 |
| Paul Grice |
OR
Send us a link to a YouTube video clip that shows someone else doing it.
The Maxims:
Quantity:
Say no less than the conversation requires (Click here for a negative example).
Say no more than the conversation requires
Quality
Don't say what you believe to be false
Don't say things for which you lack evidence
Manner
Don't be obscure
Don't be ambiguous
Be brief
Be orderly
Relevance
Stick to the topic.
So, you only need to watch until the 2:00 mark of this hilarious clip from the 80's Rom-Com "Secret Admirer". Kelly Preston's character, Debbie, is obviously violating Grice's Quantity Maxim by talking non-stop despite Michael's (C. Thomas Howell) disinterest and annoyance. Enjoy!
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/UQ9K89MRVmU
Nikki Ennis
In this clip from Aladdin, Aladdin is obviously violating the Grice's Quality Maxim by telling Jasmine something that he knows to be false after being caught in his lie.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P-OONUr5g0 Full clip 1:12 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RT-c7P0Wr0 The Lie :12 seconds
Rocky Moore
ReplyDeleteThis clip is from the movie with Ashton Kutcher, 'Dude Where's My Car' and the scene here shows the two guys going back and forth trying to tell the other one what their tattoo says. They may be violating the ambiguous maxim or they are just idiots, which is more likely the case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arf2TxeYPDs
In this clip, starting at 0:44 and ending at 1:20, Ron Swanson is obscuring his answers at the government hearing while he is being questioned. Instead of answering what they ask him he asks them a question back in order to avoid the question.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwGat4i8pJI
Jonathan Bell
http://youtu.be/eJWkoXsuE8I
ReplyDeleteThis is video of Marshawn Lynch interview. Start it about 20 seconds. He kept on answering all the question with I'm thankful. This is him not using good quantity not saying enough that is required from him.
Steven Shelley
President Obama is violating Grice's Maxim of Manner in this video. He wasn't informed of the cultural norm of not speaking during "God Save the Queen," because of this he ends up rudely giving a toast, then being the only one to raise his glass.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tla7L-dIAL4
So my boyfriend lives three hours away and earlier he sent me two long paragraph texts to which I responded, 'yep'. Needless to say, I haven't heard from him in over 4 hours. Maybe I didn't say enough?! Ooops!
ReplyDelete-Tarra Ward
My husband asked me how my book was going and I responded very short, "ok". He then asked, "what's it about"? I replied. "some lady". He have me a confusing look and asked, "are you avoiding me"? I simply said. "no". The room was silent and I was trying not to laugh knowing what I was doing. About ten minutes later he said. "are you mad at me"? I replied "no" and had to turn my face with a grin. He then knew I was messing with him, and let's just say I'm glad he figured out I was messing with him, because I didn't want to sleep on the couch.
ReplyDeleteThis is a clip from the epic rambling and incoherent answer given by a Ms. America contestant when asked a question from the judge about Americans who can't locate the United States on a map. In this short time she manages to violate every one of Grice's maxims. But hey, at least she is pretty.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtkX3OyPF4Q
Devin Martinez
A few friends and myself took a quick trip to Oklahoma City yesterday evening. While preparing to exit to reach our destination, my friend asked me which number the exit would be since I knew the way. Here is where I chose to violate the maxim of relevance by responding with a statement about who she wondered would win the super bowl this year? Needless to say she was very frustrated and replied to my query with some derogatory phrases. We only had to take a five minute detour due to my random response, and luckily she calmed down after some well-deserved sushi.
ReplyDeleteThis is a video clip from the movie "Master of Disguise." It shows the main character violating Grice's Manner maxim. When asked a question, the guy in the boat does not answer quickly and he is kind of ambiguous.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n106G5_xlk
Courtney White
I was having a conversation with my sister and we were talking about school and our respective classes. Every time she asked me a question I either didn't reply, or gave a very short answer. I know this is very similar to the clip we watched in class, but I actually do this all the time. Only recently did I realize it was violating a maxim. As a result she got mad at me and stopped trying to talk to me.
