Conversational Implicature

Reference: Logic and Conversation", pp. 44-58 in Syntax and Semantics: Speech Acts, 1975, edited by Peter Cole and Jerry Morgan.

Cooperative Principle (Grice 1975:45)

Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. [OR be helpful.]

Gricean Maxims (Grice 1975: 45-7)

1. The Maxim of Quantity (also called the Maxim of Informativeness)

a. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange).

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

2. The Maxim of Quality: Try to make your contribution one that is true.

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

b. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

3. The Maxim of Relevance: Be relevant.

4. The Maxim of Manner: Be perspicuous.

a. Avoid obscurity of expression.

b. Avoid ambiguity.

c. Be brief. (Avoid unnecessary prolixity.)

d. Be orderly.