Figurative Language

Grice’s Maxims
Rules of Conversation
The Maxim of Relevance
Be relevant.
Kim: How are you today?
Sandy: Oh, Harrisburg is the capital of
Pennsylvania.
Alana: Is Jamie dating anyone these days?
Sam: Well, she goes to Cleveland every weekend.
Rules of Conversation
Grice’s Maxims
The Maxims of Quantity
Make your contribution as informative as required.
Do not make your contribution more informative
than is required.
Kim: Where did you grow up?
Sandy: On the corner of Main Street and Minor Road.
In Dubuque.
In Dubuque, Iowa.
In Iowa.
In the Midwest.
In the United States.
Grice’s Maxims
Rules of Conversation
The Maxims of Manner
Avoid obscurity of expression (avoid jargon and
needless complexity).
Avoid ambiguity.
Be brief.
Be orderly.
What do you do for a living?
#What I do is that I’m a professor and the subject
matter that I teach is psychology.
Grice’s Maxims
Rules of Conversation
The Maxims of Manner
Avoid obscurity of expression (avoid jargon and
needless complexity).
Avoid ambiguity.
Be brief.
Be orderly.
#My mother didn’t really want my room to be painted purple. I
was worried that I wouldn’t get good grades at the new school.
When I was a child, m favorite color was purple. I worked very
hard in all of my classes to get good grades. My mother told me
that if I got good grades, I could paint my room.
Flouting the maxims
Flouting the maxims
How many times have you…
…told a lie?
… changed the subject?
… given too much information?
… said something confusing?
Good morning!
I wonder
what he
meant by
that?
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