4.2 Cooperation and Implicature

Inmuch of the preceding discussion,we have assumed that speakers and listeners involved in conversation are generally cooperatingwith each other. Let us think in terms of a prototypical conversation. Such a conversation is not a randomsuccession of unrelated utterances produced in turn by participants of communicative act: a prototypical conversation has a general purpose, and the contributions of the participants are related both to one another and to the overall aimof the conversation [6, p. 11].

By participating in a conversation, a speaker implicitly signals that he or she agrees to cooperate in the joint activity and agrees to followthe rules of conduct, which are called Cooperative Principle. It sounds as following: make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose of the talk exchange in which you are engaged [9, p. 53].

This principle is elaborated by means of a set of maxims, which express what it means to cooperate in a conversational way [10]:

maxim of quality is concerned with truth-telling and has two parts: a) do not say what you believe to be false; b) do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence;

maximof quantity is concernedwith the amount of information an utterance conveys: a) make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purposes of the exchange in which you are engaged; b) do not make your contribution more informative than is required. Imagine a conversation between a mother and a daughter: M: What did you have for lunch today? – D: Baked beans on toast // Food // I had 87 warmed-up baked beans served on a slice of toast 12 cm by 10 cm. The first answer is normal, 2nd gives too little information thus violating the 1st part of the maxim, 3d gives too much information, and violates the 2nd part of the maxim;

maxim of relation – be relevant. The point of this maxim is that it is not sufficient for a statement to be true for it to contribute in a successful conversation: A: Have you seen Mary today? - B: ??? I’m breathing;

maxim of manner has 4 components: a) avoid obscurity; b) avoid ambiguity; c) avoid unnecessary prolixity (too many tedious words); d) be orderly (recount events in the order that they occur).

Another notion related to the pragmatic aspect of human communication is called Implicature – additional conveyedmeaning of an utterance [5, p. 269 – 282]. Consider the following example: A: I’ve run out of petrol – B: There’s a garage just round the corner.

Implication here is that the garage sells petrol and is open. Implicatures are primary examples of more being communicated than is said, but in order for themto be interpreted, cooperative principlemust be assumed. Following the cooperative principle and the maxims, we assume that people are normally going to provide an appropriate amount of information;we assume that they are telling the truth, being relevant, and trying to be as clear as they can. Because these principles are assumed

in normal interaction, speakers rarelymention them.

However, there are certain kinds of expressions speakers use to mark that they may be in danger of not fully adhering to the principles.

These kinds of expressions are called hedges [3, p. 56].