Conversational Implicature II Week 8

1. Conversational Implicature IIWeek 8

2. Outline of today’s Lecture • 1. Review of Grice's Maxims and Flouting Maxims • 2. A Problem with Grice's Categories • 3. Another problem with Grice • 4. Advertising and Implication • 5. Even Another Problem with Grice • 6. Other Ways to not Observe Maxims • 7. Identifying Implicature • 8. Cancelling Implicature

3. 1. Review of Grice's Maxims and Flouting a Maxim In order to cooperate in conversation, it is assumed we observe the following maxims: Quantity Quality Relation Manner

4. Flouting a maxim A speaker blatantly fails to observe a maxim, not with any intention of deceiving or misleading, but because the speaker wishes to prompt the hearer to look for a meaning which is different from, or in addition to, the expressed meaning. (p.65)

5. Flouting a Maxim • Flouting, then, involves an obvious disregard of the maxims. • The purpose of the flout is to alert the hearer to the speaker's intention to communicate more than what is said. • In a way, the non-observance of the maxim is a continuation of the desire to cooperate in communication. • For example: • A: Is Lisa a capable student? • B: She comes to class everyday and sits quietly .

6. Flouts exploiting the maxim of Quantity • (From Thomas, p. 66) • A: Is he nice? • B: She seems to like him. • How has B flouted the maxim of quantity? • Why did B speak like this?

7. I finished working on my face. I grabbed my bag and coat. I told Mother I was going out... She asked me where I was going. I repeated myself. 'Out.'

8. Exploiting the Maxim of Quantity • [On your worksheet, write a short dialogue in which the Maxim of Quantity is flouted, Q. #1] • Possible answer: • A: Do you like Hong Kong? • B: Thousands of people visit Hong Kong every day, and they can't all be wrong.

9. Often we exploit the maxim of quantity by giving too much information. • But we can also give too little information: • (from Thomas, p. 69) • A: How are we getting there? • B: Well we're getting there in Dave's car. • How does this answer give too little information?

10. Exploiting the Maxim of Quality • On a plane to Toronto: • Man: Are you going to Toronto? • Woman: No, I'm headed to Tibet. • What might the woman's meaning be? • Why did she communicate in this way? • Try writing your own example of a person exploiting the maxim of quality [Q. #2]

11. Exploiting the Maxim of Relation • At a dinner party: • A: What do you think of your new boss? • B: Cold weather we've been having, isn't it? • Why is the answer seemingly irrelevant? • Try writing your own example of a person exploiting the maxim of relation [Q. 3].

12. Exploiting the Maxim of Manner • Your textbook has a good example (p. 71): • Interviewer: Did the United States government play any part in Duvalier's departure? Did they, for example, actively encourage him to leave? • Official: I would not try to steer you away from that conclusion. • Why did the official answer this way?

13. 2. Problems with Grice's Categories • You may have noticed there is not always a clear boundary between the various maxims. • Does this matter? Does this problem make Grice's Maxims uninformative? • A flout signals to the hearer that the speaker is using an implicature. • But how does the hearer know what implicature the speaker is intending to communicate? • Is Grice helping us very much?

14. Non-observance of Grice's Maxims • Flouting a maxim • Violating a Maxim • Infringing a Maxim • Opting out of a Maxim • Suspending a maxim Grice defines ‘violation’ very specifically as the unostentatious non-observance of a maxim. If a speaker violates a maxim s/he ‘will be liable to misled’ (p.72)

15. Violating a Maxim • This occurs when the speaker does not want the hearer to notice that a maxim has not been observed. • e.g. lying or knowingly withholding information • Tricky people may violate maxims.

16. Violating a maxim • Teacher: You have been late for class every day this semester. • Sneaky Student: My mother has been in hospital since December.

17. Create your own violation of a Maxim. Violate the Maxim of Quantity. • [Worksheet Question 4] • A paraphrase of your textbook example is a good answer: • Husband: Are you seeing another man? • Wife: No, I am not seeing another man. • (She is actually having an affair with another woman.)

