A Study of Cooperative Principle in Computer—Mediated Communication （CMC）

夏梦伊

【Abstract】With the continuous development of Internet technology and the advancement of globalization，China Internet Directindustry has become the biggest network in the world.Accordingly，netizens has communicated through social networking tools，which means that their communication is across time and space.Obviously，as a new language carrier，the network is theoretical，autonomic，open，inclusive and diverse.These characteristics are different from traditional language carrier.Therefore，“CMC” has become a new type of writing.The language commonly used and widely circulated on the Internet，has gradually formed its own system.It not only has its own unique vocabulary，and even the rules of grammar and pragmatic features are different from the traditional language.This paper aims to apply the Cooperative Principle and its maxims to analyse whether CMC violates the cooperative principle in the living examples.Meanwhile，the paper also tries to interpret their conversational implicature and the reasons to fully recognize this new type of writing.

【Key words】Cooperative Principle； Computer-Mediated Communication

Chapter One Introduction

In April 1994，The National Computing and Networking Facility of China （NCFC） directly connected with the National Science Foundation Network （NSFNET） of United States for the first time.It realized the connection with the Internet network and China.And it also marked the birth of Chinas first Internet.

Up to December 2013，the numbers of Chinese social networking site has been 278 million； utilization rate has hit 45.0%.Chinese social networking site has developed into the basic element of all kinds of Internet applications，such as network shopping，games，video and other services are introduced as the social elements to promote development.Accordingly，netizens has been communicating through social networking tools，and this method of communication is across time and space.Actually，its an essential part to netizens.Obviously，as a new language carrier，the network is theoretical，autonomic，open，inclusive and diverse.These characteristics are different from traditional language carrier.Therefore，“CMC” has become a new type of writing.The language commonly used and widely circulated on the Internet，has gradually formed its own system.

Chapter Two Literature Review

The research of CMC can be divided into two stages： from the 1970s to the 1980s，it is in the beginning stage，and from the 1990s up to now it is in the rapidly-developing stage.

CMC has attracted much attention of a varity of linguists abroad.In the 1980s，Naomi Baron had done researches on the influences of “CMC” on the language change.Another one is David Crystal，one of the worlds foremost authorities on language.He is the author of Language and the Internet，in which he provides a brief introduction of medium of Netspeak，and he continues withseparate chapters on the language of E-mail，of chat groups，of virtual worlds，and of the web.Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Murry Turoff are the two famous American scholars.They compose the Network Nation，which was published in 1973.This book has a huge impact on “CMC”.

Since 1994，China has entered the Internet era.Although，the research on the CMC in China started a little late，due to the rapid development and popularity of the Netspeak，scholars in China also started to pay attention to this “new language”.The representative the research of CMC in China is Yu Genyuan，professor of Beijing Broadcasting Institute，who wrote An introduction to Netspeak in 2001.In the book An introduction to Netspeak （2001），he made a systematic analysis of the general situations and the lexical features of the Chinese Netspeak.He also conducted a comparative analysis between the Internet language and the language of some other mediums，such as TV，newspaper or radio broadcasting.Other scholars in this field，such as associate Professer Liu Haiyan analyzed the Internet language in terms of the language planning in Cyber Language （2002）.As a matter of fact，her ideas are similar to those of Professer Yu，but she has done a more detailed and specific research on the classification and nature of the Netspeak.

Chapter Three Theoretical Framework

The American philosopher，Grice （1975） pointed in Logic and Conversation whatever cultural background the interlocutors had，they must observe a general conversational principle when they talked，he called this principle “cooperative principle”.

Grice in Logic and Conversation（1975） further proposed his four maxims based on Cooperative Principle： quality maxim，quantity maxim，relevance maxim and manner maxim.The four maxims under this general cooperative principle just as follows （Grice，1975）：

1） Maxims 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.

2） Maxims of quality

a.Do not say what you believe to be false

b.Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

3） Maxims of relevance

Make your contribution relevant.

4） Maxims of manner

a.Avoid obscurity of expression b.Avoid ambiguity

c.Be brief d.Be orderly

Chapter Four Analysis of the CMC from the Perspective of Cooperative Principle

4.1 Flouting Maxim of Quantity

A： R U in TaiPei？ B： yeah！ B： Im on a business trip.

A initiated the dialogue and wanted to know whether B was in Taipei，Bs answer “Yeah！”，which gives A the information he needs.However，B added some extra information，“Im on a business trip.”，which seems almost unnecessary to A.Obviously，B violates the quantity principle of the Cooperative Principle by providing unnecessary information.As we have known that although A and B are old friends，they live in different cities，so A couldnt always meet B.When A knew B was coming to Taipei，A cannot wait any more to meet B immediately.However Bs answer indicates that he was busy on business now in Taipei，so he couldnt meet A right now.Although the conversation is inconsistent with the Maxims of quantity，since A knows B well，they could know each other.

4.2 Flouting Maxim of Quality

A： Where R U going？ B： Kenting！

A： What do U do go there？ B： Go on a date with Ashin.

B： I know he misses me for a long time.I couldnt let him down！ ）

This short conversation nviolated the Maxims of quality twice.When B said “Go on a date with Ashin.” In fact，Ashin is the vocals of a rock band called Mayday，who is very popular in both sides of the Taiwan Straits.However，B is only a fan of Ashin，going to Kenting for Maydays performance.So its impossible that B went on a date with the popular star.B said what he violates the maxim of quality.Later on，B said “I know he misses me for a long time.I couldnt let him down！ ： ）”Obviously，a popular vocal would not put high expectation on an ordinary fan to do something for him，so B said that for which he lack adequate evidence.The purpose of their violation is also violating the maxim of quality to achieve humorous effect，making conversation sessions harmonious.

4.3 Flouting Maxim of Relation

A： How are you doing？

B： Just so-so.Im busing writing my thesis.

Oh！ I saw your mother last month at supermarket.

And U？

In this session，A greeted to B.B answered As question at first，but then B said some less relevant contents in telling he met with As mother in a past time，and then B back to greetings.B violated the Maxim of Relation，but did not affect the session objective.

4.4 Flouting Maxim of Manner

A： 你真是一个天才 ！ （A： you're A genius）

B： 不会吧。 （B： Won't！）

In Chinese network speak，“Genius” means a born fool.So A violated the Maxim of Manner deliberately.The conversations are ambiguity and obscurity of expression.However，through the popular network homophonic ambiguity words，they achieved a sense of humor.

Chapter Five Conclusion

As a special kind of language variation，the network language is in a vigorous development period，in many communications especially among young people.In daily life，the achieved mutual understanding of network chat language is often on the basis of the Cooperative Principle.In many conversations we study，only the above cases are some examples of violation of the Cooperative Principle，which means that the speakers violate the cooperative principle intentionally to express the conversational implicatures.Although these principles in network environment create conflict with the principles of pragmatics inevitably，their common purpose is for the convenience to the chatters in network communication.

“CMC” is a new research area，which requires a lot of investigations and studies in the future.Firstly，the developing of the CMC will comply with the general rules of language.At the same time，it will also bring new analysis to pragmatics theory and we need to explore the new field of theory.Secondly，besides the Cooperative Principle，the “CMC” still relate to many other principles，such as economic principles，the principle of humor，entertainment and freedom.We could do more researches in these fields.Thirdly，we could study “CMC” from other perspectives，like sociology，psychology，linguistics and so on.

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