Grice's Maxims

QUANTITY, where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.

 

 

     QUALITY, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.

 

       RELATION, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.

 

 

     MANNER, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.

 

 We can VIOLATE them

htis means that we break the maxims so that other people do not know. If we violate the maxim of quality, we lie. If we violate the maxim of quantity by not giving enough information, if someone finds out we can be accused of 'being economical with the truth', another deceit. Violating the maxims is similar to breaking them 'illegally', just as people who steal are guilty of breaking the law. As with laws, some maxim violations can be worse than others. Lying in a court of law is disapproved, but 'white lies' are small lies to keep the social peace and are often thought as acceptable.

 

 We can FLOUT them

 If we FLOUT a maxim, we break it in a FLAGRANT way, so that it is obvious to all concerned that it has been broken. Grice distinguishes what he calls 'sentence meaning' from 'utterer's meaning' and he refers to an utterer's meaning indicated through a flout as an IMPLICATURE. So the implicate is what we have been referring to so far as the 'extra meaning'.