Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Paul Grice’s
Conversational Maxims
Marathana Prothro
Feb. 15, 2010
Conversation Analysis
The attempt to discover – in detail – exactly
what we accomplish by talking to someone
else
Looks at:
patterns of language (the back-and-forth, turn-
taking that communicators create)
The Rules of Conversation
Grice’s conversational maxims
Maxim?
Grice’s Conversational Maxims
Maxim: a principle or
rule of conduct.
Underlying
assumption:
Cooperative
principle
What you say must
be appropriate
and fit with the
line of
conversation
Maxim 1: Quantity
What you contribute to a conversation should
contain the right amount of information, not
too much or too little.