In 1975, linguist and philosopher Paul Grice came up with 4 conversational maxims and used them as examples for communication being a cooperative enterprise between the listener and speaker.
*The maxim of quantity - where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.
Do not say too little or too much.
*The maxim of quality - where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.
Speak the truth
*The maxim of relation - where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.
Keep what is being discussed relevant to the topic in hand.
*The maxim of manner - when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.
Be clear and avoid ambiguity.
Be clear and avoid ambiguity.
Grice said that the maxims were often broken and were not to act as rigid rules. These gave rise to what he names 'implicatures' and 'implied meanings' that came from what the listener inferred from what the speaker was saying.
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