18. Even another problem with Grice's Ideas • How do we normally use implicatures in our lives? • Do we normally involve flouts? • If we don't normally involve flouts, how does the hearer know the speaker is using an implicature? • Does Grice's discussion of flouts really help explain how we recognize implicature?

19. 6. Other ways not to Observe Maxims • Flouting a Maxim • Violating a Maxim • Infringing a Maxim • Opting out of a Maxim • Suspending a Maxim

20. Infringing a Maxim • A person infringes a maxim when they don't speak the language well, make a mistake, or they are insane, drunk or impaired in some way.

21. Opting Out of a Maxim • A speaker opts out of a maxim when they specifically tell the hearer that they cannot answer the question in a way that is expected e.g. for legal/ethical reasons. • For example, "I cannot answer that question on the grounds that I may incriminate myself."

22. Suspending a Maxim • Sometimes there is no need to opt out of a maxim because the context makes it understandable that the speaker would not conform to the maxims. • A good example might be an accused person remaining silent at a trial (in contrast to a regular witness). There is no need to opt out, and no implication is to be made by the person remaining silent. • This is called Suspending a Maxim • Occurs when the participants have no expectations that the maxims will be observed.

23. Your textbook gives examples of situations in other (than Western) cultures where the speaker is not expected to be truthful, give complete answers, etc. (Textbook p. 76-78) • e.g. In the acting community in Britain, people refrain from uttering the name of Shakespearre’s play Macbeth because to do so is supposed to bring bad luck. They refer instead to ‘The Scottish Play’ (fail to observe the maxim of Quantity). Worksheet Q.5

24. 7. Identifying an Implicature • Sometimes it is difficult to decide if an utterance contains an implicature or if it is the direct meaning. • Thomas provides some guides for deciding if something is an implicature. • 1. Substituting words with similar meaning in an utterance does not normally change the meaning of the implicature.

25. Identifying an Implicature: Substituting words • A coat with a big hole in it (being sarcastic): • That is a lovely coat. • That is a nice coat. • The implicature doesn't change!

26. Identifying an Implicature • 2. Implicatures change in different contexts: (Thomas provides a good example) • A: It's my birthday today. • B: How old are you? • A: I'm 5. • What is the meaning?

27. A: How old are you, George? • B: I'm eighteen, father. • A: I know how old you are, you fool. • What is the meaning? • A: What do you do? • B: I'm a nurse, but my husband won't let me work. • A: How old are you? • B: I'm thirty-nine. • What is the meaning?

28. 8. Cancelling an Implicature • The most significant difference between semantic meaning and implied meaning is the ability to cancel an implicature. • This may be the reason advertisers seem to like to use implicature so much.

29. An example from your textbook (p. 82) • A: Let's have a drink. • B: It's not one o'clock yet. • (later in the day) • B: Let's have a drink - it's after one. • A: I didn't say you could drink after one. I said you couldn't drink before. • How does B change the implicature?

30. “I complain that Chope Chops doesn't stop me putting on weight. In fact there is nothing in the product that prevent a person putting on weight. • The company replies that it didn't say it would stop me putting on weight. ‘Its sugar free!’

31. Implicature • Conversational implicature is said to be both costly and risky. • Conversational implicature is costly: • Implicatures are more complex ways of representing meaning and thus take longer for speakers/writers to generate. • Similarly, producing an inference is a more complex way of arriving at the meaning and so takes the hearer/reader longer to process.

32. Implicature • Conversational implicature is risky: • The hearer/reader may not realise that an implicature has been generated by the speaker/writer. • The hearer/reader may not correctly infer what the speaker/writer intends her/his implied meaning to be. • The hearer/reader may deliberately ignore the implicature and choose instead to deal only with the expressed meaning. • The hearer/reader may infer a deeper meaning when the speaker’s/writer’s meaning is her/his expressed meaning.