ReplyDeleteMary Dixon
I was actually looking for a video for this assignment when my this conversation took place with my boyfriend that I think definitely violates the quantity maxim. He asked me to take him to his job, which I was surprised because it was supposed to be his day off. I asked him why. He launched into a very long explanation about how several people at his job had recently quit and that there was no one currently there who knew how to close the store. They had asked him to come in for the last hour to help everything get done. He then told me that he thought that he had informed me of this the day before to which I replied "no". He hesitated for a moment and then said, "so will you take me?" To which I replied "yes". He looked at me funny and said "okay." Then walked away to get ready. When he was out of the room, I told my room mate what was going on. He walked back into the room, obviously a little angry by this point and asked if I was ready, to which I only replied "yes." Once we got to my car he asked me what I had been talking about with my room mate. I said, "nothing." By this point he was really angry and launched into a speech about how he could just walk to work if I was going to continue acting this way. I figured it was time to explain to him what was going on. The only thing he told me was, "That's a stupid assignment." I laughed, a lot.
ReplyDeleteCora-lee Snow
Keeping in theme with the clips from Seinfeld, this is a great example of violating Grice's manners of avoiding obscurity and ambiguity. The low talker seems to have no social awareness of how her manners impact communication.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFRoXoh6aks
- Matt Calvert
When asked how I was doing at the bar (Applebees) my unrequested response was:
ReplyDelete"I'm fucking awesome. The Patriots won the Super bowl. I finished some of ny homework, My parents called me and told me they loved me. I'm single and still sad, but needless to say, for the moment I am ecstatic because the Patriots won the Superbowl. So I an awesome."
The look on the girls face was priceless and I'm almost positive she thought I was a psychotic maniac. It was great.
Bria Gambrell
A classic clip of Robert Downey Jr. being Iron Man in this famous moment of the movie "Avengers". In this clip he violated the maxim of relativity by going off topic and pointing out something in the background.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyvVSamwMrI
Kenia Starry
I tried my experiment out on one of the women I work with. I just gave one word responses to every question she asked about my day. After 4-5 questions she asked if everything was okay. She also asked if I was feeling okay. Even though I was replying, I was saying too little which is not typical. This obviously lead her to believe something was wrong.
ReplyDeleteled*
DeleteMy mom is a school teacher and was telling me about her day. She was asking me if I thought her 3rd graders would be okay doing some assignment. I responded with, “I hate that it’s so cold again”. My mom looked at me like, ummmmmm we were talking about my class?? But she didn’t say anything, she just agreed with me about the weather. Then the conversation went on with her asking me how my classes were going. I responded with, “I’m hungry, what’s for dinner?” This time she got pissed and told me that I was being rude! Apparently sticking to the topic of a conversation is important!
ReplyDeleteThe other day I was talking to Dr. Nicholson-Weir, and as I was leaving the office I said a brief "hello" to Dr. Murphy. She in turn said "hello" and asked how I was doing. I hesitated a moment before letting her know that I was actually having a shitty day, but that it would be okay. Then I started to walk away, she had this momentary confusion on her face before starting to laugh. She's my adviser, and I've had her in classes so she knows me pretty well and would never laugh if she thought I was really unwell. After she stopped laughing she told me as least I got her to smile, and I gave her a thumbs up.
ReplyDeleteI think this could fall under the maxim of quantity- saying no more than the conversation requires- because when people ask that perfunctory "how are you" I think in general they don't expect anything more than a one word response so certainly not anything lengthy or negative.
The little girl in this clip is violating both the quality and the relevance in her conversation with her mother by lying and changing the topic to distract her mom.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVs71CBX7J8
---Ammi Ross
This link goes to four clips from 'The Big Bang Theory' where each one demonstrates a violation of one of Grice's maxims. This video was perfect because it demonstrated all four of the maxims being broken.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEM8gZCWQ2w
-Kelsey Jackson
I notice my culture (Deaf-culture) violate Grice’s maxims all the time. Often, I find myself and other Deaf people to never stay on topic (relevance) and only to talk about something else entirely and go back to it later at a different time as if we are “finishing” the question asked. It must be a cultural thing based on priorities. For example,
ReplyDeleteA: What time is it? Has the mail man arrived?
B. It is 5:30 and I just got back from the grocery store. I was able to get some sweet tea and some blueberries.
This clip is from one of my favorite shows, New Girl. Nick is feeling down, and decides to go to the park to have some alone time and think. Then an old man, Tran, sits right beside him on a park bench. Nick finds himself opening up to the old man. It is unknown whether Tran is unable to speak English, or if he just has quiet tendencies, but Tran simply listens to Nick's issues, occasionally nodding and making facial expressions, breaking the maxim of quantity by the lack of information given.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/5iO1B5WRnoU
0:00-1:12 for the clip ^^^^
ReplyDeleteThis clip is from the popular television show The Big Bang Theory. The violation of Maxim's rules are pretty much the foundation of Sheldon Cooper's character. In this video, we see him violate most (if not all) of the maxims.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMMtk8OlrMk
Awkward. Can you identify how many of Grice maxims you see violated here?
