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1、Isthereamaximoftruthfulness?DEIRDREWILSON1IntroductionItisnowover25yearssincePaulGrice,inhisWilliamJamesLectures,sketchedatheoryofutteranceinterpretationbasedonaCo-operativePrincipleandmaximsoftruthfulness,informativeness,relevanceandclarity(Quality,Quantity,RelationandManner
2、).TheQualitymaximswentasfollows:(1)Grice'smaximsofQualitySupermaxim:Trytomakeyourcontributiononethatistrue.(i)Donotsaywhatyoubelievetobefalse.(ii)Donotsaythatforwhichyoulackadequateevidence.ThesupermaximofQualityisconcernedwiththespeaker'soverallcontribution(whatiscommunicate
3、d,eitherexplicitlyorimplicitly),whilethefirstandsecondmaximsofQualityrelateonlytowhatissaid(i.e.thepropositionexplicitlyexpressed).WhilemuchattentionhasbeenpaidinpragmaticstothemaximsofQuantity,RelationandManner,Grice'sformulationofthemaximsofQualityhasgenerallybeentakenforgr
4、anted.Inthispaper,Iwilllookmorecloselyattheirrole.GricesawthefirstmaximofQuality,whichIwillcallthemaximoftruthfulness,asthemostimportantofallthemaxims.HesaysintheWilliamJamesLectures:Itisobviousthattheobservanceofsomeofthesemaximsisamatteroflessurgencythanistheobservanceofoth
5、ers;amanwhohasexpressedhimselfwithundueprolixitywould,ingeneral,beopentomildercommentthanwouldamanwhohassaidsomethinghebelievestobefalse.Indeed,itmightbefeltthattheimportanceofatleastthefirstmaximofQualityissuchthatitshouldnotbeincludedinaschemeofthekindIamconstructing;otherm
6、aximscomeintooperationonlyontheassumptionthatthismaximofQualityissatisfied.Whilethismaybecorrect,sofarasthegenerationofimplicaturesisconcerneditseemstoplayarolenottotallydifferentfromtheothermaxims,anditwillbeconvenient,forthepresentatleast,totreatitasamemberofthelistofmaxims
7、(Grice1989:27).198DeirdreWilsonInthe'RetrospectiveEpilogue',written20yearslater,thisviewisapparentlymaintained:ThemaximofQuality,enjoiningtheprovisionofcontributionswhicharegenuineratherthanspurious(truthfulratherthanmendacious),doesnotseemtobejustoneamonganumberofrecipesforp
8、roducingcontributions;itseemsrathertospelloutthedifferencebetweensom
