Maxim of Quality

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.

According to this maxim, the expectation is that people in conversation:

• Say things that are truthful.
• Avoid saying things that they don’t have evidence to back up.
• Don’t say anything that they believe might be false.

When we notice that someone hasn’t followed this maxim, it makes us wonder why they aren’t being straightforward with their speech.

This then causes us to interpret hidden, implicit meanings (implicatures) under what they have said.

The maxim of quality is not a rule that you have to follow when you are speaking to other people. It’s just that we need to be aware of the hidden messages we might create when we don’t follow a maxim.

There are many occasions where you might break this maxim on purpose. Sometimes, you do it to purposefully create an implicature. Other times, you hope that no one will notice that you’ve done it.

Breaking the Maxim of Quality on Purpose

There are plenty of ways that you can break this maxim on purpose. Which one you use will depend on what kind of implicature you want to create – or if you want to generate an implicature at all!

When you are analysing speech, it can be useful to think about which ways people break maxims and why.

Remember: maxims aren’t set rules that dictate whether you are doing conversation “properly” or not. Instead, they’re just ways to decide whether we’re going to take your language at face value or if we’re going to interpret a hidden meaning.

Flouting the Maxim

Flouting a maxim is when you make it very clear to the other people in the conversation (interlocutors) that you are breaking it. You want them to notice so that they can interpret your hidden implicature.

One of the most common ways that someone might flout the maxim of quality is through the use of sarcasm. They make it very clear that they aren’t telling the truth through their:

• Hyperbolic language.
• Over-explaination in their answer.
• Sarcastic tone.
• Body language.
• Facial expression.

Let’s look at an example.

Speaker 1: Are you leaving? 
Speaker 2: No. I just thought I'd open the door and stare outside for a bit.

The implicature that people generate when they use sarcasm is usually the same: they think that the speaker before them said something ridiculous or ignorant and want to make that very clear.

Violating the Maxim

Violating a maxim is when you say something that goes against the maxim, but you hope that no one notices. If you are successful when you violate a maxim, you generate no implicature.

So, when it comes to violating the maxim of quality, it means that you are saying something untruthful and hoping that your interlocutors don’t notice. In other words, you’re lying.

Although you intended not to create an implicature, once you say something, it is out of your control how other people interpret it. So, they may figure out that you are violating that maxim and accuse you of lying. When that happens, they will ask themselves why you chose to lie, generating an implicature.

Suspending the Maxim

Suspending a maxim is when there is a societal expectation for you to break a maxim. There are plenty of situations where it would be unusual, rude or even detrimental to a person if they were to adhere to the maxims.

When you suspend a maxim, there is no expectation for you to have followed it in the first place. So, you don’t create an implicature. In fact, you might even create an implicature if you do follow the maxim!

There are plenty of social situations where there is an expectation for you to suspend the maxim of quality.

For example, when you are at a funeral or speaking about someone who has recently died, there is an expectation that you say nice things about them. If they weren’t a particularly nice person, people expect you to suspend the maxim. Why? Well, politeness rules dictate that we don’t speak ill of the dead!

Also, you might have to suspend the maxim when someone tells you that they look terrible. Even though you might agree with them, it would be rude for you to say that out loud. Society would expect you to disagree with them in that case, which would be you suspending the maxim.

When you’re telling a joke, people expect that you will say things that aren’t truthful. This is also a case of suspending the maxim.

Hedging

Hedging is when you use language that makes your speech sound less certain, forceful or strong. It is a way to be cautious with your language.

There might be times when you want to make it clear to your interlocutors that you are breaking the maxim of quality. This is particularly the case when you want to give them information that you aren’t 100% sure about and don’t have the evidence to back up. You’re most likely to do this when you think the information is relevant and useful to the conversation, even though you can’t vouch for it.

In this case, you might want to use hedging to make it explicitly clear that you aren’t completely sure about what you’re saying. Hedges might look like this:

• Apparently
• Appear to be
• Might be
• Perhaps
• Could be
• Allegedly
• I think
• I assume

This can protect you while you are speaking by making it clear to your interlocutors that you don’t vouch for the information you’re stating. You’re just giving them all the information you know.

The hedge “allegedly” is particularly useful in news reporting. It can help to prevent journalists from being sued if what they say turns out to be untrue.

When someone hedges this maxim, the implicature they want to generate is “take this with a pinch of salt” or “make sure you fact-check this”.

Breaking the Maxim of Quality by Accident

Of course, there are also cases where you might break a maxim by accident. Usually, this will happen when someone doesn’t realise that they aren’t following the maxims. We call this “infringing a maxim”.

When someone infringes the maxim of quality, it usually happens because they aren’t aware of what they are doing, perhaps because:

• They don’t realise that what they’ve said is untrue.
• The use of drugs or alcohol has prevented them from thinking through what they’re saying fully.
• They misheard what was said or asked of them, meaning their contribution to the conversation wasn’t completely relevant.

When this happens, the speaker isn’t trying to create an implicature. However, they can’t prevent it if one is generated.