A Study On The Non-observance Of Cooperative Principle In Loose Talk

Loose talk is a common phenomenon in our daily conversation. This thesis tries to explore the non-observance of Cooperative Principle in loose talk on the basis of Cooperative Principle and Relevance Theory.The understanding of loose talk is first viewed from the perspective of the CP. Examples are offered to explain violations of CP and flouting of its associated maxims, namely Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner. It turns out that a speaker blatantly flouts a maxim in order to give a hint to the hearer to look for an implicature that is not expressed explicitly at the literal level. When discussing the flouting of maxim of Quality, the theory of conversational implicature does not work efficiently in explaining loose talk whose characteristic is imprecision. Thus Relevance Theory is adopted as the theoretical basis to discuss the characteristic of loose talk, analyzing contextual effect conveyed in this language phenomenon. It concludes that it is not truthfulness but optimal relevance that is expected by the hearer from the speaker's utterances. Some theories from other disciplines like psychology and cultural values are taken to extend the analysis. The politeness rule and social conventions instruct the communicators to interpret the un-cooperation as well.