HERBERT PAUL GRICE

COMMUNICATION IMPLICATURES
STUDIES IN THE WAY OF WORDS

KUKIEA MARZENA
0828702
Vienna, 09.06.2009

HERBERT PAUL GRICE

(1913 in Birmingham, England - 1988 in Berkeley California)

He was educated at Clifton College and then at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Grice received firsts in classical honours moderation (1933) and literae humaniores
(1935) from Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

1930 - 1967 he taught in various positions on the Oxford University.

After 1967 he held positions at the University of California, Berkeley.
He was promoted to full professor in 1975.
He retired in 1979 but continued to teach until 1986.
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He is best known for his innovative work in philosophy of language.

He was philosophically active until his death. Collection of his work was posthumously
published as Studies in the Way of Words.
Although relatively little work was published during his life, he had a very wide
influence via lectures and unpublished manuscripts.

[Standard Encyclopedia of Philosophy; http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/grice/

Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind; http://philosophy.uwaterloo.ca/MindDict/grice.html
publish.uwo.ca/~rstainto/papers/Grice.pdf ]

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INTRODUCTION
What is meant

What is said

What is implicated

Conventionally

Non - Conventionally

Conversationally

Generally

Non - Conversationally

Particularly
[www.sfu.ca/~hedberg/Implicature.pdf]

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WHAT IS SAID / WHAT IS IMPLICATED

A and B are talking about a mutual friend, C, who is now working in a bank.
A: How is C getting on in his job?
B: Oh quite well, I think; he likes his colleagues, and he hasn't been to prison yet.
What B implied: C is the sort of person likely to yield to the temptation provided by
his occupation, that C's colleagues are very unpleasant and
treacherous people, and so forth.
What B said: C has not been to prison yet.

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CONVENTIONAL IMPLICATURES
In some cases the conventional meaning of the words used will determine what is
implicated, besides helping to determine what is said.
A: Hes an Englishman; he is, therefore, brave.
What A said: he is an Englishman, and he is brave.
What A implied: his bravery is a consequence of his being an Englishman.
Conventional implicatures are not inferred in context, but decoded; they depend on the
meaning of a specific word that is used in the utterance. (...) Grice identifies some more words
that give rise to conventional implicatures as moreover, so, but, too, also, either, ()
[html.rincondelvago.com/semantics-and-pragmatics.html]

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CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES
Cooperative Principle (CP)
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.
Categories:
- Quantity
- Quality
- Relation
- Manner

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Quantity
1. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes
of the exchange).
2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

Quality
Try to make your contribution one that is true.
1. Do not say what you believe to be false.
2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

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Relation
Be relevant.
Manner
Be perspicuous
1. Avoid obscurity of expression.
2. Avoid ambiguity.
3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
4. Be orderly.

Grice have stated maxims to ensure maximally effective exchange of information.

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THE MAXIMS HAVE ANALOGUES IN THE SPHERE OF TRANSACTIONS

THAT ARE NOT TALK EXCHANGES
Quantity: If you are assisting me to mend a car, I expect your contribution to be
neither more nor less than is required.
Quality: I expect your contributions to be genuine and not spurious.
Relation: I expect a partner's contribution to be appropriate to immediate needs at
each stage of the transaction.
Manner: I expect a partner to make it clear what contribution he is making, and to
execute his performance with reasonable dispatch.

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WAYS OF FAIL TO FULFILL A MAXIM

He

may quietly and unostentatiously violate a maxim.

He

may opt out from the operation both of the maxim and of the CP.

He

may be faced with a clash.

He

may flout a maxim; that is, he may blatantly fail to fulfill it.

The hearer is faced with a minor problem: How can saying what he did say be reconciled
with the supposition that he is observing the overall CP? This situation is one that
characteristically gives rise to a conversational implicature. When a conversational
implicature is generated in this way, Grice shall say that a maxim is being exploited.

The presence of a conversational implicature must be capable of being worked out.

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EXAMPLES OF CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE

(particularized conversational implicature)

Group A: in which no maxim is violated, or at least in which it is not clear that any
maxim is violated.
A: I am out of petrol.
B: There is a garage round the corner.

Implicatum: the garage is, or at lest may be open and sells petrol.

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Group B: in which a maxim is violated, but its violation is to be explained by the

supposition of a clash with another maxim.
A is planning with B an itinerary for a holiday in France. Both know that B wants to
see his friend C, if to do so would not involve too great a prolongation of his journey.
A: Where does C live?
B: Somewhere in the South of France.
The first maxim of Quantity: Make your contribution as informative as is required.
Maxim of Quality: Do not say what you lack adequate evidence for.

Implicatum: B implicates that he does not know in which town C lives.

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Group C: Examples that involve exploitation, that is, a procedure by which a maxim
is flouted for the purpose of getting in a conversational implicature by
mean of something of the nature of a figure of speech.
A is writing a testimonial about a pupil who is a candidate for a philosophy job.
A: Dear Sir, Mr. X's command of English is excellent and his attendance at
tutorials has been regular. Yours, etc.
The first maxim of Quantity: Make your contribution as informative as is required.

Implicatum: Mr. X is no good at philosophy.

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EXAMPLE OF CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE

(generalized conversational implicature)

A: X is meeting a woman this evening.

Implicatum: the person to be met was someone other than Xs wife, mother, sister, or
perhaps even close platonic friend.

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PROPERTIES OF CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES

Generalized conversational implicature can be canceled in a particular case.

Generalized conversational implicature connected with a familiar, nonspecial

locution have a high degree of non-detachability.

The conversational implicature is not part of the meaning of the expression.

Since the truth of a conversational implicatum is not required by the truth of
what is said. The implicature is not carried by what is said, but only by the saying
of what is said, or by 'putting it that way'.

The implicatum have the kind of indeterminate.

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HERBERT PAUL GRICE

COMMUNICATION IMPLICATURES
STUDIES IN THE WAY OF WORDS

KUKIEA MARZENA
0828702
Vienna, 09.06.2009