Essay Example on Exploring Discourse as a Social Practice: An Analysis of Conversation using Gricean Maxims

Introduction

This paper explores discourse as a social practice through the analysis of a conversation between two speakers.

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Paul Grice, a philosopher, suggested four types of conversational maxims emerge from natural language pragmatics. These Gricean maxims serve in explaining the connection between utterances and what we can understand from them. The principle from the maxim note is that you need to make your conversational contribution as required, especially at the phase it happens, by the accepted direction or aim of the talk change in which a person engages. This is because speakers and listeners ought to speak cooperatively and also need mutually to accept one another. As a result, they will be understood in a particular way. The principles usually describe how effective communication occurs in conversation is attained in common circumstances (Safitri & Faridi, 2017). The laws are broken into four maxims of quantity, quality, manner, and relevance.

Maxim of quality involves a situation where an individual attempts to be truthful. He or she does not give false information or lacks evidence to support (Benton, 2016).

An example of the maxim of relevance include:

ELAINE: I don't know. I'll hide them. So, is Kramer upset?

JERRY: I think so. I mean, he's acting weird; lately, he's different.

The explanation offered by jerry about whether Kramer was upset is of quality.

The following conversations shows lack of maxim of quality:

KRAMER: What point?

JERRY: Just, look, just give the keys.

The above conversation lack of explanation as jerry fails to give detailed information of the point he was referring to.

Maxim of quantity occurs where an individual attempt to be as informative as possible. The person offers information as it is required.

Example:

GEORGE: You yearn.

KRAMER: Oh, yes. Yes, I yearn. Often, I...I sit...and yearn. Have you yearned? (Ajsvista, 2008)

The conversation obeys the maxim of quantity as Kramer offers much information as it is required.

Maxim of manner occurs where an individual attempts to be very brief, clear ad orderly as possible. In this case, an individual avoids ambiguity and obscurity as he or she can (Jacquet et al., 2019).

Example:

KRAMER: You got money?

GEORGE: No.

The above conversation obeys the maxim of manner. George is brief to the question.

KRAMER: George, it's time for us to grow up - and be men. Not little boys.

GEORGE: Why?

The above discussion is ambiguous as George does not understand why they needed to grow up. Further explanation is required.

Maxim of relevance is also known as the maxim of relation. It is described as where a partner's contribution is expected to be appropriate, particularly to the immediate needs across all transaction stages (Jacquet et al., 2019). For instance, the conversation below shows the maxim of relevance:

JERRY: You scared me!

KRAMER: It's just me.

Jerry points out that he was scared, but Kramer responds positively and politely. This is an indication that the response is relevant to the first statement from Jerry.

On the contrary, the following conversation has violated the maxim of relevance:

JERRY: Kramer! What are you doing?!

KRAMER: What does it look like I'm doing? What?

In this case, the response to the question would have remained positive for the continuity of the conversation. Kramer’s response contributed to the breaking of the maxim since the feedback lacks relevance to the issue asked. A correct answer in the above question would have been, "I am doing fine.”

Lakoff’s rules of politeness

Lakoff developed rules that include: give receiver options, do not impose, and make the receiver feel good. This statement; KRAMER: George, it's time for us to grow up - and be men. Not little boys.” Impose options for the receiver. This lacks a real face as it appears attacking. However, the following statement: "GEORGE: You're not gonna go to California, are you?" offers the receiver an option. The principle where one should make the receiver feel good includes where Kramer states, “You're wasting your life.” The response is likely to lead to a negative face.

Contextualization cues

The conversation indicates Contextualization cues such as intonation and body language that emphasize the meanings from the speakers. They help to convey the message required.

Rhetorical strategies: Kramer makes use of rhetorical questions to make George understand why they needed to grow up. For instance, “do you have a woman?” “ do you have any prospects?”

Discourse: The discourse is a performance in that it has theatrical use of language, particularly in the broadest sense. This includes the use of verbal utterances and nonverbal use that include visual components such as facial expressions and gestures.

Aesthetics nature of the discourse: The discourse is characterized by multiple aspects, including discourse markers, cohesion and coherence, conventions, body language, and ways of turn-taking. The above features impact the response of the hearer. They dictate the flow of the conversation and attitude of the hearer.

Intention and interpretation: In a conversation, the speaker has an intended meaning that the hearer will interpret. The unintended meaning may emerge if the hearer interprets it wrongly. This may be due to ambiguity and lack of clarity.

The intention of Kramer is to make George understand why they needed to act maturely and remain key friends. George, on the other hand, wants to know how he is wasting his life. Some of the conversations can be interpreted correctly, while some other cases show that there is a lack of understanding.

References

Ajsvista. (2008). Seinfeld - The Keys (Do you ever yearn?). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnqBAuehmhM&feature=youtu.be

Benton, M. A. (2016). Gricean quality.

Jacquet, B., Hullin, A., Baratgin, J., & Jamet, F. (2019, June). The impact of the Gricean maxims of quality, quantity and manner in chatbots. In 2019 International Conference on Information and Digital Technologies (IDT) (pp. 180-189). IEEE.

Safitri, R., & Faridi, A. (2017). The Flouting of Grice’s Cooperative Principle by Native and Non-Native Speakers of English. English Education Journal, 7(3), 279-285.