The Cooperative Principal

Paul Grice has outlined these rules which support all spoken exchanges:

Maxim of Quality

Be Truthful

• Do not say what you believe to be false.
• Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

[edit]Maxim of Quantity

Quantity of Information

• Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange).
• Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

[edit]Maxim of Relevance

• Be relevant.

[edit]Maxim of Manner

Be Clear

• Avoid obscurity of expression.
• Avoid ambiguity.
• Be brief
• Be orderly.

Stephen Pinker has improved these rules with the concept of the implacature - messages which implicate or suggest hidden messages. Implicature deliberately violate these maxims in the form of irony, sarcasm, humor and veiled bribes or threats. However, the art of clear speech dictates that only one maxim at a time can be breached. To do otherwise is to drone, to bloviate and to bore.

Example 1: The kidnappers in the movie Fargo offer a police officer an implicated bribe

"So I was thinking that the best thing would be to take care of this in Brainard" [while showing the cop his wallet with a $50 sticking out of it]. This violates the maxim of manner - the statement is deliberately ambiguous.

Example 2: The mobster extorts the restaurant owner

"This is a nice little place you have here, it would be a shame if there was a fire in the kitchen." This violates the maxim of quality - the store may be a dump or a palace i.e. the observation could be false.