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’.
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.
The maxim of quantity is the expectation that people will say just enough and give the right amount of information in a conversation. It is one of the four expectations that make up Grice’s Maxims, otherwise known as the Cooperative Principle.
The maxim of quality is an expectation that people will say truthful things in a conversation. It is one of the four expectations that make up Grice’s Maxims, otherwise known as the Cooperative Principle.
An implicature is a hidden or implicit meaning that you create when you break one of Grice’s Maxims.
Grice’s Maxims, otherwise known as the Cooperative Principle, is a set of expectations that we have in spoken conversation.