Grice’s theory of Conversational

Implicatures
• Grice distinguished between what is said , and
what is implicated. What is said is governed by
the conventional meaning of words, and what
is implicated is associated with the existence
of some ‘rational’ maxims which assures the
success of the conversation, by respecting
these maxims, both speaker and listener in
the conversation are adhering to the
cooperative principle .
 Maxims
Grice proposed the four maxims which can be regarded
as the basis for cooperative principle
1. Quantity: say only what is needed; give the exact
amount of information
2. Quality: say the truth, Do not say what you believe to
be false, or that for which you lack adequate evidence
3. Relation: be relevant
4. Manner: be clear

> Grice attributes to these principles the essential role in

the interpretation of the conversational implicatures.
• Grice doesn’t suggest that this is an
exhaustive list nor give equal importance of
each one them, in fact , being relevant can
cover all of them , but Grice tried to describe
the NORMS governing the natural human
conversation, so that if one the maxims is
being violated , we understand that speaker
is trying to add more meaning to the
conventional meaning of words, this is what
we call conversational implicature.
 Hedges
The use of some words to indicate that we are not
respecting the maxims of the conversation, but we are
concerned with following them while being
cooperative participants in a conversation. Words that
indicate we are not really sure whether what we are
saying is correct, or sufficient .
• Sort of , kind of > hedges on the accuracy of our
statement, principle of quality: As far as I know, I’m not
absolutely sure but, now correct me if I am wrong,
but…likely, I think, some, few, anyway, well, by the
way…
 Types of conversational implicatures
• Generalized :no special knowledge of context is
needed to calculate implicature. ( use of
indefinite pronouns)
• Scalar : hierarchically ordered quantifiers; selects
most informative (Quantity) & truthful (Quality)
quantifier on the scale in context; selected
quantifier implicates negative of all those higher
on the scale;
• Particularized : cases in which an implicature is
carried by an utterance on a particular occasion
in virtue of special features of the context.
 Characteristics of conversational
implicatures
• They are cancellable: the implicature is contextually
cancelled if one can find situations in which the
utterance would simply not carry the implicature.
• They are non-detachable : You can say the utterance in
any way you want , changing words, won’t change the
implicature . Simply because they are heavily
dependant on context , and not the conventional
meaning of words.
• They are calculable : it is possible to work out the steps
that must followed to infer an implicature from an
utterance.