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Maxim of Relation/Relevance

Maxim of Relation/Relevance. An Animated and Narrated Glossary of Terms used in Linguistics presents. Definition. When engaged in conversation, the Maxim of Relation requires you to Be relevant H.P. Grice (1975). H.P. Grice. Basic Idea.

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Maxim of Relation/Relevance

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  1. Maxim of Relation/Relevance An Animated and Narrated Glossary of Terms used in Linguistics presents

  2. Definition When engaged in conversation, the Maxim of Relation requires you to Be relevant H.P. Grice (1975) H.P. Grice

  3. Basic Idea • The Maxim of Relation is one of the four conversational maxims of the Cooperative Principle. • Grice proposes this maxim as an explanation for a certain kind of regularity in conversational behavior with respect to the relevance of information provided at each turn of a conversation.

  4. Example 1 How do you like your steak cooked? • The woman contributes what is relevant for the purpose of the conversation. • not irrelevant like “I like steak very much” or “What nice weather!” Medium rare, please. One finds this normal. Why? Because the Maxim is observed

  5. Example 2 Daniel, is Morgan good as a finance manager? He is a polite man and works on time. We find Daniel’s behavior weird. Why? Daniel’s contribution is irrelevant for the purpose of the conversation. Because the Maxim is violated. Slide 5

  6. Example 2 He is a polite man and works on time. Daniel, is Morgan good as a finance manager? In this case, one might infer Morgan is not a good finance manager. WHY? Deliberate and apparent violation of maxims is called “flouting”. Because we do not expect the Maxim to be violated, the apparent violation must be motivated. Slide 6

  7. Example 2 Daniel, is Morgan good as a finance manager? He is a polite man and works on time. Inferences obtained from flouting of maxims are called implicatures. • Daniel may be implicating that • Morgan is no good as financial manager. Note: Implicatures do not have to be necessarily true, since the inferences are guessed at rather than derived by formal logic. Slide 7

  8. The End Wee, Lian-Hee and Winnie H.Y. Cheung (2009) An animated and narrated glossary of terms used in Linguistics. Hong Kong Baptist University.

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