StudyofCooperativePrincipletoachieveConversationalImplicature

姚兰

The CP was put forward by Oxford philosopher Herbert Paul Grice in 1967.He believes that in order to make a conversation go successfully and smoothly，the speakers on both sides should hold a cooperative attitude，that is，listeners and speakers must speak cooperatively and mutually accept one another to be understood in a particular way，otherwise the talk can not be carried on.He suggests that there exist a set of maxims and sub-maxims for the conversation of people，the maxims of Quantity，Quality，Relation and Manner.The general principle is called the Cooperate Principle.He believes that speakers can achieve effective and rational communication if both participants obey the four maxims of CP when they are talking.However，practices are on opposites.Sometimes，when speakers convey messages to listeners，they do not use the direct way，they tend to imply.For this reason，Grice put forward the“Conversational Implicature”based on the Cooperative Principle in “Logic and Conversation”.In daily life，people do not usually say things directly but tend to use the indirect way to convey meaning，leaving some room for the listeners to think and guess what they really want to say，that is，implication.According to Grice，conversational implicature is a non-conventional implicature.Conversational Implicature as a type of implied meaning，which is deduced on the basis of the conventional meaning of words together with the context，under the guidance of the CP and its maxims.（Hu Zhuanglin，2011）

Grice referred to a branch of Conversational Implicature： Generalized Conversational Implicature and Particularized Conversational Implicature in “Logic and Conversation” published in 1975.They can be generated by observing or violating the maxims of the CP.

Generalized Conversational Implicatures are those generated without any particular context.It is obtained by assuming that the speaker is observing the CP and its maxims.Generalized Conversational Implicatures are closer to the semantic content of the utterance than the particularized ones.

Context1

A：What time is it？ B：Some of the guests are already leaving.

GCI： Not all of the guests are already leaving.

（Levinson，Presumptive Meanings： The theory of Generalized Conversational Implicature）

The speaker assumes that the hearer observe the CP，naturally，from the answer of B，A can generate that “Not all of the guests are already leaving.”

In Grices view，it is necessary to observe the CP to achieve the communication purpose； but the participants often violate these principles to make particular Conversational Implicature.Particularized Conversational Implicatures refer to those implicatures inferred by being dependent on context with the assumption that participants deliberately violate some maxims of CP.For example，

Context1

A：What time is it？ B：Some of the guests are already leaving.

PCI： It must be late.

（Levinson，Presumptive Meanings： The theory of Generalized Conversational Implicature）

In this situation，the implicature is “It must be late.” The interpretation of this is that B deliberately violates the Relevance of CP because Bs answer is seemed not relevant to A question.According to CP，the answer of B should be the exactly time，such as，“Its ten oclock.”

Although under the same situation，the implicatures are different.The reason is the implicature is context based.In order to infer the Particularized Conversational Implicature，both of the participants should know the CP，the conventionally meaning of the speakers words，the context and together with some relevant knowledge，otherwise the hearer can not deduce the real information or intention of the speaker from their literal meaning.

The CP plays an important role for inferring the Conversational Implicature.While the main point of the theory is not in observance of the maxims，but more in the circumstance of how the maxims are intentionally violated.Grice also mainly focus on the Particularized Conversational Implicatures.

References：

[1]Grice， P.Logic and Conversation[M].Cambridge：Cambridge University Press，1975.

[2]Stephen.C.Levinson.Presumptive Meanings：The theory of Generalized Conversational Implicature，2000.

[3]Yule，G.The Study of Language.Beijing：Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2000.

[4]Hu Zhuanglin.Linguistics：A Course Book[M].Beijing：Beijing University Press，2011.