In the study of pragmatics it is well known that the success of any communication is dependant upon the cooperation of both the speaker and the listener. Paul Grice was a linguist and philosopher who made many contributions in this area of pragmatics. He suggested that there is, what he called, a
cooperative principle that dictates how people behave and interact with each other during a conversation. Included as part of this cooperative principle are what are known as
Grice's Conversation Maxims.
Maxim of Quantity:
-Make your contribution to the conversation as informative as necessary.
-Do not make your contribution to the conversation more informative than necessary.
Maxim of Quality:
-Do not say what you believe to be false.
-Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
Maxim of Relevance:
-Be relevant (i.e., say things related to the current topic of the conversation).
Maxim of Manner:
-Avoid obscurity of expression.
-Avoid ambiguity.
-Be brief (avoid unnecessary wordiness).
-Be orderly.
If only every speaker would remember to cooperate. I know quite a few people that don't seem to follow these maxims, especially the Maxims of Quantity and Relevance.
P.S. In pragmatics writer and reader are equivalent to speaker and listener.
