Maxims Research Paper

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1.2.1 The Maxim of Quantity

The first maxim of the cooperative principle is the maxim of quantity. According to Cutting, 2002 it is about the amount of information the speaker gives in an utterance in conversations. In other words, the maxim of quantity requires speakers to give the right amount of information when they speak. This means not to be too brief or to give more information than is required (Cited in Yule, 1996). Hence, they must avoid short utterances, otherwise what they say will be heard as ‘‘obscure’’ (Widdowson, 2007).

As cited by Cutting 2000, when speaking, the speaker’s answer should have sufficient information for the listener to understand the answer. Giving too much information or too little information will flout the maxim.

1.2.2 The Maxim of Quality

Cruse, 2000 stated the second maxim that Grice talks about is the quality maxim. It is about the truthfulness of the information given in conversations (Cruse, 2000).

According to Thomas (1995), the maxim of quality is a matter of giving the right information. Therefore, speakers require providing true information when communicating. In other words, they must avoid lying. Thus, people can only talk, when they are sure of the truthfulness of what they are saying (Cutting, 2002).

Cruse (2000) paraphrases this maxim as ‘‘do not make unsupported statements.’’ Thus, keeping silent is better than saying things which you are not sure about. What must be remembered about this maxim is that whether observed or breached there is a reason behind (Mey, 2001).

Horn (2006), considers that the quality maxim is the most important maxim. He sees that it is hard to identify how many maxims are satisfied without the observation of the quality maxim. As the quantity maxim, quality is applied or violated depending on the situation of the conversations. For Widdowson (2007), in some situations it is more appropriate not to tell the truth.

According to this maxim, a speaker should always speak what he or she believes is true. It also states that one should not say something without enough evidence to prove that the matter in question is true. This is the maxim to be flouted whenever the act of ‘lying’ or ‘concealing the truth’ occurs (Damien, 2002, p.8).

1.2.3 The Maxim of Relation

The third maxim is that of relation, which says that speakers are required to be relevant to what has been said before (Cutting, 2002). In other words, what speakers say ought to be relevant to the ‘‘topic’’ or the ‘‘purpose’’ of communication (Widdowson, 2007).

According to Cruse (2000) this maxim is based on the assumption that for a conversation to be meaningful and acceptable, it is not enough to be true. Hence, utterances in conversations require being relevant as well as being true and informative. In other words, informative and true utterances in conversation can be meaningless if they are irrelevant ones. Grice formulates it as ‘‘be relevant’’ (cited in Yule, 1996, 37).

1.2.4 The Maxim of Manner

The last maxim is that of manner, which is regarded as less important than the three previous ones. It says that speakers’ utterances should be clear and easily understood (Cruse, 2000). According to Cutting (2002), speakers should be ‘‘brief’’, ‘‘orderly’’ and they should avoid ‘‘obscurity’’ and ‘‘ambiguity’’. Widdowson (2007) says that to apply the manner maxim speakers must be ‘‘clear’’ and must avoid ‘‘ambiguity’’ and ‘‘obscurity’’.

Grice suggests the following:(1) Be perspicuous; (2) Avoid obscurity of expression; (3) Avoid ambiguity; (4) Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity); (5) Be orderly (cited in Yule, 1996, p.37).

According to Cruse, this maxim explains itself except that not everyone knows what is meant by prolixity and being orderly. He goes on to say that avoiding unnecessary prolixity means avoiding lengthy utterances. In addition, being orderly means to talk about incidents according to their order of occurrence for the sake of providing relevant and meaningful utterances. Otherwise, hearers could not match the speakers’ utterances.

This maxim indicates that one should make sure that what he or she says could be easily understood by others. If others have trouble in getting what is being said, the message will not be conveyed properly. This maxim is all about “the use of brevity and directness in the conversation, without verbose, ambiguous or unnecessary excessive language” (Baskaran, 2005, p.41).

1.3 Non-observances

According to Grundy, 1995, any failure to observe a maxim may be referred to as ‘breaking’ a maxim. When speakers break a maxim, the hearers look for the implicature since they assume that the cooperative principle is in operation. Non observances of maxims are often used in operation and are often used intentionally in order to evoke humour or to avoid discomfort. (Grundy, 1995).

1.3.1 Flouting

Thomas, 1995 once stated that when flouting a maxim, the speaker does not intend to mislead the hearer but wants the hearer to look for the conversational implicature, that is the meaning of utterance not directly stated in the words uttered. Therefore, when the speaker intentionally fails to observe a maxim, the purpose may be to effectively communicate a message (Thomas, 1995).

Plag et al. (2007) say that flouting is a complex task for hearers, because they should look for what is meant from the unsaid. According to Chapman (2000), flouting is when speakers contribute in interactions although they appear to be uncooperative. It is the task of hearers to interpret these contributions to the present conversation. In other words, hearers must infer that speakers are exploiting a maxim for communicative purposes. Another definition of flouting is given by Paltridge (2006); speakers purposely fail to observe the cooperative principle because they assume that hearers are aware of this.

Research Questions

The writers’ purpose of conducting the research concerning the Reasons and Impact of Flouting the Maxims of conversation by selected AB English students during Casual Conversations is to meet the following objectives:

- What are the types of maxims commonly flouted by the respondents?

- What are the reasons of the respondents in flouting the maxim of conversation?