Abstract
As I have already pointed out elsewhere (Senft 2008; 2010; 2014), the Gricean conversational maxims of Quality – “Try to make your contribution one that is true” – and Manner “Be perspicuous”, specifically “Avoid obscurity of expression” and “Avoid ambiguity” (Grice 1967; 1975; 1978) – are not observed by the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea, neither in forms of their ritualized communication nor in forms and ways of everyday conversation and other ordinary verbal interactions. The speakers of the Austronesian language Kilivila metalinguistically differentiate eight specific non-diatopical registers which I have called “situational-intentional” varieties. One of these varieties is called “biga sopa”. This label can be glossed as “joking or lying speech, indirect speech, speech which is not vouched for”. The biga sopa constitutes the default register of Trobriand discourse and conversation. This contribution to the workshop on philosophy and pragmatics presents the Trobriand Islanders’ indigenous typology of non-diatopical registers, especially elaborating on the concept of sopa, describing its features, discussing its functions and illustrating its use within Trobriand society. It will be shown that the Gricean maxims of quality and manner are irrelevant for and thus not observed by the speakers of Kilivila. On the basis of the presented findings the Gricean maxims and especially Grice’s claim that his theory of conversational implicature is “universal in application” is critically discussed from a general anthropological-linguistic point of view.
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Notes
- 1.
Kilivila words and phrases are printed in italic type. Note that my use of “register” and “genre” differs from the use of these terms by researchers working within the framework of systemic-functional linguistics, like, for example Saukkonen (2003).
- 2.
The following abbreviations are used:1 = 1st person; 2 = 2nd person; 3 = 3rd person; CP = Classificatory Particle, classifier; Dem = Demonstrative; Emph = Emphasis; Fut = Future; p.c. = personal communication; Redup = Reduplication.
- 3.
People who do not tell the truth in litigations will lose their case, and it is impossible to cheat in counting basketfuls of yams because of ubiquitous social control on the Trobriand Islands. People who feign mourning are believed to be punished by the kosi spirit of the deceased, and traditional myths are believed to be true.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
Similar varieties can also be found in other cultures of Papua New Guinea and probably all over Melanesia; see, e.g., Merlan and Rumsey (1991: 88 f.); Parkin (1984); Strathern (1975); and Watson-Gegeo (1986). Eric Venbrux (p.c.) points out that Sansom (1980) describes the same phenomenon for the Aboriginal English of Aboriginal fringe dwellers in Darwin; the expression they use for this variety is “gammon”; the Tiwi in Northern Australia use “gammon” in this way, too. Louise Baird (p. c.) also reports the practice of “tinaak” in Klon, a Papuan language spoken in the Alor Archipelago in southeast Indonesia. “Tinaak” can be translated as “to lie, to trick” – and this language use is also characterized by the fact that speakers knowingly and willingly tell someone something that does not reflect social or physical reality. See also Haiman (1998: 83 f.) and Brown (2002); for more general remarks see also Arndt and Janney (1987: 201).
- 7.
This is also true for the Ilongots, former headhunters who live on Luzon Island in the Philippines. In 1982 (= 2011) Michelle Rosaldo pointed out that for the Ilongots “words are not made to ‘represent’ objective truth, because all truth is relative to the relationships and experiences of those who claim to ‘know’… For Ilongots it’s relations, not intentions, that come first” (Rosaldo 2011: 88).
- 8.
Obviously GCI theoreticians are aware of this problem. Thus, Levinson tries to refute Keenan’s criticism (Keenan (Ochs) 1976) with respect to the universality of conversational postulates in a footnote (!) as follows: “... exceptional practices will be found in specific discourse genres. In these cases, Gricean principles are not even in limited suspension – the practices take their semiotic value from the departures from Gricean expectations!” (Levinson 2000:423, fn 96). To me this argument is not very convincing, and I cannot see at all that this argument (or any argument along the same lines) can deal with the biga sopa concept and its relation to the Gricean principles of Quality and Manner.
- 9.
For a broader and more general definition see Basso and Senft (2009: 1).
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Senft, G. (2018). Theory meets Practice – H. Paul Grice’s Maxims of Quality and Manner and the Trobriand Islanders’ language use. In: Capone, A., Carapezza, M., Lo Piparo, F. (eds) Further Advances in Pragmatics and Philosophy. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72173-6_10
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