Gricean Maxims and The Interpersonal Considerations

Gricean maxims are designed to make verbal interaction become quick, clear, and efficient. Grice (1975) proposes four maxims for verbal interactions: quality maxim, quantity maxim, relation maxim, and manner maxim. Maxim of quality requires speaker to speak truthfully. In order to support communication, one should be truthful and should not say what one thinks is false. One can only make statements if they are supported by evidence. Maxim of quantity requires speaker to pass sufficient information. The contribution made has to be as informative as required to proceed with the conversation. One should not make the contribution more informative or less informative than is required. Maxim of relation demands relevance in the conversation. The given information should be relevant with the topic of the conversation. One cannot suddenly give unrelated information in an ongoing conversation. Finally, maxim of manner requires clarity. Interactants must avoid obscurity of expressions. One should avoid ambiguity when giving information. Furthermore, the given information should be brief and orderly.

However, the “maximally efficient” verbal interaction is almost impossible to be done due to the interpersonal consideration among the people in the society. Thus, Gricean maxims are violated. These violations, however, are acceptable in the community for the presence of the cooperative principle which allows every interacting individual supports each other. Besides, In order to understand language use as social action, one has to consider the implication of speech act in particular context. Speech act and language use are sensitive matters which have many influencing factors to be considered. One cannot perform speech act without putting much concern to other’s face. The level of politeness applied reveals the interpersonal consideration of the interactants.

Politeness theory  (Brown and Levinson, 1978) brings contribution to our understanding of the effectiveness of communication in social interaction. Politeness is the result of some interacting factors such as the social distance, the degree of power, and cultural beliefs. Therefore, what is said to be an effective communication does not necessarily quick, clear, and maximally efficient.  One should not make the contribution more informative or less informative than is required. Maxim of relation demands relevance in the conversation. The given information should be relevant with the topic of the conversation. One cannot suddenly give unrelated information in an ongoing conversation.

Finally, maxim of manner requires clarity. Interactants must avoid obscurity of expressions. One should avoid ambiguity when giving information. Furthermore, the given information should be brief and orderly. However, the “maximally efficient” verbal interaction is almost impossible to be done due to the interpersonal consideration among the people in the society. Thus, Gricean maxims are violated. These violations, however, are acceptable in the community for the presence of the cooperative principle which allows every interacting individual supports each other.

Fransisca Kristanti "The Interpersonal Underpinning of Talk: Face Management and Politeness" on Pragmatics Course