The maxim of quality The maxim of relation
A: Does your cat bite? B: No.
A: surprisingly she shouts loudly because of getting bitten of the cat after gave it a fish ow You said your dog does not bite
B: that is not my cat because it is in my house. A knows that she is talking about the cat in front of her and not the cat at
her house. Obviously, she is intentionally does not give her wrong information that she needed. It means, she is being sincere or honest.
Needless to say, not all violation of the maxim quality is blameworthy. In manyculturesitisperfectlyacceptabletosayachildoffive,„Mummy’sgoneon
li ttle holiday because she needs a rest’, rather than „Mummy’s gone away to
decidewhethershewantsadivorceornot.’Aliethatprotectisaliewithgood intention, what we call a white lie. If Sir Maurice knew that the young man neither
did nor realized that he had failed the interview, and that he would be divested to be told that, than he is telling a white lie, and covering up the truth to be kind.
Inanswerto“Howmuchdidthatthenewdresscost,darling?”thewife could have answers violating the maxim relation, in order to distract him and
change the topic: „I know, let’s go out tonight. Now, where would you like to go?’
she could have violated the maxim of manner, and she said, „a tiny fraction of my
salary, though probably a bigger fraction of the salary of the women that sold it to me’, in the hope that could be taken as an answer and the matter could be dropped.
Intheshelteredhomeexample,theoldladyanswertheinterviewer’s question in a
way that could be said to be violating the maxim of manner, in that she say everything expect what the interviewer wants to know:
X: what would the other people say? Y: oh well I don’t know. I wouldn’t like to repeat it because I don’t really believe
half of what they are saying. They just get a fixed thing into their mind. Her „half of what they are saying’ is an obscure reference to the other
people’s opinion, and „a fixed thing’ contains a general noun containing vague reference. She may be using these expressions to avoid giving a brief and orderly
answer, for the moment.
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