Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T08:41:11.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The universality of conversational postulates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Elinor Ochs Keenan
Elinor Ochs Keenan
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Grice's analysis of conversational maxims and implicatures is examined in the light of Malagasy language and ways of speaking. A cultural contrast in primary assumptions is described. Grician analysis retains usefulness but within the perspective of a comparative typology in which locally valid systems may differ strikingly in what is marked and unmarked. An ethnographic base and ethnological comparison are required. The situation somewhat resembles the situation with regard to grammatical categories addressed by Boas (1911) and Sapir (1921). (Conversational postulates, ways of speaking; English (US), Malagasy (Madagascar)). (DH)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , April 1976 , pp. 67 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atlas, J. & Levinson, S. (1973). The importance of practical reasoning in language usage: an explication of conversational implicature. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Boas, F. (1911). Introduction. Handbook of American Indian languages (BAE-B 40, Part I). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. 1–83.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. (1968). Logic and conversation. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Gordon, D. & Lakoff, G. (1971). Conversational postulates. CLS 7.Google Scholar
Grice, P. (1968). Logic and conversation. Lectures.Google Scholar
Heringer, J. T. (1973). Some grammatical correlates of felicity conditions and presuppositions. Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics II.Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness: or minding your P's and Q's. CLS 9.Google Scholar
Sapir, E. (1915). Abnormal types of speech in Nootka. Cited from Mandelbaum, D. G. (ed.), Selected writings of Edward Sapir, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949.Google Scholar
Sapir, E. (1921). Language. New York: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar