Violating a maxim is when you break one of Grice’s Maxims on purpose, but you don’t want anyone else to notice. You’re hoping that the other people in the conversation will think you haven’t broken any maxims at all, so they won’t interpret any hidden meanings in your words. We call a hidden meaning like this an ‘implicature’.
Jargon is specialist language that is specific to an activity, hobby, profession, academic subject, or trade. In order for specialist language to be considered ‘jargon’ it needs to exclude people who don’t understand it.
Litotes is a language device where you combine a negative word (like “no”, “not”, “don’t”, “isn’t”, etc) with a word or phrase to express the opposite thing for effect. For example, “I’m not happy” means you’re unhappy.
In linguistics, hedging is when you use certain words and phrases to make what you’re saying sound less harsh, more cautious or more unsure.
Syntax is one of the six micro-linguistic levels you study in English language. It is about how we order words to make phrases, clauses and sentences.
Pragmatics is one of the six microlinguistic levels you study in English language. It is about how language is used in context.
Verbal irony is when someone says something that goes against the reality of their situation. They say it in a way that is noticeable to the people listening to them.
Flouting a maxim is when you break one of Grice’s Maxims on purpose. You want the other people in the conversation to notice that you’ve done it and interpret a hidden message in your words.
The maxim of manner is an expectation that people will be clear with what they are saying in a conversation. This is one of the four expectations that make up Grice’s Maxims, otherwise known as the Cooperative Principle.
The maxim of relation is an expectation that people will say relevant things in a conversation. It is one of the four expectations that make up Grice’s Maxims, otherwise known as the Cooperative Principle.