 Maximize dispraise of self.

     Agreement

     Minimize disagreement between self and other.

     Maximize agreement between self and other.

     Sympathy

     Minimize antipathy between self and other.

     Maximize sympathy between self and other.

     The maxims expressed in terms of maximize entail the concept of gradience in politeness. The tact maxim expressed in terms of cost and benefit can be exemplified by the following:

     Clean the rooms. Cost to H Less polite

     Get some chalks for me. ↑ ↑

     Look at the map.

     Take a seat.

     Enjoy your trip. ↓ ↓

     Have another cup of coffee. Benefit to H More polite

     Cost to hearer:

     Peel the potatoes. More direct Less polite

     Can you peel the potatoes? ↑ ↑

     Will you peel the potatoes? ↓ ↓

     Would you possibly peel …? Less direct More polite

     Benefit to hearer:

     Would you have another sandwich? Less direct Less polite

     Will you have another sandwich? ↑ ↑

     Have another sandwich. ↓ ↓

     You must have another sandwich. More direct More polite

     Politeness and appropriateness

     Distance, power, situational context

     Relation between CP and PP

     The PP is the superordinate principle standing above the CP. The PP overrides the CP.

     People sometimes violate the CP in order to follow the PP.

     A general introduction to the principle of relevance (RP)

     From the four maxims of CP to the RP

     The code model

     Communication is a process of coding and decoding.

     The inferential model

     Communication is a process of producing and interpreting, or coding and inferring.

     Theoretical assumptions

     General law: to use the minimal effort for the maximal effect for human behaviour.

     To communicate is to claim others’ attention.

     Contractual effect/processing effort = relevance

     The theory of RP introduced here is only a tiny part. For further study, please search the web from google.

     Conversational implicature

     What is a conversation?

     A conversation is changing ideas, or conversing.

     Conversation is the basic form of speech in human communication.

     Conversation is the dialogic form in spoken and written discourse.

     Analysis of conversation

     The global analysis – to analyze the whole structure, the whole process of a conversation.

     The local analysis – to understand the internal structure of a conversation, the turn-taking.

     Turn-taking

     Turn-taking refers to having the right to speak by turns.

     Conversations normally follow the pattern of “I speak – you speak – I speak – you speak”, if there are two participants.

     Any possible change-of-turn point is called a transition relevance place (TRP).

     One speaks (takes the floor), the other listens.

     Adjacency pair

     Adjacency pairs are a fundamental unit of conversational structure.

     Greeting/greeting, question/answer, invitation/acceptance, offer/decline, complaint/denial are common cases of adjacency pairs.

     Insertion sequence