Tina's Pragmatics Exercise

Chapter 5-Pragmatics  Exercise # 18  Tina Auth

18A.  Exchange between mother and child.  The child has just finished eating a cookie when the mother comes into the room.

Mother:  “What are these cookie crumbs doing in your bed?”

Child:  “Nothing, they’re just lying there.”

The exchange is humorous because the child does not understand the implicature or implied meaning that the mother is trying to convey and she is violating Grice’s Maxim of Manner in that she is not being clear and, instead, her words are ambiguous to the child.  The child, on the other hand, is being very truthful so observes Grice’s maxim of quality and does not understand that his mother is violating the maxim of Manner and making an implication.

18B.  Exhange between an owner and her cat.

Owner:  “If cats ruled the world, everyone would sleep on a pile of fresh laundry.”

Cat:  “Cats don’t rule the world?”

This exchange is humorous because the cat really believes that cats ruling the world is true and thinks that his owner is violating the maxim of quality by making it seem like cats don’t rule the world.