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Cooperative Principle Presented by贺满足 03研
The cooperative principle is a principle of conversation that was proposed by Grice 1975, stating that participants expect that each will make a “conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.” Or, to put it in other words -- act in conversation according to the general principle that you are mutually engaged with your listener in an activity which is of benefit to both of you. The basic assumption is that any discourse, whether written or spoken, is a joint effort. Both the speaker and the addressee have to follow certain pragmatic, syntactic, and semantic rules in order to communicate effectively. They have to co-operate.
Grice analyses the cooperative principle into four conversational maxims: the maxim of quality the maxim of quantity the maxim of relation the maxim of manner
Quality: "Be Informative“ ☆Do not say what your believe to be false. ☆ Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence Flouted: Unh-hunh, and I'm the queen of Bulgaria. Flouted: A: What if Russia blockades the Gulf and all the oil? B: Oh come now, Britain rules the seas! This maxim means that the speaker/writer has to include all the information that the addressee requires to understand. If the speaker leaves out a crucial piece of information, the addressee will not understand what the speaker is trying to say.
Quantity: "Be Brief“ ☆Make your contribution as informative as required. ☆ Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. . • Flouted: War is war. • Flouted: Either John will come or he won't. The meaning of this maxim is that the speaker/writer should avoid including unnecessary, redundant information in his contribution. If the speaker rambles on without saying anything new or informative, the addressee will lose interest in the discourse very quickly and stop paying attention
Flouted: A: Can you tell me the time? B: Well, the mail has come. "Be Relevant"☆ Be relevant. Relevance is an extremely important principle in linguistics, and entire books have been written just on the role of relevance in language. In the context of H.P.Grice's Co-operative principle, the demand for relevance simply means that the speaker/writer should only include information in his communication that is relevant to the discourse topic.
Manner: "Be Polite"☆Avoid obscurity of expression . ☆ Avoid ambiguity. ☆ Be brief . ☆ Be orderly. Flouted:Miss Singer produced a series of sounds corresponding closely to the score of an aria from Rigoletto. Politeness are of philosophical and moral rather than grammatical significance in linguistics. The demand for politeness simply means that we should treat other people as we would like to be treated - verbally and otherwise. In an equestrian context, we could substitute "Be Polite" with "Be Kind".
The two maxims "Be Informative" and "Be Brief" are in a natural state of tension with each other. Maximum informativeness automatically includes a certain amount of repetition and redundancy. Maximum brevity entails leaving out information that some addressees may find important while others would consider it superfluous.
Erring on the side of informativeness means that every addressee will be able to understand the message, but many of the more intelligent or more knowledgeable ones will get bored with it, because the discourse does not move fast enough. Boredom almost always leads to inattentiveness.
Erring on the side of brevity, on the other hand, comes with the price that some addressees will not understand the content of the communication. Not understanding the discourse makes the addressee feel left out. It leads to frustration, and frustration often leads to inattentiveness as well. Every discourse is a balancing act between the two extremes. The speaker has to ask himself: "How much information do I have to include so that my addressee understands what I am trying to say? How little information can I get away with, without losing my addressee?"
Grice is not maintaining that participants in cooperative conversation follow these maxims to the letter but rather that:in most ordinary kinds of talk these principles are oriented to, such that when talk does not proceeded according to their specifications, hearers assume that contrary to appearances, the principles are being adhered to at some deeper level.
In short these maxims specify what the participants have to do in order to converse in a maximally efficient, rational, co-operative way: They should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly whilst providing sufficient information.
