Universit of Batangas

Philosophy of Language and Literature

JAKE ARMAN A. PRINCIPE

Ph.D Filipino

Grice’s LOGIC and CONVERSATION

About the Author

Herbert Paul Grice, universally known as Paul, was born on March 13, 1913 in Birmingham,
England and died on August 28, 1988 in Berkeley CA. Grice received firsts in classical honours moderation
(1933) and literae humaniores (1935) from Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

After a year teaching in a public school, he returned to Oxford where, with a nearly five year
interruption for service in the Royal Navy, he taught in various positions until 1967 when he moved to the
University of California-Berkeley.

He taught there past his official 1979 retirement until his death in 1988. He was philosophically
active until his death—holding discussions at his home, giving lectures and editing a collection of his work
that was posthumously published as Studies in the Way of Words.

He is best known for his innovative work in philosophy of language, but also made important
contributions to metaphysics, ethics and to the study of Aristotle and Kant.

Issue

Conversation is a type of informal communication which primarily focuses on the interactional

aspect of making social ties. Although conversation plays a very significant role in the daily living, it still
involves a lot more nuanced and implied context that lies beyond the words when taken into study. It
often include covert ideas rather than what has been spoken. In order to understand each other when
meanings and intentions are not explicitly conveyed, language users should follow a set of principles to
arrive at a meaningful and logical conversation. This is where Grice’s Maxims of Conversation takes
place.

Category of Cooperative Grice’s Maxim

Principles

1. Make your contribution as informative as is required.

2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

Quantity
 Universit of Batangas
Philosophy of Language and Literature

“Try to make your contribution one that is true”

1. Do not say what you believe to be false.

Quality
2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

“Be relevant. “
Relevance

“Be perspicuous”

1. Avoid obscurity of expression

Manner 2. Avoid ambiguity

3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)

4. Be orderly.

A participant in a talk exchange may fail to fulfill a maxim in various ways which include the following:

1. Quietly and unostentatiously

2. Opting out of a maxim

3. A clash between maxims

4. Flouting a maxim

Arguments

Is flouting a maxim can be considered as violating the Cooperative Principle?

Humorous or serious, is conversational rationality. Even if humorous verbalisations may entail

genre-specific illogicality's, absurdity, ostensible deceits etc., they are still rationally produced, the
underpinning aim being to amuse the hearer.

Resolution

“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 in.”(p.167)

References:

Finegan, E. (2012). Language: Its structure and use. USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Kumar, U. (2012). Applied language and linguistics. New Delhi, India, Anmol Publications, Pvt. Ltd.
Meyer, C. F. (2009). Introducing english linguistics. New York, USA: Cambridge University Press.
Saludez, L.P. (2016). Reports on Cooperation and implicature. Lucena City: MSEUF. pp. 1-4.