Genre Grice’s maxims

6. Code 7. Message-form
8. Event 9. Key
10. Purpose 2.2.2.3 Register
Different linguists give different concepts of register. Here are some of them: “Register may be defined as the variety of a language used in particular situational
context”. Halliday 1985:12 Michael 1991:478 sees register from a different point of view. With him, “register reflects
the degree of technical specification in the language of economics, banking and finance, international business, advertising, medicine, information technology and so forth.
Discourse register reflects the degree of formality of particular text by using a characteristic set of lexical and grammatical features”.
Besides, Galperin 1977:319 suggests that , “a functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication”.
From different definitions of register above, it can be seen that registers of functional styles are linguistic variations linked to specific occupations, professions, topics and so on to serve
a specific aim in communication.

2.2.3 Genre

The word “genre” comes from the French originally Latin word for “kind” or “class”. It has been used in rhetoric, literary theory, media theory and linguistics to refer to a distinctive
type of text a text in any mode. Since classical times literary works have been classified under genres poetry, prose, drama, etc. with sub-genres, e.g. tragedy and comedy as sub-
genres of drama, and modern media routinely categorized into genres e.g. film-trailers, or TV programs – sitcom, game shows, etc.
In the realm of language, linguists have put forward quite a few concepts of genre. Among them, the following ones seem the most detailed and convincing.
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“A genre is a socially sanctioned type of communicative event, either spoken-like a sermon, a joke, a lecture – or printed, like a press report, a novel, or a political manifesto”
Kramsch, 1998:62 and
“Genres are how things get done, when language is used to accomplish them. They range them from literary to far from literary forms: poems, narratives, expositions, lectures,
seminars, recipes, manuals, appointment making, service encounters, news broadcast and so on. The term “genre” is used here to embrace each of the linguistically realized activity
types which comprise so much of our culture”. Martin, 1985:250 It can be easily seen that linguists, though contradicting in their concepts of others, seem to
reach a relative agreement here as it can be concluded by Bhatia 1993 as cited in Holland and Lewis 2000: 76, “genre is recognizable and mutually understood by the number of
professional or academic community in which it regularly occurs.”

2.2.4 Grice’s maxims

Grice 1975, in his book, makes an attempt to develop the inferential model into an adequate explanatory account of communication. He suggests that communication is
governed by a cooperative principle and maxims of conversation. Grice’s fundamental idea is that the communicators are trying to meet certain standards in
their conversation. From knowledge of these standards, observation of the communicator’s behavior, and the context, it is possible to infer the communicator’s specific intention.
“Our talk exchanges…are characteristically, to some degree at least, cooperative efforts; and each participant recognizes in them, to some extent, a common purpose or set of
purposes, or at least a mutually accepted direction…at each stage, some possible conversational moves would be excluded as conversationally unsuitable.
We might then formulate a rough general principle which participants will be expected to observe, namely: Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at
which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.” Grice, 1975:45
This general principle, which was called “the cooperative principle”, is expected to be followed by all speakers. Furthermore, the standards for conducting cooperative
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communication were claimed by Grice to be of several different types. Grice called these
standards maxims and grouped them under categories: Quantity,
1. Make your contribution as informative as required for the current purpose of the exchange.
2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required Grice 1975: 45.
Quality,
Supermaxim: Try to make your contribution one that is true. 1. Do not say what you believe to be false.
2.
Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
Relation,
1. Be relevant.
and Manner,
1. Avoid obscurity of expression. 2. Avoid ambiguity.
3. Be brief avoid unnecessary prolixity. 4. Be orderly.

2.2.5 Communication