Gricean Maxims, perhaps better known as the Cooperative Principle is an almost inherently logical principle in linguistics used as a guide for socially acceptable conversation.
While the points themselves appear to be almost logical, at times it is useful to remind ourselves of what the behaviours of a cooperative member in a conversation are. If I ask what time it is, it may not be as useful for me if you tell me that it is time for your appointment, assuming that I do not know the time of your appointment.
Cooperative behaviours such as the one that was absent in the previous example are almost subconscious parts of our day to day conversation and yet it is in being reminded of what they are that we obtain a deeper and richer understanding of the behaviours we unconsciously display.
While normally these points are held in the context of spoken conversation, they hold quite well in the online environment as well.
Grice's Maxims
Maxim of Quality
Do not say what you believe to be false.
Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
Maxim of Quantity
Don't tell a huge story of your life if asked how your dog is.
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.
Maxim of Relevance
Be relevant.
With respect to this maxim, Grice writes, "Though the maxim itself is terse, its formulation conceals a number of problems that exercise me a good deal: questions about what different kinds and focuses of relevance there may be, how these shift in the course of a talk exchange, how to allow for the fact that subjects of conversations are legitimately changed, and so on. I find the treatment of such questions exceedingly difficult, and I hope to revert to them in later work." (Grice 1989:27)
Maxim of Manner
Be Clear
Avoid obscurity of expression.
Avoid ambiguity.
Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
Be orderly.
Though the deviance of some of the Gricean Maxims may be seen as humourous in some contexts, in the case of online chats there are cases where it may simply be seen as grounds for the dreaded ban. While humour can be great in certain contexts, it is simply sometimes best to avoid the risk of a negative consequence.
Through the adherence of the Gricean Maxims on Online Chat we can be one big, communicative, happy family. Everyone has great things to say, make sure you know how to say them!
