
































2

Grice’s Cooperative Maxims and Implicatures in Advertisement Taglines of Selected
Products in the Nigerian Malls

Ezinne Agwuama Chima

Abstract

This study centres on examining and analyzing Grice’s Cooperative principle in advertisement
taglines of selected products in Nigerian malls. An advertisement tagline is a public
announcement with the purpose of persuading the public to desire a product or service.
Advertisement taglines aim at changing the perception of the public.In the field of advertising;
advertisers depend much on the conversational principle to achieve their goals. In most cases, the
advertisers in designing taglines flout the conversational maxims expecting their potential
customers to search for the underlying messages thus, birthing the present study. This study
examined the cooperative maxims flouted by the advertisers in the sampled data and the
implicatures generated.The study adopts qualitative research method, five advertisement taglines
for different brands of a particular product were purposively sampled. Findings reveal that three
maxims (Quantity, Quality and Relation) are flouted at varying intervals and implicatures are
generated. The study reveals that the advertisers flouted these maxims deliberately to change the
attitude of the potential customers towards the advertised products.

Keywords: cooperative maxim, implicature, advertisement, tagline, brand, product and mall

Introduction

Communication is said to be successful only when the hearer/reader recognizes and understands
the speaker’s intention, but jeopardized when the speaker’s intention and the hearer’s
interpretation do not correspond. Grice’s Conversational Principle provides guidelines which
interactants are expected to follow in communicative events. Many a time, interactants mean
more than they actually say. Implicature arises when a listener is making an inference as to what
the meaning of an utterance could be in a given context. Yule (1996, p.40) notes that “it is



speakers who communicate meaning via implicature while the listeners recognize the
communicated meanings via inference”. Implicature is attributed to Paul Herbert Grice (1975),
who used the word “Implicature” to explain the pragmatic technique applied in order to unveil
the underlying meaning of an utterance. Therefore, implicature is an inference drawn from the
interaction between an expression’s context of an utterance and the interpretation of elements
within that expression. Wright (1975,p.379) in his opinion proposes that in conversation most
times, what is meant is not what is said”. So, Brown and Yule (1983:31), opine that Grice
applied the term implicature “to account for what a speaker can imply, suggest, or mean, as
distinct from what the speaker literally says”. Also, to Thomas, “To imply is to hint, suggest or
convey some meaning indirectly by means of language” (1995,p. 58). Peccei (1999,p.3) defines
“implicature as the inferences that cannot be made from isolated utterances”. Above all, Grice
asserts that conversational implicatures can be worked out via world knowledge, the linguistic
and extra linguistic context of the utterance, general background information, and the
Cooperative Principles (CP) of conversation. All that Grice mentioned above regarding how
implicatures are worked out centers on pragmatic context.

An understanding of the context in which an utterance is used is important so that the hearer
can identify the underlying meanings produced by a speaker. Advertisement as a mode of
communication is also best interpreted through its context of use because of the deep
interpretation it requires. Well, the relevance of context to the interpretation of meanings cannot
be over emphasized. The term ‘context’ is vast, but is defined as the element that surrounds an
utterance and determines its meaning. The meaning of the utterance is inferred, that means that
the meaning is implicit and is interpreted subjectively which also affects -to a large extent -the
number of interpretations that can be derived from one context. According to Lyons (1995, p.265)
“context determines meaning”. Also, Odebunmi (2006, p. 22) sees context as “the spine of
meaning”. In other words, it can be generally stated that implicature simply means what the
speaker intends to communicate to their listener beyond what is literally contained in the
utterance.

In Grice’s view, pragmatic interpretation relies heavily on inferences by a hearer about the
Speaker’s meaning. In fact, the notion that there is divergence between utterance and speaker’s
meanings spurred Grice to come up with the notions of implicatures, entailment, presuppositions,
and inference. His argument is, if speakers use words in non-literal or indirect ways, or if they do
not structure their utterances to reflect the full propositions or intentions, how then is consensus
reached between speaker and hearer?

Advertisement tagline provides valuable information about the advertised
products/services; it promotes and supplements selling of products/services to a very great extent.
Over time, advertisement has become the key for success in business. The most interesting part
of advertisement tagline is that it carries information with fascinating emotional appeal as a
compelling force that endear the advertised goods/services to the potential customers. In business,
advertisement is considered a prerequisite to making a good sale in the market. One of the ideas



behind the tactful creation of advertisement taglines with very attractive promises is to arouse the
potential customers’ interest and desire for the said products/services. In the field of advertising,
taglines serve as a very productive means of bringing the public’s awareness to new
products/services especially when there are other brands of that same product. Let us consider
the following taglines to buttress the point noted here.

Keystone bank – Never Say Never

Sky bank – The Sky Is Big Enough

United bank for Africa (UBA) – Says You Can

Union bank – Big, Strong and Reliable

Zenith bank – In Your Best Interest

The examples above are banks which serve common purposes, but have different taglines
peculiar to each of them. The taglines to a large extent serve as a differential that make each of
them outstanding.

