---- By J. L. S.
------ IN REVISING MY NOTES ON EROTETICS, I find the actual formulation of this 10th conversational maxim proposed by Grice:
He writes in Gr89 -- but trust linguists to just go by his Gr75:
"I would be inclined to
suggest that we
add [or aggregate, as Kramer and I may prefer. JLS]
"to the maxims of Manner [or Modus, as JLS prefers. JLS]
which I originally propounded
some maxim which would be,
as it should, vague:
"Frame whatever you say
in the form
most suitable
for any REPLY [emphasis JLS's. JLS]
that would be regarded as appropriate",
He real [sic. JLS] WAS into EROTETICS, no?
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--- It's easy to see why (and too difficult to see why not) the popularity of Grice's maxim No. 10 has been obscured.
ReplyDeleteBy the fact that he cared to provide TWO formulations for it. To the one immediately quoted as per above, he goes on:
"or,
"Facilitate in your form of
expression
the appropriate reply"
And this for the record Grice gives as Gr70, repr. 'Presupposition & Conversational Implicature', in Cole, Radical Pragmatics, 1982, and later in Grices first book, Studies in the Way of Words, p.273).
The maxims being then now 10 as per:
QUAN:
1. be as informative as is required by the purpose of the conversation you are engaged in.
2. do not be MORE informative than is required.
QUAL
3. Do not say what you believe to be false.
4. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
R
5. Be relevant.
M
6. Avoid ambiguity
7. Avoid obscurity of expression.
8. Avoid unnecessary prolixity (be brief).
9. Be orderly
10. Faciliate in your form of expression the appropriate reply.
---- The importance thing -- and while my "Converational Decalogue" is indexed in Philosopher's Index -- is that his categories HAVE to remain 4.
But he did write, in an overleaf to a statement of his account, Peoples bank, "I'm sure Moses brought down something else from Mt. Sinai than the ten commandments"