Understanding Grice’s Maxims in Conversation

Abstract

In 1975, British philosopher Paul Grice proposed what has become known as the cooperative principle of conversation, or Grice’s maxims (Grice, 1975). The cooperative principle makes several requirements of speakers (see Figure 1). They must avoid providing less or more information than is required (first and second maxims of quantity), be truthful and avoid saying something lacking adequate evidence (maxim of quality), be relevant to the topic of conversation (maxim of relation), and avoid obscurity of expression and ambiguity and be brief and orderly (maxim of manner). An additional maxim of politeness (be polite) has also be added to the four maxims proposed by Grice.