Professional Documents
Culture Documents
What is said and what is meant: These are not always the same thing. The reasons for what
we say and the implications of what we say matter. Also, what we say is often ambiguous,
over-general or uninformative, when considered out of particular contexts. So understanding
utterances involves much more than ‘decoding’ the language used
Cooperative Principle
Make your contribution such as is required at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted
purpose/ direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.
. Maxim of quality
– 1. not false
– 2 do not make your contribution more informative as is required for the current
purpose of exchange.\
Maxim of relevance
Maxim of manner
. avoid obscurity
2. avoid ambiguity
3. be brief
4. be orderly
• walk up to the door, turn the door handle clockwise as far as it will go, and
then pull gently towards you