Grice’s Cooperative Principle Maxims of Conversation

13 conversations of a sitcom, the researcher used pragmatics as the prime theory to support her study.

a. Grice’s Cooperative Principle

In a conversation, it is important for speakers to deliver the accurate information to the hearers so the conversation can run well. Grice 1989 has stated in Logic and Conversation about Cooperative Principle, “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. From the definition, the researcher infers that there is a set of rules guiding the conduct of conversation to use language in conversations efficiently and effectively.

b. Maxims of Conversation

Four categories of general principle are known as maxims of conversation. Grice 1989 names the four maxims of conversations are Quantity, Quality, Relevance, and Manner. He creates these maxims to measure how effective our conversation to others. The first maxim is maxim of Quantity. This maxim deals with amount of information given by the speaker. Under this supermaxim, there are two specific maxims: 1 the information given should be as informative as needed; 2 the information given should not be more informative as needed. 14 The second one is maxim of Quality. The function of this maxim is to make sure that the speaker has given the correct information to the hearer. To make conversations effective, there are two specific maxims under this super maxim: 1 the speaker should not tell a lie 2 the speaker should not tell something without enough knowledge or lack of evidence. The third one is maxim of Relevance. The same as its name, maxim of Relevance expects the speaker to be relevant. It is important because when the hearer gets irrelevant answers the conversation would be failed. The last one is maxim of Manner. The general understanding of this maxim is “being perspicuous”. Grice mentions clearly the various maxims include in the maxim of Manner: 1 avoid obscurity of expression, 2 avoid ambiguity, 3 be brief, and 4 be orderly.

c. Breaking Maxims Non-observance maxims