Furthermore, advertisers, through advertisement taglines, bring to the limelight some of the
benefits that the potential customers will gain by choosing the advertised products/services to
capture their interest. Advertisers make these taglines so enticing to enable them influence the
choices of the customers indirectly. In most cases, the tone and language of these taglines
position the advertised products/services they represent and make them desirable in the market.
Below are more examples of same commodity (tomato paste) of different companies with their
varying fascinating taglines.

Tasty Tom – Strength Comes from Within

De Rica –Mom’s Magic is Back

Ric Giko – For Good Health and Better Economy

Now, considering the examples above, it is obvious that tagline is a marketing strategy that
communicates the unique value of a brand of product.

According to Bovee and Arens, (1983,p.45), “advertisement language is witty and precise
sometimes, … and because of the need for brevity, the words are short”. Oftentimes, the
advertisers are more interested in choosing rhyming words, in order to create slogans that can
easily be memorized not minding if their messages have been properly communicated to their
potential customers. Thus, the researcher wonders if the potential customers actually infer the
hidden meanings in these taglines considering their background and perception about life
generally. Therefore, there is need to enhance the advertisers’ and intending advertisers’
competence of the application of pragmatic principles in designing advertisement taglines for



effective feedback and results. Also, many scholars have taken to analysing advertisement
taglines of different products like electronics, beverages, telecommunication companies, mobile
phones, but there is none on the present topic from the available literatures reviewed. So, this
present research, “Grice’s Cooperative Maxims and Implicatures in Advertisement Taglines of
Selected brands of a Product in the Nigerian Malls” is geared towards analyzing the
conversational maxims flouted and the possible implicatures.

Theoretical Framework

The English philosopher, H. Paul Grice (1913-1988), was so concerned with accounting for how
meanings are understood in conversations. He opines that there is an accepted way of speaking
which we all accept as the standard behaviour. Grice states thus: 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. (1975:47)

Grice recognizes four conversational maxims:

I. Maxims of Quantity:

Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purposes of the exchange.

Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

2. Maxims of Quality: Supermaxim: Try to make your contribution one that is true. Do not say
what you believe to be false. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

3. Maxim of Relation: Be relevant.

4. Maxims of Manner: Supermaxim: Be perspicuous. Avoid obscurity of expression.Avoid
ambiguity. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). Be orderly.

Grice also notes that people fail to observe the maxims, either deliberately or
unconsciously. He further identifies five major ways of non observance of these maxims thus,
Flouting, Violating, Infringing, Opting out, Suspending. Itis only when maxims are flouted that
conversational implicatures arise. So, when do we say that a maxim is flouted? According to
Mey(1993,p.70), flouting, is when “we can make a blatant show of breaking one of the
maxims… in order to lead the addressee to look for a covert, implied meaning”. Also, according
to Grice,“flouting of conversational maxims does not necessarily mean a breach in conversation,
but rather generates what he called “conversational implicature”.

Basically, Grice introduced the notion of implicature to explain how speakers sometimes
mean more than what they actually say in conversations. In his study, Grice considered
utterances from two perspectives: ‘what is said’ and ‘what is meant’. However, according to



Grice, Implicature consists of two types: conventional implicature and conversational
implicature(1975,p. 44). Lyons (1995,p.272) succinctly discusses these implicatures thus:

The difference between them is that the former depends on something other than what is
truth-conditional in the conventional use, or meaning, or particular forms and expressions,
whereas the latter derived from a set of more general principles which regulate the proper
conduct of conversation.

According to Thomas, Conventional implicature has the same implication no matter what
the context is (1995,p.57). This particular implicature is conventional in the sense that it is
always associated with literal meaning. The present study focuses on conversational implicatures.
Huang opines that a conversational implicature is “any meaning which is implied or expressed
by, and inferred or understood from the utterance of a sentence which is meant without being
part of what is said” (2011,p.407). In other words, implicature is a covert meaning in an
utterance. To support Huang, Meyer opines that a conversational implicature occurs, when “the
utterance receives an interpretation that goes beyond the words that are spoken (2009,p.56).
Conversational implicature is built on an addressee’s assumption that the speaker is following
the conversational maxims. According to Kridalaksana (2011,p. 91), “implicature is what
logically is the conclusion of a speech, as well as the shared background of knowing between the
speaker and the hearer in a given context”. Thus, Brown and Yule (1983,p.27), state thus,
“implicature is the element outside of the text”.Levinson (1983,p.126-129), notes “that there are
two types of conversational implicatures based on Grice’s theory, they are generalized and
particularized conversational implicature”. The present study focused on the particularized
conversational implicature.

Methodology

This study adopted qualitative research method. A total number of five advertisement taglines of
different brands of toothpaste in Nigerian malls were purposively sampled. The data were
collected from advert fliers available in the internet. The study adopted secondary data collection.
The data were analyzed using Grice’s Conversational Principle to search for cases of maxim
flout and the possible implicatures generated.

