Grice’s Maxims
orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and
ambiguity.
As the maxims stand, there may be an overlap, as regards the length of what one
says, between the maxims of quantity and manner; this overlap can be explained
(partially if not entirely) by thinking of the maxim of quantity (artificial though
this approach may be) in terms of units of information. In other words, if the
listener needs, let us say, five units of information from the speaker, but gets
less, or more than the expected number, then the speaker is breaking the maxim of
quantity. However, if the speaker gives the five required units of information, but
is either too curt or long-winded in conveying them to the listener, then the maxim
of manner is broken. The dividing line however, may be rather thin or unclear, and
there are times when we may say that both the maxims of quantity and quality are
broken by the same factors.
