3. Irony and the Cooperative Principle
3.1 The Cooperative Principle
“American philosopher H.P. Grice made an attempt to explain the course of natural conversation, in which implied messages are frequently involved. His idea is that in making conversation, the participants must first of all be willing to cooperate; otherwise, it would not be possible for them to carry on the talk. This general principle is called the Cooperative Principle, abbreviated as CP. It goes as follows:
Make your conversational contribution such as required at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.
The principle breaks down into particular maxims that summarize particular assumptions about conversation. Different pragamaticists propose different numbers of these maxims but as originally proposed by Grice, the Principle contained four sets of maxims:
The maxims of quantity
a). Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange)
b). Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
The maxims of quality
Try to make your contribution one that is true:
a). Do not say what you believe to be false.
b). Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
The maxim of relation
Be relevant.
The maxims of manner
Be perspicuous:
a). Avoid obscurity of expression.
b). Avoid ambiguity.
c). Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
d). Be orderly.” [11]
3.2 Irony as violation of CP
Grice classifies irony as an example of implicature and shows how one can account for irony as a case of flouting the Cooperative Principle by violating the maxim of quality.
Examples:
(1) This diligent student seldom reads more than an hour per month. [12]
The intended meaning of the speaker is this is a lazy student. However, he uses an opposite of “lazy”—diligent. Diligent is here used to produce sarcasm.
(2) A: Sorry, Mary. I cannot give you a lift after work. I have to meet a friend at the airport.
B: Thank you very much. It’s very kind of you. [13]
In this conversation, B does not really praise A. He uses “It’s very kind of you.” to show his dissatisfaction in fact.
(3) A: John says he tops us all at football.
B: I like his cheek. [14]
When B said, “ I like his cheek.”, he infringed the quality maxim to tell a lie. It is easily inferred from the context that B uses the opposite word “like” to mean his truly dislike.
(4) Rose and David met an elegant woman on the street. They appreciated her fine action until she suddenly spitted phlegm to the floor. Under this situation comes the discourse as follows:
Rose: She is really lovely, isn’t she?
David: She sure is. [15]
Rose tended to use “lovely” to laugh at the elegant woman’s poor action here.