The Language of Argument

3 3

C o n v e r s a t i o n a l A c t s

Indicate which, if any, of Grice’s conversational rules are violated by the

italicized sentence of each of the following conversations. Assume a standard

context. More than one rule might be violated.

1. “Did you like her singing?” “Her costume was beautiful.”


2. “The governor has the brains of a three-year-old.”


3. “The Lone Ranger rode into the sunset and jumped on his horse.”


4. “Without her help, we’d be up a creek without a paddle.”


5. “Where is Palo Alto?” “On the surface of the Earth.”


6. “It will rain tomorrow.” “How do you know?” “I just guessed.”


7. “Does the dog need to go out for a W-A-L-K [spelled out]?”


8. “Why did the chicken cross the road?” “To get to the other side.”

Exercise VI

Conversational Implication

In a normal setting where people are cooperating toward reaching a shared goal,

they often conform quite closely to Grice’s conversational rules. If, on the whole,

people did not do this, we could not have the linguistic practices we do. If we

thought, for example, that people very often lied (even about the most trivial

matters), the business of exchanging information would be badly damaged.

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