Pragmatics Analysis: Gricean Maxims, Relevance Theory, and Speech Acts

1. Grice’s Cooperative Principle: Flouting Maxims

Dialogue:

• A: Do you know where Mike is?
• B: There is a yellow BMW (Pragmatic presupposition: Mike owns a yellow BMW) outside Sue’s house. (Implicature: Mike is at Sue’s house).

This dialogue exemplifies the flouting of maxims. Flouting occurs when a speaker intends to communicate despite an apparent lack of cooperation. The speaker assumes the listener will use context to grasp the additional information intended beyond the literal utterance.

2. Analyzing Misunderstandings

Dialogue:

• A: I’d have some coffee, Daphne... Daphne?
• B: Er, Daph, this is Joe de Carlo. Joe, this is Daphne, she helps me here.
• C: Smells great. Colombian?
• D: (Laughs) No, English. (Realizes). The coffee is Costa Rican.
• C: Thanks.

This interaction features a sub-sentential utterance () open to multiple interpretations. Daphne selects a different interpretation, demonstrating a case of alternative understanding requiring disambiguation of the explicature.

3. Relevance Theory Application

Dialogue:

• A: Did you buy the table I told you about?
• B: It’s too wide and uneven.

Analysis:

• Language module: Apprehends the grammatical sequence:
• Logical form: Something is too wide and uneven.
• Pragmatic enrichment:
  • Reference assignment: refers to the table.
  • Free enrichment: implies too wide to fit through the door.
  • Conceptual narrowing: requires adjustment to indicate an irregular surface.
• Explicatures: The table A mentioned is too wide to fit through the bedroom door and has an irregular surface.
• Implicatures: B did not buy the table.

4. Visual Metaphor Analysis

Subject: Image of cigarettes shaped like shotguns.

• Identification: Cigarettes represent smoking; shotgun shapes represent death.
• Relation: Similarity and fusion.
• Pragmatic interpretation: A warning that smoking can kill you.

5. Speech Acts: Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary

Dialogue:

• A: I’m too cold. Don’t you think so?
• B: OK, I will close the window.

Definitions:

• Locutionary (Information): Speaker A states they are cold.
• Illocutionary (Intention): Speaker A intends for Speaker B to close the window by asking for agreement.
• Perlocutionary (Effect): Speaker B closes the window because Speaker A is cold.