Tales and Grice's Cooperative Principle
The English language philosopher Paul Grice proposes that in ordinary conversation, speakers and hearers share a cooperative principle. Speakers shape their utterances to be understood by hearers. Grice analyzes cooperation as involving four maxims: quantity, quality, relation, and manner. Speakers give enough and not too much information: quantity. They are genuine and sincere, speaking "truth" or facts: quality. Utterances are relative to the context of the speech: relation. Speakers try to present meaning clearly and concisely, avoiding ambiguity: manner.
Grice's cooperative principle: set of norms expected in conversation. Grice proposes four maxims expected in conversation.
quality: speaker tells the truth or provable by adequate evidence
quanity: speaker is as informative as required
relation: response is relevant to topic of discussion
manner: speaker's avoids ambiguity or obscurity, is direct and straightforward