Analysis of Grice’s conversational implicature

Handan

【Abstract】Grice had comprehensive studied on implicature from philosophy view. And proposed the cooperative principle and the way of quality， quantity， relevance， four major principles， it laid a good foundation for the study of the implied. This paper reviews the theory of Grice conversation implicature background， combed the related theory， analyzed the existing problems， and for the study of linguistics implied， puts forward a new method of possible research Angle.

【Key words】implicature； cooperative principle； Grice

1. background

From the thirties of the 20th century， western philosophy gradually focused on the methodology. The philosopher stressed the certainty of knowledge and verifiability. They excluded metaphysics and try to establish philosophy on the basis of science. After that， language philosophy came into being. Language philosophy mainly concerns alleged， meaning， truth value， speech ACTS and so on. Their findings laid a foundation for the development of modern linguistics， especially the development of semantics and pragmatics. Many of their view is as a linguistic theories， such as Wittgenstein's theory of meaning and referential， Austin's speech act theory and Grice's cooperative principle， etc. Meaning is derived in terms of its essence， is a kind of reasoning phenomenon in verbal communication. This phenomenon has noticed by many philosophers. On the basis of criticizing and inheriting predecessors' research， Grice's cooperative principle and its maxims are put forward.

2. relation theory

Implicit phenomenon had been a long time. However， Grice done the most most comprehensive and in-depth research. For implicature， Grice proposed many relation concepts. The main concept is： implicature and implicatum； “Natural” and “unnatural meaning”. Grice created implicature and implicatum and they are the core concept on implication research. Grice stated：“I wish to introduce， as terms of art ， the verb implicate and the related nouns implicature （cf .implying）and implicatum （cf .what is implied ）.”（Grice1989 ：24） Grice also distinguish say and implicate. Say is relevance to conventional knowledge（vocabulary and grammar） and opposed to implicate. Grice say：“In the sense in which I am using the word say， I intend what someone has said to be closely related to the conventional meaning of the words （sentence）hehas uttered.”（Grice 1989：25）

“conventional meaning”is not a linguistic term. No matter words or sentences with complex semantic structure， what kind of meaning is the conventional has not yet been determined. There is no clear definition， the implication and meaning of Grice concept has to continue study. It is obvious that Grice has taken the meaning of words in relation to the speaker's intention， to highlight the meaning of subjectivity. “Natural”and“unnatural meaning”distinction is also one of the keys to understand the theory of Grice conversation implicature. All in all， Grice stated conversation as intentional verbal behavior， and proposed implicature and implicatum， distinguish between natural and unnatural meaning， say and implicate. They are the starting point of implicature research.

3. Cooperative principle

As a rational communicative behavior， Grice believes that communication must cooperate， properly， grice this general principle is called the cooperative principle. American philosopher Paul Grice found that “our talk exchanges do not normally consist of a succession of disconnected remarks， and would not be rational if they did”， and “they are characteristically， to some degree at least， cooperative efforts； and each participant recognizes in them， to some extent， a common purpose or set of purposes， or at least a mutually accepted direction” （Grice：1975：124）. In his opinion， in order to make successful and fluent conversations， the participants must first of all be willing to be cooperative； otherwise， it would not be possible for them to go on talking. This general principle is called the “Cooperative Principle”. People usually abbreviate it as CP， which will be discussed in the following. “We might then formulate a rough general principle which participants will be expected to observe， namely： youre 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. One might label this the Cooperative Principle.”（Grice： 1975： 124）. Specifically speaking， there are four maxims under this general principle for us participants to follow in conversation—the maxim of quantity， the maxim of quality， the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner.

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.

Relation ——Be relevant.

Manner ——Be perspicuous.

1） Avoid obscurity of expression.

2） Avoid ambiguity.

3） Be brief （avoid unnecessary prolixity）.

4） Be orderly （Grice， 1975： 125）.

Grice's cooperative principle and its criterion is the main achievements of the studies on the implied. Whether these principles and standards comprehensively and correctly reflects the reality in verbal communication？ And whether is Universal？ That is to say， in different languages， different social classes， different speech event types， different context， whether all people consciously or unconsciously follow these principles and guidelines？ In addition， there are besides other principles and standards. Many scholars focus on these problems.

4. Grices Theory of Conversational Implicature

Grice （1975： 124） pointed out that “I wish to represent a subclass of nonconventional implicatures， which I shall call conversational implicatures， as being essentially connected with certain general features of discourse”. He proposed that all speakers， regardless of their cultural background， adhere to a basic principle governing conversation which he termed the Cooperative Principle. However， those maxims of Cooperative Principle are not always observed. Many people do not speak directly but express themselves in an implicit way.

Grice made a distinction between quietly violating a maxim and openly flouting a maxim. The former， in Grices analysis， doesnt lead to implicature. What leads to implicature is a situation where the speaker flouts a maxim. That is， it is obvious to the hearer at the time of the utterance that the speaker deliberately and quite openly failed to observe one or more maxims （Peccei， 2004： 27）. Conversational Implicature has been invoked for a variety of purposes， from defending controversial semantic claims in philosophy to explaining lexical gaps in linguistics. H. P. Grice， who coined the term “Conversational Implicature，” and classified the phenomenon， developed an influential theory to explain and predict conversational implicatures， and describe how they are understood. Conversational Implicature Theory plays an important role in the research of pragmatics.

5. The main question

Grice considered that conversation must obey cooperate principle. How to understand the word “cooperation”？ Human language communication activities is very complex， the police in the criminal trial activities， neighbourhood quarrel， white lies， word games， whether these speech event is “cooperation”？ In the adversarial relationship， the communicator will in quality， quantity， relation， manner cooperate？ Grice noticed this problem and stated ：“ … even in the talk-exchange of civilized people browbeating disputation and conversational sharp practice are far too common to be offenses against the fundamental dictates of conversational practice.”（Grice1989 ：369）. He also thought：“…whether its tone is agreeable or disagreeable， much of our talk-exchange is too haphazard to be directed toward any end cooperative or otherwise . Chitchat goes nowhere ， unless making the time pass is a journey .” （Grice1989 ：369）

Obviously， in the implied phenomenon， we must also consider the interrelationships among different language， culture and communication， and communication activity type may impact on the communication principle.

6. Suggestion and conclusion

Traditional linguistics research methods are describing method， inductive method. Language is a hierarchical system. Communicator use language is the use of the hierarchy system. So， determine the research level is important. We consider that language is a very good research point， 1）Sentence is the basic units of language communication and it is not isolated， it has relationship with the context；2） the statement is the main body， the body is the communicator；3） the statement is a speech act. All in all， as the basic unit of language communication， the statement can comprehensively reflect the subjectivity， initiative， and comprehensive of nonverbal communication. The purpose of the study language is for practical applications. Grice's implicit study represents a kind of language philosophy research methods. His viewpoint and method make linguistics （especially pragmatics） benefited a lot. However， if the implicit study of linguistics became the single philosophical Angle. That is the sorrow of linguistics. Insist on the distinction between language and speech， distinguish between the different language levels， implied by describing method， inductive method research is also a kind of possible choices.

References：

[1]Grice，H.P，Logic and Conversation.In.P.Cole（ed）Readings in Language and Mind，Blackwell Publishers，1975.

[2]何兆熊.新编语用学概要[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社， 1998.