Are Crices Maxims in Discourse Analysis applicable to other languages than English?
Ah! Paul Grice. Yes, Grice’s Maxims are applicable in plenty of discourses, not just linguistic. But within linguistics and the DA of language, they can be applied far afield of English. It might be easier to think of languages where they WOULDN’T be a good fit. Japanese and Korean, for example, where much is said indirectly and implied. Family honor, a woman’s honor, cultural respect… all these things chime in to affect the way language plays out in some languages. But for most, especially Indo-European languages, this is not much of a problem. German is extremely efficient and Grice’s proposals would find a cozy, comfortable home there.
