A. Definition
Speaker speaks straight forwardly and clearly and
avoids ambiguity or obscurity. These maxims identify a particular set of
patterns in interaction and speakers are
expected to make their utterances informative, truthful, clear and relevant.
Maxim of manner is one of the Grice conversational
maxim which constitute the Cooperative Principle. The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and
as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and
ambiguity. It
makes the following requirements :
Be
Perspicous :
-
Avoid obscutity
of expression
-
Avoid ambiguity
-
Be brief (
avoid unneccsary prolixity)
-
Be orderly
The maxim of manner is related to
how something is being said in the conversation. It is one of the four maxim
that are part of Cooperative Principle This last maxim indicates that one’s contribution should be clear,
direct, orderly and to the point. The speaker should avoiding usning vague or
ambigous utterances when speaking. The maxim of manner thus relates “ not to
what is said but , rather to “How” what is said to be said”. Levinson thinks
that the most important of the sub- maxim of manner is the one that states that
participants “ be orderly”. Grice states “ I expect a partner to make it clear
what contribution he is making, and to execute his performance with reasonable
dispatch”.
B. The Proposes of the maxim
Grice propses this maxim as an explanation for a certain kind of regularity
in conversational behavior with respect to the way information is provided at
each turn of a conversation
An elaboration of the Gricean maxim of manner was proposed by Leech (1983:
100), who distinguishes two kinds of clarity: "One kind consists in making
unambiguous use of syntax and phonology of the language in order to construct a
clear text. Another type consists in
framing a clear message, ie a message which is perspicuous or intelligible in
the sense of conveying the intended illocutionary goal to the addressee."
Horn (1984) suggests that all maxims (except of the Maxim of Quality)
should be replaced with two principles: the Quantity principle and the Relation)
principle. With respect to the maxim of manner, the R principle states:
"Make your contribution necessary; say no more than you must (given
Q)." (Horn 1984: 134). With respect to manner, the two principle maximization
of informational content (avoidance of ambiguity/obscurity) and minimization
of form (be brief) are identified Horn.
C. Scope of Manner
Violations of the Maxim of Manner can take many forms:
1. Order of presentation of information
2. Vagueness and ambiguity
3. Volume and pace
4. Choice of words
5. Attitude
6. Even facial/gestural expressions
D. Flouting of Manner
Flouting a maxim
is a particular salient way of getting an addressee to draw an inference and
hence recover an implicature. The maxim of manner is
flouted when a speaker deliberately fails to observe the maxim by not being
brief, using obscure language, not being orderly or using ambiguity. This
creates an implicature which makes the participants look for an additional set
of meanings. It involves the absence of clarity and transparency of
communicative intentions.
There are two reasons people flout maxim of manner :
1.
To get attention;sometimes people use
identical word in one situation to get attention from others
2.
To be clear.
Example :
A: I hear you went to the opera last
night; how was the lead singer?
B: The singer produced a series of
sounds corresponding closely to the score of an
aria from ‘Rigoletto’.
B disobeys
the Maxim of Manner, thereby implying that the singer wasn’t very good. But in
the Lemony Snicket example, I think the author is being unnecessarily
descriptive for stylistic effect, to cause the reader to do a double-take,
rather than to imply anything in particular about what the person is wearing.
E. Violation of Manner
Violation is defined as the unostentatious or "quiet"
non-observance of a maxim. A Speaker who violates a maxim "will be
liable to mislead" (Grice, 1975: 49). Violating a maxim is the opposite of
flouting a maxim. Violating a maxim prevents or discourages the hearer from
seeking for implicatures and encourages their taking utterances at face value.
When violating the maxim of quantity, the speaker does not provide
the hearer sufficient information. As for the maxim of quality, the speaker is
not honest and provides wrong information. When violating maxim of manner, he /
she may say everything excepting what the hearer desires to cognize. Concerning
the last maxim, of relation, here one can observe that the speaker endeavors to
change the discussion subject or to deflect the hearer.
E.g:
Dad :
Did you have voleyball practice today?”
Daugther :Yes. I`ve just arrived”
The girl (who was with her boyfriend at the
cinema) violates the maxim of quality as he lies to his father for some reason.
(probably the father doesn`t know about her boyfriend).
A: Did you have fun at your cousin`s wedding?
B: The location was near a lake, there many
guests, italian food, they brought a DJ from
Club
B is
ambiguous giving a lot of information about the wedding, exept the response
that A expected: a simply yes or no answer, thus violating the maxim of manner.
F. Example of the Maxim of Manner
A : Where was Alfred yesterday?
B : Alfred went to the store and bought some
whiskey.
In the example, B’s answer obeys the manner maxim: be orderly, because she gives a clear explanation where A was.
Janin Jafari, Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 3, No.
12, pp. 2151-2156, December
2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland
Journal of the
College of Arts. University of Basrah, No (50) 2009. http://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=53089
accesed on 19 December 2016
Niclas Andresen, (2013) Flouting the
maxims in comedy: An analysis of flouting in the comedy series Community, Faculty of Arts
and Social Sciences, Department ofLanguage, Literature and Intercultural Studies, Pdf accesed
on19 December 2016
Marina Alexandra Raceanu ,Speech
Acts In Profesional English accessed on 19 December 2016
