What Speakers Know Part 1 of 3
Native speakers have a variety of knowledge they can rely on during communication. They
need linguistic knowledge which has to do with the various characteristics of language
like grammar and pronunciation. But, they also have extralinguistic knowledge such as
cultural understanding, context knowledge and familiarity with the other communicators.
This video will look at the importance of context knowledge and familiarity with other
communicators as well as Grice's Co-Operative Principle.
Context & Familiarity A big difference between writing and speaking
is that, usually, speaking is done in a synchronous situation which means that the interlocutor
is part of the same context. This allows speaking to be less explicit than writing. Speaking
uses a lot of personal pronouns like "I" and "you." It also uses a lot of "this"
and "that" or "those." In speaking it is easy to say, "This wine tastes great,"
because of the context the listener will understand which wine is being referred to.
Speaking also allows more ellipsis, meaning that some words, phrases, and clauses can
be understood from context and do not need to be repeated. In fact, in speaking, redundant
ideas should not be repeated. The focus is on new information. Writing tends to keep
more detail and redundancy than speaking does.
Furthermore, the context and familiarity of the communicators will affect the word choice
and degree of detail given. This begins to get into linguistic knowledge. But let's
talk about the Co-Operative Principle.
The Co-Operative Principle Paul Grice presented some maxims in 1975 involving
conversation, and the social relationship of it, that has become known as the Co-operative
Principle. Essentially, he believes that speakers and listeners cooperate together in order
for both to feel successful.
Let's look at his maxims, but as we look at them, remember that these have been proven
to be based in culture so that some cultures would not follow these maxims. Also, these
apply to conversation, storytellers, comedians and con artists are just a few examples of
speakers who either play with these maxims or ignore them.
The maxim of Quality is that speakers say what is true and they do not say what they
don't have evidence for. One way around this is when speakers use hedges or other
verbal clues to indicate that they think something is accurate, but they don't have the evidence
for it. Words such as "I think" or "maybe" are ways the talker indicates that proof of
the truth is outside of their personal knowledge.
The maxim of Quantity means that you only say as much as you need to and not more than
you need to. This specifically pertains to information. If someone asks where the nearest
McDonald's is, for example, then the person responding should say down the street one
block and then turn left. He should not say, "Well, there is one down the street to the
left, but there's another one four blocks south of here, or you could go to the one
down in Wellington." Too much information has been given.
The maxim of Relation says that whatever you respond with must be relevant to the conversation.
This often results in miscommunications. For example, if I say, "I hear the weather is
going to be warm;" but my interlocutor responds with, "Who is going to be harmed?" I am
lost in the conversation for a while because I don't see the relationship between the
two utterances. When I finally recognize that the interlocutor misheard what I said, then
I can make a correction and continue on with my part of the conversation.
The maxim of Manner is very similar to the maxim of Quantity except that instead of focusing
on information it focuses on the number of words used to communicate the information.
The maxim of Manner requires brevity and conciseness from the language we choose. Some scholars
have suggested combining this maxim with the Quantity one.
Essentially, the Co-Operative Principle believes speakers and listeners cooperate to create
understanding and meaning. We also looked at the idea that context and familiarity determines
whether word choices are formal or informal and how detailed you need to be or not be.
The next video in this series will look at genre knowledge and discourse markers.