Maxims of Conversation

Grice’s Maxims of Conversation: 

                                         or

The Principles of Effective Communication 

When you write or talk, you generally do so with the purpose of conveying information. The better you are at conveying information, the more likely people are to understand and accept what you have to say.

However, despite the importance of the ability to communicate effectively, we often make mistakes when we try to convey information to others. Some of these mistakes are relatively minor, and only make our communication slightly less effective than it could be. Others are relatively major, and lead to serious misunderstandings.

Paul Grice has laid down four types of maxims to make our communication most effective. These maxims are given below. 

Maxims of Quantity

There are two main maxims of quantity:

I. Give all the information that is required. 
    Provide all the information which is necessary for the current purpose. Do not leave out anything important. If you fail to give some important information, your answer will not be much useful to the person.

II. Do not give unnecessary information that is not required. 

    Leave out any unnecessary details that aren’t important to the current purpose.

    For example, if someone asks you “How do I get from here to the library?”, your answer should contain enough information to help him to get to the library, but no more information than that.  

       Any information that is not required may confuse him rather than help him.

Grice uses the following example to illustrate the importance of these two maxims:

“If you are assisting me to mend a car, I expect your contribution to be neither more nor less than is required. If, for example, at a particular stage, I need four screws, I expect you to hand me four, rather than two or six.”

Maxims of Quality

I. Do not say what you believe to be false. 
Avoid giving information which you believe might be wrong, unless there is some compelling reason to do so. If at all you do so, also let the person know that you are not sure of the correctness of the information.

II. Do not say that for which you lack evidence. 
Avoid including information that you cannot back up with supporting evidence. If you do choose to include such information for some reason, provide a disclaimer that points out your doubts.

Grice uses the following example to illustrate the importance of these maxims:

“I expect your contributions to be genuine and not spurious. If I need sugar as an ingredient in the cake you are assisting me to make, I do not expect you to hand me salt; if I need a spoon, I do not expect a trick spoon made of rubber.”

Maxim of Relatedness

Be relevant. 

Make sure that all the information you provide is relevant to the current exchange. Leave out all the irrelevant information.

Grice uses the following example to illustrate the importance of this maxim:

“I expect a partner’s contribution to be appropriate to the immediate needs at each stage of the transaction. If I am mixing ingredients for a cake, I do not expect to be handed a good book, or even an oven cloth (though this might be an appropriate contribution at a later stage).”

Maxims of Manner

There are four main maxims of manner:

1. Avoid obscurity of expression. 
Avoid language which is difficult to understand. Do not use words that the listener does not know.

2. Avoid ambiguity. 
Avoid ambiguous language which can be interpreted in multiple ways, and which therefore makes it difficult for your listener to understand what exactly you are trying to say. Use words the meaning of which is clear and precise.

3. Be brief. 
Try to be as brief as possible so that the recipient of the information may be able to focus on the key details. But also take care that your brevity should not be at the cost of clarity.

4. Be orderly. 
Provide information in an order that makes it easy for your recipient to process it. If you say at the beginning what needs to be said at the end or vice versa, the recipient of the information will get confused.

It may appear that these maxims are a matter of common sense and every normal human being knows them intuitively. But in actual practice, people often violate them without even being aware that they are doing so. The result is that their communication is not as effective as it should be.

Therefore, in order to ensure the effectiveness of your communication, you should actively use these maxims as guiding principles, and make sure that you follow them.

One way to do this is to ask yourself the following questions whenever you engage in an important act of communication:

I. Am I including all the necessary information?

II. Am I being as concise (brief) as possible, by omitting unnecessary details and irrelevant information?

III. Am I certain that everything that I am saying is true, and can be backed up with evidence? If not, am I sure that this information should be included, and did I provide a disclaimer showing my doubts about it?

IV. Am I using language that is clear and without any ambiguity?

V. Am I presenting the information in a structured, well-organized, and logically ordered manner?

If the answer to any of the above questions is “no”, you should adjust your communication accordingly in order to fix the relevant issue.

You may discover that improving your communication by implementing all these principles takes a lot of hard work at first. If this is too hard for you, make it easier by focusing on only a few of these principles initially. When you have achieved perfection in following those principles which you have chosen initially, you can add the other ones as and when you feel you will be able to implement them comfortably.

If you make it a point to follow these principles, you will find that they are worth the trouble. You will also discover that following them becomes easier with practice.