2.4.1 Non-observance of the maxims
The non-observance of the maxims is of interest while studying meaning that is not conveyed
on a direct level. According to Grice, there are five ways of failing to observe the maxims
(Thomas 1995:64). The first one is flouting a maxim, where a participant in a conversation 5
chooses to ignore one or more of the maxims by using a conversational implicature. Ignoring
maxims by using conversational implicatures means that the participant adds meaning to the
literal meaning of the utterance. The conversational implicature that is added when flouting
is not intended to deceive the recipient of the conversation, but the purpose is to make the
recipient look for other meaning (Thomas 1995:65). Flouting a maxim also signals to the
hearer that the speaker is not following the co-operative principle (Cruse 2000:360). The
example of a conversational implicature, cited in 2.2, demonstrates how a flouting of the
maxims works. Here the ambulance man is deliberately saying something that is not true,
which flouts the maxim of quality and tells the interlocutor to look for another set of meaning
(Thomas 1995:58). There can be some difficulty understanding flouts since the process itself
does not intend to give a justification or an explanation for the flouting (Cruse 2000:360).
The second type of non-observance is violating a maxim. Violating a maxim is when
someone in a conversation fails to observe one or more maxims with the intention to deceive
the recipient, often using an implicature with the intention to mislead. An example of how a
maxim can be violated is shown in the following example. When an athlete from a sports
team gets pulled out of a race, the press officer tells the audience about the athlete's absence:
“She has a family bereavement; her grandmother has died” (Thomas 1995:73). The violating
of the maxim of quality happens in this case, since the press officer is deliberately lying about
the athlete's absence. The truth is that she is actually not attending due to having had positive
results on a drug test. Since the information is untrue and misleading, the person is violating
the maxim of quality (Thomas 1995:73-74).
The third type of non-observance of a maxim is infringement. A participant who is
infringing a maxim in a conversation has no intention to use an implicature, nor does he have
the intention to deceive the recipient of the conversation. Instead, infringement occurs when
someone is learning a language. The speaker may be a child or an adult learner. An example
of the infringement of a maxim can be seen in example (3), where an English native speaking
carpenter talks to a non-native speaker of English, asking what type of wood he wants for his
shelves (3):
(3) Carpenter: I'm not sure what kind of wood you would want to use for the
shelves.
K: Yes, we want to have wood shelves. (Rost 2013:44)
In this case the person is not in any way trying to create an implicature or trying to mislead
the other person, but K is simply not understanding what the carpenter said. 6
The fourth type of non-observance of a maxim is opting out of a maxim. Opting out of
a maxim occurs when someone is indicating that they are unwilling to cooperate in the way a
maxim operates. The opting out of a maxim often occurs when someone wants to withhold
the truth for reasons that are ethical or private. In this case the non-observance is not
designed to create a false implicature or to appear uncooperative. An example of opting out of
a maxim can be seen in example (4), from a conversation when a person calls in to a radio
show hosted by Nick Ross:
(4) Caller: … um I lived in uh a country where people sometimes need to flee that
country.
Ross: Uh, where was that?
Caller: It's a country in Asia and I don't want to say any more. (Thomas
1995:75)
In this case the person is not trying to be uncooperative, but is withholding information so
that he or others will not get hurt. This is different from a flouting of the maxims since the
person is signaling that she does not want to be cooperative. A flouting of the maxims is to
deliberately fail to observe a maxim in order to create an implicature.
The fifth and last type of non-observance of a maxim is suspending a maxim, which
happens when participants in a conversation are not expecting the maxims to be fully fulfilled,
since the participants are withholding information that is to them culturally necessary. This
would not be seen as uncooperative by other members of that community. Suspending a
maxim does not generate an implicature to the members of the community in which this
occurs (Thomas 1995:76). An example of the suspending of a maxim can be seen in (5). In
this example, the speaker is the daughter of a murdered man and she is talking to an officer
of the Navajo Tribal police:
(5) 'Last time you were with that FBI man – asking about the one who got killed,' she said,
respecting the Navajo taboo of not speaking name of the dead. 'You found out who
killed that man?' (Thomas 1995:76)
In this case the woman is not observing the maxim of quantity, since she is speaking in vague
words about the man who got killed, despite the fact that she knows him very well. This
would create an implicature telling the interlocutor that she does not know the man who got
killed, but since they follow the same traditions, which in this case means not speaking the
names of the dead, the people involved are aware that the maxim is being suspended, and
therefore no implicature is created (Thomas 1995:77).
The focus of the paper will be on flouts of the maxims, since flouting is one way a non-7
observance of the maxims which can create comic effect, along with infringement of the
maxims. But flouting is the only non-observance that requires the person who speaks to
make a deliberate choice not to adhere to the maxims, unlike infringement, where the comic
effect is due to the speaker’s lack of proficiency in the language.