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The universality of conversational postulates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Elinor Ochs Keenan
Elinor Ochs Keenan
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
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Abstract

Grice's analysis of conversational maxims and implicatures is examined in the light of Malagasy language and ways of speaking. A cultural contrast in primary assumptions is described. Grician analysis retains usefulness but within the perspective of a comparative typology in which locally valid systems may differ strikingly in what is marked and unmarked. An ethnographic base and ethnological comparison are required. The situation somewhat resembles the situation with regard to grammatical categories addressed by Boas (1911) and Sapir (1921). (Conversational postulates, ways of speaking; English (US), Malagasy (Madagascar)). (DH)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , April 1976 , pp. 67 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

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