Stefanus Ronaldo Yeuyanan / 1901541184 / G

The cooperative principle is a principle of conversation that was proposed by Grice

1975, stating that participants expect that each will make a “conversational contribution such
as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk
exchange.” in this context, the responder and the speaker (all that is participating) are
required to make a conversation that reaches the goal which is actually the pure purpose of
their doing the conversation. They should know their contribution in the conversation that is
required and they must to cooperate with each other and usually attempt to be truthful,
informative, relevant, and clear in order to facilitate successful communication. In simple
terms, the Cooperative Principle describes how people achieve effective communication in
everyday situations and aims to explain how and why conversations tend to succeed rather
than fail. Grice states the cooperative meaning along with the four rules of maxim that can
techniqally distinguish the types of cooperative meaning. they are Maxim of Quality, Maxim
of Quantyty, Maxim of Manner, and Maxim of Relation.

The first maxim is the maxim quantyty (1).. This maxim is requiring the participants
to be proportional in giving the information and facilitating the information as needed. In this
case, the participants must understand to decide the amount of the words that is needed to be
said or not. You should not make your contribution more informative than necessary.

Eg. There is an old woman asking for the direction to the airport.

A : Excuse me, may I know which the roads lead to the Diana market ?

B: go straight through Jalan Semana and the market will be before the crossroad

In this conversation, the replier is cooperative to the speaker in order giving the information
that is necessary. The second one is the maxim of quality(2). This maxim is requiring the
participant to say the information that she/he believe its true to be said. Additionally the
participat must know that the information that are going to be delivered must contain
evidences that can back up what she/he is going to say. Eg. A: Jakarta is the capital of
Indonesia. In this statement, the speaker surely understand what he is talking about and
possibly giving the evidence that sometimes necessary. The third one is the maxim of
manner (3). This maxim is requiring the participants to be transparant with the other
participant and to avoid ambiguity and obscurity in giving the informations. In this case you
should be clear an brave. Eg. I should not always driving my car. It will lead to the increasing
of the gass emition. In this statement, the speaker states that he should not do that thing and
slightly give the reason why. It is transparnt and he tries to be clear to the other participants.
The fourth one is the maxim of relation (4). This maxim is requiring the participants to be
relevant in giving the informations against the other participants. In this maxim, your
statement or responds must be related and not to be out of the context. Eg. Ani : Are you
making a cake, Dinda: Im actually not good at cooking but I will do it for my boyfriend. In
this conversation, Dinda gives the irrelevant responds against the Ani’s question because Ani
asking for “Are you making” and Dinda should answer “Yeah, I’m or I’m not” NOT “Im
actually not good…..”

There are four Non-observance of the Maxims, they are Flouting a maxim, violating a
maxim, infringing a maxim, opting out of a maxim, suspending a maxim. The first one is
flouting a maxim. Maxim of Manner is flouted when speakers use long words and technical
jargon they know their listeners won't understand. The Maxim of relevance is flouted when
someone pretends to misunderstand what has been said in order to change the direction of the
conversation. The Maxim of Quantity is flouted when someone does not answer a question in
full, usually to be obtuse or annoying. The Maxim of Quality is flouted when someone is
being ironic.

The second one is violating a maxim. The violating a maxim is mostly happened to
the maxim of quality and quantity. Maxim of quality is violated when a person tells lie or not
the actual information or valid information. Maxim of quantity is violated when a person
holds the information that is neccesery for the others. Maxim of manner is violated when a
person refuses to give the information that is being asked.

The third is infringing maxim. This happens when the responder or one of the
participants is not capable in speaking and limits by the lack of language that is being used.

The forth is opting out of the maxim. This happens when the speaker can not give the
information due to the ethical reasons or something that wont be a good thing would happen
if the speaker tells that.

The fifth one is the suspending a maxim. This maxim is mostly found in a poetry and
oration when the speaker use the word that indirectly gives the real meaning.