctor seems to be unwilling to cooperate, due to the procedures of the hospital or
for the sake of secret information or something else. Dornerus 7.
5. Suspending the maxim
If there is no expectation on the part of any participant that the maxims will be fulfilled hence the non-fulfillment does not generate any implicatures, the
speakers do not observe the maxims. It may be culturally-specific to a particular event. The suspending of the maxim of quality can be found in funeral orations
and obituaries, when the description of the deceased needs to be praiseworthy and exclude any potentially unfavorable aspects of their life or personality. Poetry
suspends the manner maxim since it does not aim for conciseness, clarity and lack of ambiguity. In the case of telegrams, telexes and some international phone calls
quantity maxim will be suspended because such means are functional owing to their very brevity .It is difficult to find any persuasive examples in which the
maxim of relation is suspended Thomas 76-78.