Grice’s Theory of Implicature

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Grice’s theory of implicature centers on what he has named the “Cooperative Principle,” and how it relates directly to conversational implications that occur in our daily speech. In the implicature section of his essay “Logic and Conversation,” Grice explains that there are common goals of conversation that we try to achieve within our discussions. For example, some of these common goals are that there is a shared aim of the conversation, each person’s contributions to the conversation should be dependent upon each other, and the conversation continues until it is mutually agreed that it is over. In order to preserve these goals, we find it easiest, as cooperative human beings, to stick to the Cooperative Principle, and along with it, the maxims that Grice lays out. Based on an assumption that we do not generally deviate from this Cooperative Principle without good reason, we can find out things that are implicitly stated. Implicature is the part of our spoken language when these maxims are broken purposefully, and it involves the implicitly understood form of communication: things that are implied or suggested. While Grice’s theory of implicature is a very careful assessment of implied statements, there are some faults that are found within his argument. Because of these issues, Grice’s theory neither offers a solution to the formalist and infomalist problems, nor provides an infallible method of evaluating implicature in everyday conversation.

Grice writes that because we are, for the most part, a group of coherent and cooperative human beings, “our talk exchanges do not normally consist of a succession of disconnected remarks, and would not be rational if they did” (“Logic and Conversation” pg. 44). That is, the conversations ...

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... to define a pragmatic language that can capture the true meaning of our thoughts and sentences in a formal language. This is significant because as often as we do stick to the Cooperative Principle and the maxims that Grice specifies, there are times where we stray from these cooperations to purposefully create implications. Because we do not normally ignore this Cooperative Principle without good reason, implicature is a strong way to get a point across. While Grice’s theory of implicature seems to fall short of setting up a complete evaluation process with which to decipher these points, there are some good things within his argument. Although Grice’s theory does not give a full solution to the formalist and infomalist problems or supply a flawless technique to evaluate implicature all the time, it is worth thinking about and applying to our everyday language.

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