OntheDailyApplicationoftheCooperativePrinciple-精选文档

1、On the Daily Application of the Cooperative Principle一、IntroductionThe Cooperative Principle proposed by Paul Grice suggests that in making conversations the participants must be willing to cooperate otherwise it would not be possible for them to carry on the conversation.Grice noticed that in daily

2、 conversations people do not usually say things directly but tend to imply them .The extra meaning implied in the utterance is known as implicature. The notion of conversational implicature is one of the single most important ideas in pragmatics. It provides some explicit account of how it is possib

3、le to mean more than what is actually“said ”.二、The Cooperative Principle and Four Maxims1. The Cooperative PrincipleIt is Grice that the first person advanced the theory of the cooperative principle in Harvard university 1967.Grice says ,all of actions communication ,in order of achieve the specific

4、 destination ,there is an tacit agreement between the speaker and hearer, an agreement that both sides are expected to observe. It tries to explain how a speaker can mean more than what he says and how a hearer perceives what the speaker really means? Grice thinks there is a set of assumptions gover

5、ning the conduct of conversation. This is what he calls the cooperative principle.2. Four Maxims and the Violations of the MaximsIt includes four maxims: the maxim of quantity, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner.（1）Violation of the Maxim of QuantityThe maxim of quant

6、ity includes two aspects: the interlocutors should make their contributions as informative as is required, they should not make their contributions more or less informative than is required. Nevertheless, as we mentioned above, in peoples daily communication, the interlocutors often offer too much o

7、r inadequate information, that is to say , it deviates from the maxims of quantity.（2）Violation of the Maxim of QualityAccording to the maxim of quality, the interlocutors should offer the true information to others. They shouldnot say what they believe to be false. Neither should they say that for

8、which they lack adequate evidence. However, there are still many examples to flout the maxim of quality in the purpose to gain some special targets, using such techniques as irony, metaphor, hyperbole.（3）Violation of the Maxim of RelationAccording to the maxim of relation, theinterlocutorsshouldmake

9、 their contribution relevant. This maxim demands that the hearer should give answers relevant to what the speaker has said in their dialogue. The“relevanttheory ”includes two sides. One is under the same condition, the more situation effect, the closer relation they are, the other is under the same

10、condition, the less efforts to handle, the more relevant they are.（4）Violation of the Maxim of MannerThe maxim of manner is different from other maxims in that it relates not to what is said ，but rather, to how what is said is to be said. The interlocutors should try to avoid obscurity and ambiguity

11、 when trying to pass a message. They should also try to be brief, and the last requirement is to be orderly. This maxim requires that the conveyed meaning should be adequately clear.三、The Effects of Violation of the Maxims1. The Humor and the MaximsWhenp eople flout the maxims, the implied meaning w

12、ill come out. In some cases, it can provide people the sense of humor. For example:Teacher: George Washington not only chopped down his fathers cherry tree, but also admitted doing it. Now do you know why his father didnt punish him?Student: Because George still had the axe in his hand.The student d

13、oes not answer the teachers questiondirectly. Instead, he gives an answer from another side, which causes a strong sense of humor. The student fails to respond successfully to the teacher in that he flouts the maxim of Quality.2. The Politeness and the MaximsThe factors that influence our communicat

14、ion are extremely complicated. And in our life people show their politeness and respect for others on the condition that the CP and the maxims are flouted. That is to say, not observing the CP and the maxims can contribute to the politeness in the conversation.A: What do you think of my new trousers

15、?B: Well, I think the color is nice.Although the listener doesnt like the speakerstrousers, because of politeness he just says the color is nice. It s not difficult to know that B has the encoded meaning. At this time, the flouting of the maxims is indispensable to the preliminary politeness.3. The

16、Satire and the MaximsThe following example can tell us that the satire will come into being when we violate the maxims. That is to say, there is a relation between satire and the CP or its four maxims.A: How is John s life after marriage?B: He has got a lioness at home.In this case, B compares Johns

17、 wife to a lion,conveying that Johns wife is grisliness. The words imply a sense of satire.四、ConclusionAs shown in these many examples above, it will achieve effects of conversation implicit beyond we expect because of violation one or some maxims of cooperative principle, especially in humorous con

18、versation. It will benefit us that non-English country people thoroughly understandEnglish culture, and more proficiently to use English.In a word, the CP and its maxims are the general cognitive principle that enables us to enrich information by general reasoning strategies. This strongly suggests that the mastery of CP and the conversational implicative can lay a solid foundation for the humanc ommunica