Grice believed that conversation is a co-operative enterprise where speakers allow certain rules, which are never spelt out, to be understood and used as part of language aquisition and early socialisation.
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Grice's Maxims
Grice believed these rules to be:
QUALITY - speakers must tell the truth
QUANTITY - speakers must give right amount of imformation
RELEANCE - get the the point and stay on the point of conversation
MANNER - present material in an orderly way.
related vocabulary:
TACITURN - reluctance/unwillingness to speak
LACONIC - only speak when you've got something good to say
VERBOSE - talking too much
GARRULOS - speaking rubbish
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Lakoff's Politeness Principles
Lakoff belieed that a co-operative conversation required:
not imposing
giving options
making the reciever feel good.
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Breaking the rules
We do flout Lakoff's and Grice's maxims regularly it is a MARKED ACTIVITY i.e. we do it on purpose.
Examples of this are hyperbole, irony, ambiguity, puns and metaphors.
The understanding of the effects we create when we break the rules on purpose is called CONVERSATIONSAL IMPLICATURE.
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What to look out for in texts in relation to power
Who has the power?
What is the function of the conversation?
What is the context?
Are there any phatic features?
Is anyone asking questions?
What do they call each other?
Any pauses or signs of hesitance?
How politearethey being to one another?
Are there any ajacency pairs or three-part exchanges?
How polite are they being to one another?
Are there any pragmatics?
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Related vocabulary
PHATIC TALK: Small/chatty talk
INTERACTIONAL TALK: Conversational, socialising
TRANSACTIONAL TALK: Wanting to get something
PERFORMATIVE TALK: Does something practical in talk e.g "I do" in wedding ceromony.
BACKCHANNELING: words, phrases or non-verbal soundsused to agree or show you are listening to the speaker/s
TAG QUESTION: Turning a statement into a question to get affirmation e.g. "I like this top, do you?"
Thats really useful, I've only been taught grice's maxims, not Lakoff's. I've never been taught about interactional talk, transactional talk and performative talk either. I've done some wider reading on it but this is by far the clearest i've found! Thank you :)
my teacher doesnt actually teach anything, she just presumes we learn through 'mind maps' which really is not effective and doesnt stay in my memory at all.
these notes have helped a lot. my exam is next week, ill let you know how these notes helped. thank you.
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