Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
• Exaggeration, e.g.
• I’m starving, I could eat a horse
• Hearers would be expected to know that the speaker
to infer that the speaker is very hungry.
• Metaphor e.g.:
• My house is a refrigerator in winter,
• I could murder a pint.
• (Euphemism): I’m going to wash my hands
Flouting quality: irony
• irony (violates quality by saying the opposite of what
we mean, i.e. the words are the opposite of intended
meaning. Irony is often used in a friendly fashion,
• She might answer, I know, why don’t we eat out for a change? in
order to change the subject, in which she would be deliberately
violating the maxim of relation. If, on the other hand, she answered
‘A tiny fraction of my salary, though most probably a very high
fraction of the salary of the shop assistant who sold it to me”, she
would be violating the maxim of manner, avoiding clarity and being
deliberately obscure.
Infringement and opting out
• according to Grice there are two forms of non-observance
of maxims
• Infringement is due to an imperfect mastery of the
language due to their level of language skills (child,
foreigner) impairment ( drunkenness, nervousness,
excitement) or if they have cognitive problems or speech
impediments.