Grice's Maxims

Grice's Maxims have 4 types:

• The maxim of quality: where someone tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.

•  maxim of quantity: where someone tries to be as informative as they possibly can, and gives as much information as needed, and no more.

• The maxim of relation: where someone tries to be relevant, and says things that are relevant to the discussion.

• The maxim of manner: when someone tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as they can in what they say, and where someone avoids obscurity and ambiguity.

There can be overlap of the maxims within the units of the conversation where they seem to be giving all the information (maxim of quality) but they are too short or long winded for the listener and therefore break the maxim of manner.

Maxim Violations

A speaker might break the maxim of quality if they are trying to deceive the listener

A person might tell you they are violating a maxim and why. For example:

•  “I don’t know if this is relevant, but...” (relation) 
• “I’m not sure how to say this, but...” (manner) 
• “I can’t tell you; I’m sworn to secrecy.” (quantity) 
• “This is just the word on the street; I can’t vouch for this information.” (quality)

 Maxim clash: A speaker might violate one maxim in order to preserve another.