Cooperative principle and examples

Cooperative principle

--Make your conversational contribution such as required at the stage at which it occurs by the

accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.

Here are some examples of two maxims of cooperative principle.

The Maxim of Quantity

a)

Make your contribution as informative as required. (for the current purpose of the exchange)

b)

Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

English example 1:

Mike Stamford:

I heard you were abroad somewhere getting shot at. What happened?

JW

: I got shot. Are you still at Barts then?

Mike Stamford

: Teaching now, yeah, bright young things like we used to be. God, I hate them.

Explanation:

When john Watson met his old friend mike Stamford, mike asked Watson what happened to him

because

he

heard

that

Watson

has

been

shot

in

the

war.

But

Watson

answered

he

got

shot.

Since

Mike

has

already

known

this

fact,

Watson

has

violated

the

maxim

of

quantity

.

He

didn’t

provide

enough

information.

His answer actually

impl

ied that

he didn’t

want

to talk about this

unfortunate

accident.

Mike

told

john

that

he

was

teaching.

Here

mike

violates

the

maxim

of

manner.

He

told

john

his

students were

like bright

young

man

they

used to be,

which

led

us to

have a

feeling

that

he

must

like

those

students

according

to

our

common

sense.

When

teachers

find

students

like

themselves,

they

normally

will

like

them

for a

feeling of

nostalgia and

understanding. However, we

found that

he actually hated his students according to the sentence he said later.

English example 2:

Mike Stamford:

John! John Watson! Stamford, Mike Stamford. We were at Brats together.

JW

:

Yes, sorry

, yes, Mike, hello.

Mike Stamford:

Yes, I know, I got fat.

JW

:

No, no.

Explanation:

When

mike

Stamford

and

john

Watson

met,

Mike

recognized

Watson

first

according

to

the

conversation.

But

Watson

didn’t

recognize

M

ike

according

to

his

answer.

He

said:”

Y

es,

sorry

.”

This shows that he doesn’t know the person who was talking to

Him, but he was sure that they knew each other. Then he remembered who he is, so he added:

“

yes,

Mike,

hello.

”

Apparently

Mike

had

realized

that

so

he

answered

he

knew

he

got

fat

so

his

old

friend

didn’t

recognize

him

immediately.

Here

Watson

violated

the

maxim

of

quantity

.

He

talked

more than he needed to reveal more facts.

Chinese example

关谷：其实……我是个杀手。

小贤：你用的是什么枪？行动的时候装几颗子弹？习惯打屁股还是打脑袋？

< br>

关谷：好吧我不是杀手。

Explanation:

In the play

, the actor Xiaoxian had already judged that GuanGu was not a killer. He could directly

expose

him. He did

not do so, but asked GuanGu some questions,

which are

violated the

maxim of

quantity

.

Thus he indicated that he didn’t believe GuanGu was a killer.