more info about cooperative principle

The cooperative principle:


in this principle we can find four maxims that shouldn`t be taken as rules or laws, this maxims are suggestions that help us to understand human comunication. Those maxims are:
quality maxim
quantity maxim
manner maxim
relevance maxim
 
in this blog we will explain about the  last 2 maxims ( relevance and manner)
 
manner maxim:
     explain that our messages must be cristal clear, I mean, that must be easy to understand for the listener/reader
 
for example: if  we are in a room with our friend and he ask us:
 
     Hey do you know where Mary is?
 
we should answer:
 
    Yes, she is up stairs
 
 relevance maxim:
it says that our messages should be as relevant as possible according to the contextual situation; what is appropriate according to the situation, the topic of conversation, the relation we have with the person we are speaking to.

more info about maxims

The cooperative principle:
This principle includes four maxims that govern tacitly human communication. They are not to be taken as rules but as suggestions that implicitly guide our interactions and helps us in understanding each other’s. These maxims are: the quality maxim, the quantity maxim, the manner maxim and the relevance maxim.

The quality maxim:
It states that we should try to make our contributions in any oral or written language interaction as sincere as possible. Otherwise, we can lose our listener/ reader attention or be taken as a fool.
The quantity maxim:
It recommends not to include in our interactions more information than necessary; that is it suggests us to be brief. This is because if we are not brief enough we can also lose our listener’s attention because s/he can get impatient or bored.
The manner maxim: it says that our messages should be as clear as possible in order to be understood more easily.
The relevance maxim: it states that we should try to make our messages as relevant as possible according to the contextual situation; this means saying what is appropriate according to the situation, the topic of conversation, the relation we have with the person we are speaking to.
As everything we have studied so far, the respect for these maxims depends on contextual factors such as the type of relation between the speakers, the formality of the situation, the place where they are interacting, etc. for instance,
 Two close friends at the movie might violate the quality and the manner maxims when speaking to each other during the film in order to avoid perturbing the rest of the public.
 Teachers tend to violate the quantity maxim to reinforce their explanations and to increase their students’ understanding.
 Two doctors speaking in front of their patient about his/her terminal health condition will violate the manner maxim by filling their discourse with technical vocabulary in order to avoid their patient’s concern.


The frequent violation of the cooperative maxims implies that when we acquire a language we also acquire the knowledge about when the cooperative maxims can be violated; that is; we know when we are socially allowed to do so. Some of the language resources, most frequently used for doing so, are what we call the figures of speech. In any language, we can find a multiple variety of figures of speech; some of them are explained and illustrated below.

maxims

It is often difficult to tell whether a maxim means something, or something means maxim.
(Robert Benchley, "Maxims from the Chinese")

Maxims, you see, are tricky devices. As Benchley suggests in his comic chiasmus, they generally sound pretty convincing--at least until a contrary maxim comes along. "Look before you leap," we say with conviction, until remembering that "He who hesitates is lost." English is full of such contrary proverbs--or, as we prefer to call them, dueling maxims:

• "The bigger the better"
  "Good things come in small packages."
• "What's good for the goose is good for the gander."
  "One man's meat is another man's poison."
• "Birds of a feather flock together."
  "Opposites attract."
• "Actions speak louder than words."
  "The pen is mightier than the sword."
• "You're never too old to learn."
  "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
• "All good things come to those who wait."
  "Time and tide wait for no man."
• "Many hands make light work."
  "Too many cooks spoil the broth."
• "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."
  "Out of sight, out of mind."
• "It's better to be safe than sorry."
  "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

As William Mathews said, "All maxims have their antagonist maxims; proverbs should be sold in pairs, a single one being but a half truth."
But then, we might ask, what is the nature of proverbial truth? In his essay "Literature as Equipment for Living," rhetorician Kenneth Burke argued that proverbs are "strategies" designed for "dealing with situations"--for "consolation or vengeance, for admonition or exhortation, for foretelling." And different situations call for different proverbs:

The apparent contradictions depend upon differences in attitude, involving a correspondingly different choice of strategy. Consider, for instance, the apparently opposite pair: "Repentance comes too late" and "Never too late to mend." The first is admonitory. It says in effect: "You'd better look out, or you'll get yourself too far into this business." The second is consolatory, saying in effect: "Buck up, old man, you can still pull out of this."
(The Philosophy of Literary Form, 3rd edition, Louisiana State University Press, 1967)

In any event, the maxim is a handy device, especially for people in predominately oral cultures--those that rely on speech rather than writing to pass along knowledge. Some of the common stylistic features of maxims (features that help us remember them) include parallelism, antithesis, chiasmus, alliteration, paradox, hyperbole, and ellipsis.
According to Aristotle in his Rhetoric, the maxim is also a persuasive device, convincing listeners by conveying an impression of wisdom and experience. Because maxims are so common, he says, "They seem true, as if everyone agreed."
But that doesn't mean that all of us have earned the right to use maxims. There's a minimum age requirement, Aristotle tells us:

Speaking in maxims is appropriate to those older in years and on subjects of which one is experienced, since to speak maxims is unseemly for one too young, as is storytelling; and on matters in which one is inexperienced it is silly and shows lack of education. There is an adequate sign of this: country folks are most inclined to strike maxims and readily show themselves off.
(Aristotle On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse, translated by George A. Kennedy, Oxford University Press, 1991)

Finally, we might keep in mind this bit of proverbial wisdom from Mark Twain: "It is more trouble to make a maxim than it is to do right."

                  welcome to our blog