胡壮麟语言学5.pptVIP

pragmatics -----language in use topics Cooperative principle (CP) Neo-Gricean theories Post-Gricean developments Cooperative principle (CP) CP Violation of the maxims Summary of conversational implicature CP Oxford Philosopher and logician Herbert Paul Grice, in the fifties 1967, William James, lectures at Harvard 1975, logic and conversation He attempt to explain the course of natural conversation, in which implicated messages are frequently involved. In daily conversations people do not usually say things but tend to imply them. The word “implicature” is used to refer to the extra meaning that is not explicitly expressed in the utterance. In making a conversation, the participants must first of all be willing to cooperate; otherwise, it would not be possible for them to carry on the talk. This general principle is called the cooperative principle : “make your 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.” There are four maxims under this general principle: the maxim of quantity, quality, relation and manner. While conversation participants nearly always observe the CP, but they do not always observe these maxims. These maxims can be violated for various reasons, but when they are “flouted”, to use Grice’s term, does “conversational implicature” occur. Flouting a maxim means violating it blatantly, i.e., both the speaker and the hearer are aware of the violation. When a speaker flouts a maxim, his language becomes indirect. Four maxims of CP Maxim of Quantity: Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purposes of the exchange). Do not make your contribution more informative than required. Maxim of Quality: Try to make your contribution one that true: Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say something if you lack adequate evidence Four maxims of CP Maxim of Relation: Make your contribution relevant Max