maxims

Ellen F. Prince ellen at CENTRAL.CIS.UPENN.EDU
Wed Feb 10 00:06:28 UTC 1999


>Dear Marta Carretero,
>Gricean maxims are regularly violated in informal phatic discourse by
>those who perceive their interlocutors to be close to them. They also
>seem to be at least in part gender/culture-conditioned, as they reflect
>primarily European male discourse.
>Olga Yokoyama

The whole point of Grice is that the Maxims are *presumed* in any
sort of linguistic communication as we know it -- why on earth would
anyone ever ask a question if not for the presumption that the
addressee's next utterance would be somehow relevant and also non-random
with respect to the addressee's beliefs?

Furthermore, the Maxims do more work -- by being perceptibly violated,
they permit the drawing of non-logical inferences.

If anyone knows of a culture or sex for whom things work differently,
I would love to hear about it.



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