At Thanksgiving dinner, we all prepare ourselves for the one family member to mention something we don’t want to hear about, “How’s that boyfriend of yours” We broke up. “Have you lost weight?!” No, I actually gained some. “How do you feel about this president?” I don’t care I’m not into politics. Amongst all the weird and controversial questions or statements that could be asked and said, a way person (B) could respond to person (A) could be by starting an argument, which no one wants to do on Thanksgiving, or could be to change the subject. For example, this year I’m sure there were many debates, questions, and statements regarding the COVID vaccine. No matter what someone’s opinion is on the vaccine or the topic in general, it could definitely stir up some unwelcoming and uncomfortable conversation. Person (A) is the only vaccinated person sitting at a table of people who do not believe in the vaccine because of religious reasons, “So is everyone going to get vaccinated soon?” Person (B) who isn’t really that religious but lives in a religious household and knows how their parents would react to the question, “Wow this stuffing is amazing!!” Can you pass the corn?” This conversation goes against Grice Maxim’s principles because it violates Relevance. Stuffing and corn have nothing to do with the vaccine, but it was the person’s response to the question to avoid any arguments that made happen. The response of person (B) also goes against Quantity because person (B)’s response did not include an informative contribution, they didn’t even answer the question at all.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.