Cooperative Principle: "Make your contribution such as it is required, at the

stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk

exchange in which you are engaged." (Grice 1989: 26).
The conversational maxims can be thought of as precisifications of the
cooperative principle that deal specifically with communication.

Maxim of Quantity: Information

Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current
purposes of the exchange.
Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

Maxim of Quality: Truth

Do not say what you believe to be false.
Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. Herbert
Paul Grice
Maxim of Relation: Relevance 13 March 1913 – 28 August 1988

Be relevant. Paul Grice, was a British

philosopher of language. He is best
known for his theory of implicature
Maxim of Manner: Clarity ("be perspicuous") and the cooperative principle, which
Avoid obscurity of expression. became foundational concepts in the
linguistic field of pragmatics. His work on
Avoid ambiguity. meaning has also influenced the
Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). philosophical study of semantics.
Be orderly.

Grice follows his summary of the maxims by suggesting that "one might
need others", and goes on to say that "There are, of course, all sorts of other
maxims (aesthetic, social, or moral in character), such as "Be polite", that are
also normally observed by participants in exchanges, and these may also
generate nonconventional implicatures." Perhaps Grice's best-known
example of conversational implicature is the case of the reference letter, a
"quantity implicature" (i.e., because it involves flouting the first maxim of
Quantity):

A is writing a testimonial about a pupil who is a candidate for a philosophy

job, and his letter reads as follows: "Dear Sir, Mr. X's command of English is
excellent, and his attendance at tutorials has been regular. Yours, etc."
(Gloss: A cannot be opting out, since if he wished to be uncooperative, why
write at all? He cannot be unable, through ignorance, to say more, since the
man is his pupil; moreover, he knows that more information than this is
wanted. He must, therefore, be wishing to impart information that he is
reluctant to write down. This supposition is tenable only if he thinks Mr. X is
no good at philosophy. This, then, is what he is implicating.)