DeleteSheldon really only breaks a couple maxims, as opposed to "most (if not all)" in this clip. He speaks much more than he ought and he isn't particularly brief. He is, however, relevant as he sticks to the topic,he isn't obscure or ambiguous, and he is honest as he says nothing for which he lacks evidence or knows to be false.
DeleteI honestly think that I break the quantity maxim every day with my best friends. My best friends and I are very sensitive individuals, and when someone is "short" or "short texts" any of us, we get irritated. Nonetheless, we've grown, and make sure that we don't send passive text messages. We have to write at least three sentences to each other or put emojis in our messages to show that we are not upset or anything.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I did this with my best friend Brook yesterday. She was sending me these rather long messages about a person that she cares a lot for, and going on and on. I'm used to her using me as a message board. She sent me this really long message about how amazing the person was, and I replied with the most minimum answers I could think of.
"Yup."
"Oh, wow."
"That's cool."
All with no emojis.
Needless to say, she thought that I was mad at her, and we almost got in a huge argument, and I then had to explain why I did what I did. It was interesting.
My roommates left me to tell our mutual friend what happened in the first season of a TV show. Apparently, they wanted the abridged version, not a blow-by-blow account. Two of them joined in to speed things along and then there was just yelling and us doing our best impressions of explosions.
ReplyDelete(Emily Callan)
In this clip from the series Parks and Recreation, Leslie Knope meets some of her political heroes. However, she us distracted and upset and does not pay attention and/or does not care about her presentation to them. In the first 55 seconds, she breaks two of Grice's Maxims. The first, by giving information that is unnecessary and does not directly pertain to the topic(Relevance). And the second was her abrupt end to the conversation without allowing the two Senators to follow up her comments or give them time to end their side of the discussion(Quantity). Although she did get her point across, she did not allow the Senators to conclude their end of the conversation.
ReplyDeleteSide note, the end of the video is just hilarious.
Cody Baggerly
https://youtu.be/xAszeGSkcw4
The unnecessary information were the comments about the issues in her town. The mention of a raccoon infestation was the main one I had in mind.
DeleteI decided to violate Grice's Maxim of relevance with several people. One of these was an acquaintance. When she asked what we had to do in class, I responded with a long drawn out story about a grocery shopping trip I went on. This got me a lack of eye contact, and weird looks. Also, she repeated the question very irritated. I don;t think she will ask me what we are doing in class again. I've also noticed the same response from people in a class when the discussion gets derailed. People refuse to make eye contact with the person who broke the maxim.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI recently received a letter in the mail and my mother asked, "What did your friend have to say?" To which I replied, "Hello." That just about ended the conversation.
ReplyDeleteAnother instance: A friend and I were discussing a new album of one of his favorite heavy rock bands -- an album that was increasingly experimental and softer than the majority of their discography. I said to him, "I love how this album is a little heavier than their previous releases. It's something of a return to form!" Without hesitation, my friend replied, "You know, honestly, you're right! I've been ready for them to get back on pace." Despite saying something that I knew to be completely false, my friend didn't bat an eye. Could this really be one of his favorite bands?
I violated Grice's Maxim with one of my coworkers. He asked if it had gotten any colder outside since earlier that morning. I replied with a long detailed explanation of how I decided what to wear and how to do my hair. About 30 seconds in he started fiddling with his phone. Later that same day when he asked me to watch a video with him I gave the simple reply of "no." That got me a smart comment back real fast.
ReplyDeleteThe Maxim I broke was quantity by not talking enough. I was having a conversation on the phone with a friend and in the middle of her talking I just hung up because I was finished with the conversation even though she was not. She thought there was bad signal, then I told her that I hung up because I did not want to talk any longer. It upset her for a bit and then she said she understood and it was fine. :)
ReplyDeleteThe maxim I broke was the one of relevance. My boyfriend Ryan and I were discussing Steven Pinker, and I made him look up a picture of Pinker to see his hair. Ryan commented that he looked like Brian May from Queen, and I disagreed, and he replied "they could be twins!" To that, I said, "Who is playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday?" and Ryan just replied "Brian May." I didn't even get a weird look or anything, which leads me to believe I break this maxim on a regular basis.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEM8gZCWQ2w]
ReplyDeleteGreat and that i have a super provide: Who Repairs House Foundations 2nd story addition
ReplyDelete