Cooperative Principle Speech Act

12 Grice 1975: 45 divides implicature into two types; they are conventional implicature and conversational implicature. Conventional implicature is associated with specific words and results in additional conveyed meaning when those words are used. An example of the words is but in ‘He is poor but honest.’ The interpretation of this utterance will be he is poor and he is honest plus an implicature of ‘contrast’ between the information. Contrast is the conventional implicature of but. Then, honesty is considered to be the opposite of having no money. The second type of implicature is conversational implicature. It includes context in understanding the additional conveyed meaning of an utterance. The meaning of an utterance in conversational implicature is indirectly stated in the utterance. An example of utterances containing conversational implicature is In the following dialog: Charlene : I hope you brought the bread and the cheese. Dexter : Ah, I brought the bread . Yule 1996: 40 In the conversation, Dexter tries to convey an unstated meaning, that he did not bring the cheese. As the listener, Charlene is expected to understand the unstated meaning of Dexter. Charlene should assume that Dexter is aware and being cooperative. The unstated meaning inferred from the conversation above belongs to conversational implicature. Yule 1996: 42 puts this kind of implicature into a more detailed type of implicature, which is a particularized conversational implicature. 13 Two other types of conversational implicature are a generalized conversational implicature and a scalar implicature. The generalized conversational implicature is the opposite of the particularized conversational implicature. The conversation of Charlene and Dexter above has a generalized conversational implicature. People do not need to have a special knowledge of inferring the additional meaning. Scalar implicature happens when any forms of scale all, most, many, some, few, always, often, sometimes are used in the utterance. The implicature can be gained by thinking of the negative of that scale. By saying ‘some students’, the speaker implicates ‘not all students’. This is an example of scalar implicature, as a part of conversational implicature.

2. Cooperative Principle

Cooperative Principle is one of the significant theories in Pragmatics. Grice 1975: 45 explains that Cooperative Principle leads the participants to make a contribution as is required in a conversation. The aim and the direction of talk exchange determine the requirement. Grice in Wardaugh, 2006: 293 also states that conversation is a cooperative activity. That is when speakers and listeners can understand each other in a conversation. They can share what they intend to share smoothly. They can accept each other’s meaning despite the status, whether they are close friends, parents, teachers, sellers and buyers, and others. The speakers behave in a particular way to lead the listeners to understand the speakers’ utterances so the 14 listeners are able to give appropriate responses to the speakers’ utterances. The concept of cooperative activity leads the listeners to assume that all speakers are always cooperative. As a cooperative activity, Grice 1975: 45 proposes some rules that should be obeyed in doing a conversation. These rules are formulated in a principle of cooperating called Cooperative Principle. Cooperative Principle has four sub- principles called maxims; maxim of quantity, quality, relevance, and manner. Related to the Cooperative Principle, there are possibilities that it is observed or non-observed by the speaker. Observed Cooperative Principle means that speakers are able to fulfill the maxims of Cooperative Principle so they are considered as being cooperative in the conversation. On the other hand, non- observed Cooperative Principle means that speakers fail in fulfilling the maxims of Cooperative Principle.

a. Observed Cooperative Principle

In the observed Cooperative Principle, speakers fulfill the four sub- principles or maxims as the rules of being cooperative. As an example of observed Cooperative Principle is the following: Siti : How do I get to Yogyakarta State University? Nabila : Go straight ahead, turn right at the intersection, then turn left at the T-junction, and in front of the bus station turn right. Siti and Nabila do not know each other. They meet on the street. Siti asks for direction to Nabila. In the conversation above, there is an observed Cooperative Principle. Nabila is considered to fulfill the maxims of Cooperative Principle.