COOPERATION AND

IMPLICATURE
Group 5:
- Inayah S. Rumpa
- Dinda C.P Muhlis
- Monalisa Sistrodikromo
- Cynthia
 Table of Contents

1 The Cooperative Principle Scalar Implicatures

5
2 Hedges
Particularized Conversational
Implicatures 6
3 Conversational Implicatures
Properties of Conversational
Implicatures 7
4 Generalized Conversational
Implicatures
Conventional Implicatures
8
A speaker will try to make his speech always relevant
to the context, clear and easy to understand, solid and
concise and always on the issue so as not to waste the
time of the interlocutor. -Wijana (1996:450)
 1
The Cooperative
Principle
Grice (1975:45-47) suggests that a reasonable discourse can occur if the speaker and the
addressee adhere to the principle of cooperative communication. The cooperative
principle consists of four conversational maxims.

Maxim of quantity
In the speech, each participant of the conversation is required to contribute only the information
needed, and do not make a contribution that is more informative than necessary.

Example:
(a): The blind man is actually good at drawing
(b): People who can't see are actually good at drawing

Most people will choose sentence (a) because it is considered more effective, efficient, and has a truth
value. While sentence (b) is considered contrary to the maxim of quantity because it is considered too
excessive by adding words that are actually clear and do not need to be clarified.
Maxim of quality
This maxim requires each participant of the speech to contribute correct information. In other
words, neither the speaker nor the interlocutor said anything that was considered wrong, and every
contribution to the conversation should be supported by adequate evidence.

Examples:
Inayah: What is Pragmatics?
Dinda: According to the Oxford Dictionary, Pragmatics
is a branch of linguistics dealing with language in use
and the contexts in which it is used, including such
matters as deixis, the taking of turns in conversation, text
organization, presupposition, and implicature.

Dinda answered like that because it is true in fact the definition of Pragmatics according to the
Oxford Dictionary is exactly like the answer.
Maxim of relevance
This maxim requires that each participant of the conversation make a contribution that is
relevant to the problem of the conversation.

Example:
Cynthia: Someone's knocking on the door
Monalisa: I'm doing homework in my room

In the example conversation above, Cynthia heard someone knocking on the door and
indirectly ordered Monalisa to open the door. The answer given by Monalisa also
indicated that she could not open the door because she was working on an assignment in
her room. Thus, it can be said that the relationship between speech participants does not
always lie in the meaning of the utterance, but can also lie in what is implied by the
utterance.
Maxim of manner
This maxim of manner requires the participants to speak clearly and avoid ambiguity in a
conversation.

Example:
Dinda: Let's open quickly
Monalisa: Wait! Still hot

In the conversation above, it is clear that the conversation is very ambiguous. What to open? (said
Dinda) and What's still hot? (Monalisa's answer).
 2
Hedges
In the linguistic sub-fields of applied
linguistics and pragmatics, a hedge is a
word or phrase used in a sentence to
express ambiguity, probability, caution, or
indecisiveness about the remainder of the
sentence, rather than full accuracy,
certainty, confidence, or decisiveness.
Examples are following matching the Maxim’s.
Maxim of quantity Maxim of quality
- As you probably know.. - As far as I know…
- So to cut a long story - I may be mistaken…
short.. - I’m not sure if this is
- I won’t bore you with all right…
the details - …, I guess, …
- … - …

Maxim of relevance Maxim of manner

- Oh, by the way; - This may be a bit
- Well, anyway; confused;
- Anyway; - I’m not sure if this makes
- I don’t know if this is sense;
important; - I don’t know if this is
- … clear at all
- …
Examples are following matching the Maxim’s.
Maxim of quantity
- As you probably know, I am
terrified of bugs.
- I won’t bore you with all the
details, but it was an exciting
trip.
Maxim of relevance
- I don’t know if this is
important, but some of
the files are missing.
Maxim of quality
- As far as I know, they’re
married.
- I may be mistaken, but I
thought I saw a wedding
ring on her finger.
Maxim of manner
- This may be a bit
confused, but I remember
being in a car.
- I’m not sure if this makes
sense, but the car had no
lights.
 3
Conversational
Implicature
Conveys more meaning than is being said.
Example:
Charlene: I hope you brought the bread and the cheese
Dexter: ah, I brough the bread
After hearing Dexter’s response, Charlene has to assume that Dexter is cooperating and not totally
unaware of the quantity maxim. He didn’t mention the cheese. If he had brought the cheese, he
would say so, because he would be adhering to the quantity maxim. He must intend that she infer
that what is not mentioned was not brought. In this case, Dexter has conveyed more than he said via
conversational implicatures.
 4
Generalized
Conversational
Implicatures
If the listener doesn’t have knowledge of the context of an utterance but they still understand
a convent meaning, the speaker may have used generalized conversational implicature.
Example:
Why there is a glass in the fridge?
The underlined indefinite article indicates that the speaker doesn’t own the glass.
(whenever an expression with an indefinite article is used the listener can assume that it’s neither
the speaker’s, nor the family’s belonging)
 5
Scalar
Implicatures
Indicators of a scalar implicature are for example: always, most, many, all, some, few, often,
sometimes, etc.
Example:
The pragmatics lecture is always really interesting.
The implicature in this case would be that the lecture is never uninteresting which is indicated by
always.
 6
Particularized
Conversational
Implicatures
Particularized Conversational Implicature is a kind of conversational implicature that
required specific context to calculate the additional conveyed meaning.
Example:
Rick: hey, coming to the wild party tonight?
Tom: my parents are visiting
Tom's answer should have been "yes" or "no", but instead he said "my parents are visiting" so Tom
must be with his parents which means Tom's answer is "No". In this situation Rick had to assume
that Tom would be with his parents meaning he couldn't join the party.
Another example:
Leila: Whoa!! Has your boss gone crazy?
Mary: let’s go get some coffee
 7
Properties of
Conversational
Implicatures
 8
Conventional
Implicatures
Conventional implicatures are not seen based
The word "even" is also included in the conventional
on cooperative principles (4 maxims). One of
implicature, where "even" in the sentence means the
the characteristics of conventional
opposite of expectation.
implicature is using 'but' where the speaker
Example:
will add contrast.
Even John came to the party.
Example:
He even helped tidy up afterwards.
A: Mary suggested black, but I chose white
Sentence a: expectation is that John won't come to the
P & Q (P is in contrast to Q)
party
Sentence b: expectation is that he didn't help tidy up
afterwards
The use of "even" breaks those expectations.
Thank
You!
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