“We try harder” – Silence and Grice’s cooperative principle, maxims and implicatures

Grice’s influential contribution is the cooperative principle (its maxims and implicatures). We examine whether silence as a means of communication alongside speech (as in “Avis. We try harder”) is a case of the addresser’s failure to satisfy Grice’s cooperative principle, or whether when seen as meaningful symbols, such cases can be seen as complying with the cooperative principle. We begin by re-analyzing Grice’s examples involving silence. Using more examples, we examine the four categories of the maxims to determine whether silence complies with them or flouts them. We demonstrate that, like speech, verbal silence may sometimes serve communication, thereby complying with the cooperative principle, and sometimes counters it. These findings highlight the active role played by verbal silence in communication.

► Grice incorporates the expectations levered by communication into a theoretical model.
► Grice’s cooperative principle consists of maxims and conversational implicatures.
► There is non-communicative silence (stillness) and communicative (verbal) silence.
► Verbal silence (like speech) may observe the maxims or call for an implicature.
► When speech flouts the maxims verbal silence turns out as the iconic ultimate symbol.