Conversational analysis

Theoretical background:
There are many elements that are concerned with the study of grice conversational
analysis. These elements are used by linguists in order to analyze any conversation
and realize its main aspects.

Cooperative principle:
“an underlying assumption in most conversational exchanges seems to be that the
the participants are cooperating with each other”(Yule,2010). It is stated by Yule
that people exchanging conversations with each other depend on cooperation in
order to complete the conversation. There are many examples in order to explain
the cooperation between the two participants in a conversation such as:

Boy: I think they are going to school.

Girl: They are because they are wearing their uniforms.

However, cooperative principle does not depend only on people cooperating to

produce a correct and logical conversation, but there are certain elements where
Grice (1945) stated that “ Make your contribution such as is required, at the stage
at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in
which you are engaged” (as cited in Yule, 2010), and this means that there are four
principles used to analyze the cooperative principle which are called “Gricean
maxims”.

Maxims:

There are four maxims used in all conversational analysis processes in order to
produce a relevant and correct conversation. The first maxim is quantity which is
“Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of
the exchange”. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required”
(Yule, 1996) which means to say what is only needed to be provided as
information that helps the conversation’s completion, also “accounts for the fact
that we normally give sufficient, but not more information than required”
(Richards & Schmidt, 2014). The second maxim is quality “accounts for the fact
that in a conversation we normally act on the assumption that our partner is not
being untruthful or is not deliberately trying to deceive us. If not, it would be
extremely difficult to maintain conversation with our partners” (Richards &
Schmidt, 2014) which means that it is required to speak the truth only, and not to
provide information you see as false or do not have evidence to support it. The
third one is relation where Yule (1996) stated that “Be relevant” which means to
provide information related to the conversation’s main theme. The last maxim is
manner where Yule (1996) stated “Be perspicuous. Avoid obscurity of expression.
Avoid ambiguity. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). Be orderly” and it means
to avoid hidden meanings, briefly state the information and state it in the right
order in order to generate a conversation. In order to not violate the maxims in any
conversation, there is an expression used to explain the statements required to
avoid these violations which is the hedges.

Hedges:

There are certain expressions imbedded in the conversations between people in

order to avoid mistakes or violation of maxims. Hedges are “words or phrases used
to indicate that we are not really sure that what we are saying is sufficiently correct
or complete” (Yule, 2010). So, hedges are the simple expressions and statements
used by people who are not sure that their words are complete or their information
is correct in a conversation as (sort of), (somehow), or (kind of). On the other hand,
there is an expression used to discuss how people violate the maxims in their
conversations by implying parts of the information provided which is the
implicatures.

Implicatures:
Yule (1996) stated that “The basic assumptions in conversation is that, unless
otherwise indicated, the participants are adhering to the cooperative principle and
the maxims” which means that people do not realize if they are following the
cooperative analysis or the maxims in their conversations so they sometimes
violate it without knowing. Implicatures are defined as statements used to imply
the missing meanings in the information provided during a conversation. In
addition, “It is important to note that it is the speakers who communicate meaning
via implicatures and it is listeners who recognize those communicated meanings
via inference. The inferences selected are those which will preserve the assumption
of cooperation” (Yule, 1996) which indicates that the cooperative principle
depends on how people infer the meaning of implied statements in order to
produce the conversation correctly without any violation of the maxims.

Previous studies:

There are many studies where scientists and linguists use the conversational
analysis concept and its principles in order to analyze many conversations in many
aspects as famous plays and interactions between students and teachers in
classrooms.

The first study is concerned with the analysis of a playwright called Ionesco and
the conversations in his plays where “The present paper addresses the problem of
approaching Ionesco’s plays from the angle of observing the numerous
transgressions to the conversational maxims postulated by Grice” (Lazar, 2013) as
the aim of the study is to show the violation of maxims in most literary works. In
addition, the findings of this study is “Violating these laws is a common feature of
the dramatic dialogue and dramatists use them voluntarily in order to be grasped by
the viewers/readers and produce an effect on them, be it comic or tragic” (Lazar,
2013). So, this study concluded that the violation of maxims occurs as dramatists
try to use implying words or phrases (implicatures) in order to grasp the attention
of people and to express the feelings and emotions needed for the play.

The second study tackles the term of gender-differentiated language which means
that the use of language is different between men and women in terms of
conversational analysis. Rundquist (1990) stated that “The study in order to
investigate the claim that women are more indirect than men” which means that the
aim of the study is to know if women use implying phrases which violate the
maxims more than men or not. The findings of this study show that men violate the
Gricean maxims in their speeches with children more than women.

Application on conversational analysis:

The purpose of this analysis is to show if the extracted interview of President
Donald Trump and the white house correspondent Julie Pace has any violation of
the maxims and the implicatures used to show this violation.