Using natural language to communicate is, for the vast majority of us, something we do every day from a very young age. That said, when we look closely, communication is not without its fair share of hurdles. Indeed, is a fact of human social intercourse that individuals do not always say what they mean, or mean what they say in conversational contexts. In this paper, we will expound upon the issue of implicatures present in human communication, as described by Grice. In addition, we will present two related theories which attempt to elucidate how human beings are able to grasp what others mean with seemingly little effort. Lastly, we will look at how easily our cognitive system can be co-opted, by introducing the notion of deception.
Having a conversation seems straightforward enough. After all, it is something most of us do every day. That said, conversing is not as plain sailing as it appears. Indeed, conversing requires us to go beyond the individual meaning of words or the literal meaning of individual sentences in isolation. We must contend with an ever-evolving spiral of ideas and thoughts often not conveyed explicitly to us. This obvious gap between semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning should in theory completely hinder our ability to communicate. It is by observing this common phenomenon that …show more content…
For Grice, gathering (on the part of the hearer) and spreading information (on the part of the speaker) is at the essence of why humans communicate. Information,of course, can be used to influence or be influenced, also an important part of human interaction. Following this logic, Grice believes in the primacy of truth; untrue information is not bad information it is merely not information. This will be an important detail as we move
Having a conversation seems straightforward enough. After all, it is something most of us do every day. That said, conversing is not as plain sailing as it appears. Indeed, conversing requires us to go beyond the individual meaning of words or the literal meaning of individual sentences in isolation. We must contend with an ever-evolving spiral of ideas and thoughts often not conveyed explicitly to us. This obvious gap between semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning should in theory completely hinder our ability to communicate. It is by observing this common phenomenon that …show more content…
For Grice, gathering (on the part of the hearer) and spreading information (on the part of the speaker) is at the essence of why humans communicate. Information,of course, can be used to influence or be influenced, also an important part of human interaction. Following this logic, Grice believes in the primacy of truth; untrue information is not bad information it is merely not information. This will be an important detail as we move