After some serious reflection, I realize that I abandon the Maxim of Quality almost daily! I do so without even realizing it to be considerate in politeness, but more frequently to achieve sarcasm. One part of such a discussion goes as follows:
Me: Ladies and gentlemen, please get your pencils boxes out and ready. It is time for writing.
Students: (groan, growl, eye rolls)
Me: I know, I’m such a horrible teacher.
The way I signaled my sarcasm, was to exaggerate the word “horrible”, smile, and give a wink. The students giggled back and got right to work. Looking back, I almost always give a smile to signal my sarcasm, but the younger students do sometimes have difficulty telling if I am serious or not.
Me: Ladies and gentlemen, please get your pencils boxes out and ready. It is time for writing.
Students: (groan, growl, eye rolls)
Me: I know, I’m such a horrible teacher.
The way I signaled my sarcasm, was to exaggerate the word “horrible”, smile, and give a wink. The students giggled back and got right to work. Looking back, I almost always give a smile to signal my sarcasm, but the younger students do sometimes have difficulty telling if I am serious or not.
In a conversation I overheard, I noticed that the vagueness of a short answer defied all the conversational maxims at the same time.
S1: So where do you live? Maybe we could get coffee sometime or something.
S2: Oh, I’m like 30 minutes away.
(I know for a fact S2 lives right up the street.)
S2: Oh, I’m like 30 minutes away.
(I know for a fact S2 lives right up the street.)
In one simple sentence, S2 did not really answer the question in an effort change the topic- therefore suspended the Maxim of Relevance. S2 also neglected the Maxim of Quality and Maxim of Quantity by giving an untrue response that gave less information than S1 was trying to gain. And, finally, S1 did not respect the Maxim of Manner, as her response was ambiguous by not specifying even which direction she supposedly lived.
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