Cooperative Principle

The cooperative principle, introduced by British philosopher Paul Grice in 1974 in his work “Logic and Conversation” (based on lectures from 1967), can be considered a type of cognitive “golden role of communication,” which involves taking the conversation partner into cognitive consideration. The cooperative principle allows communicators to make certain assumptions about each other’s contributions—for example, if the contributions are not specifically marked as otherwise, communicators are trying to be truthful, relevant, and so on. This makes communication possible, by allowing interpretation based on inference, so called conversational implicature.

The cooperative principle: Make your contribution such as required at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.

This entry defines the cooperative principle and ...