Data Analysis and Discussion

The Five Data sampled in this study are presented for analysis and discussion.

Extract 1:Longrich

Tagline: Pretty Health



Here, the advertiser flouted two conversational maxims, the first is the maxim of quantity. The
maxim expects a speaker to make his contributions as informative as is required for the current
purpose of the subject but, the advertiser flouted this. Thus, the advertiser could not provide
sufficient information on how to achieve pretty health by using the product. Also, the maxim of
quality expects a speaker to make his contributions one that is true but, the tagline does not seem
to be plausible and realistic. Can health be pretty? That is an overstatement. Therefore, the
advertiser flouted the maxim of quality. The advertiser implicitly suggests that the product has
the quality that could give the potential customers complete protection from all manner of
sickness therefore, guaranteeing them absolute wellness.

Extract 2: Colgate

Tagline: Feel Fresh with Cooling Crystal

Colgate is another product sampled in this study; the tagline reads “Feel Fresh with cooling
crystal”. The advertiser flouted the maxims of quantity and relation here. The maxim of quantity
commands the speaker to make his contribution as informative as is required for the current
purpose of the exchange. But the advertiser could not provide sufficient information to describe
how the product could make one feel fresh with cooling crystal. Also, the phrase “cooling
crystal” as contained in the tagline makes it sound like the advertisement for air-conditioner and
bleaching reagent therefore, the advertiser flouted the maxim of relation. The implied meaning
here is that the product could make the potential customers relax and also, their teeth sparkling
and glistening.

Extract 3: Oral B

Tagline: Healthier, Stronger Teeth in 1 Week

In the data above, the advertiser ostentatiously flouted the maxim of quality. The advertiser could
not provide concrete evidence to support his/her claim that the product could produce the desired
result within a short period of time. Is it that the product could handle even serious tooth
problems within just one week? Well, I suppose the advertiser made widely exaggerated claims
here therefore, flouted the maxim of quality.

By virtue of the maxim flouted above, the implicature that could be generated here is that the
product could protect and fortify the teeth against all tooth related problems. It could as well
strengthen one's teeth.

Extract 4: Pepsodent



Tagline: Let’s Smile Together

The maxim of relation encourages a speaker to be relevant. That is, an utterance should be
directly connected to the topic. The advertiser, in this advert tagline “Let’s Smile Together”
blatantly flouted the maxim of relation, for there is no clear relatedness between the tagline and
the advertised product. However, the advertiser may imply that the product could give quality
result that can put beautiful smiles on the faces of the potential customers. On the other hand, it
could also imply that the product could boost the customers’ confidence to smile even in the
midst of people.

Extract 5: Sensodyne

Tagline: Beat Teeth Sensitivity Pain Fast

The maxim of quality commands speakers not to say that for which they lack adequate evidence.

For obvious reasons, this maxim is flouted here. The advertiser did not provide adequate logical
proof to support his/her assertion about the product. Meanwhile, the "fast" in the tagline implies
"in a short time or without delay" in other words, if the tagline is paraphrased would read "beat
teeth sensitivity pain without delay "which is not plausible because the product is not that of
stain removal like "Jik or Hypo" that produces result without delay. Therefore, the advertiser
technically employed hyperbole to magnify the expected result and this is against the maxim of
quality.

The implicature here is that the product is recommendable especially, for those who have very
fragile tooth and easily develop tooth problems. Also, the product could be an antidote to tooth
sensitivity.

Conclusion

In the field of advertising, conversational principle remains the most exploited pragmatic theory
and it is considered the most fundamental aspect of the study of pragmatics.
ConversationalPrinciple is an indispensable principle of communication that creates expectations
that guide a hearer towards the speaker’s meaning.Presently, Grice’ conversational principle has
captured the interest of many scholars giving rise to the present study. This study has established
the fact that even in the field of advertising, the advertisers in designing advertisement taglines
oftentimes mean more than they say which gives rise to conversational implicature.
Conversational implicature occurs when the conversational maxims: quantity, quality, relation
and manner are flouted. The study reveals that the advertisers blatantly flouted the cooperative
principles to achieve a particular effect. However, the advertisers flouted these maxims to allow
the potential customers to draw inferences and assumptions should there be any consequences,
they will be held completely responsible. Findings reveal out of the four maxims proposed by



Grice, the maxims of quantity, quality and relation were flouted thus, generating implicatures.
References

Bovee, C. L. and Arens, W. F. (1983). Contemporary advertising. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Brown, G. and George Yule, G. (1983). Discourse analysis. Cambridge: CUP.

Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P.Cole, &J. Morgan (Eds.) Syntax and
semantics, Vol. 3: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press.

Huang, Y. (2011). Types of inference: Entailment, presssuposition and implicature. Foundations
of pragmatics.B. Wolfram and N. R. Norrick, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 2.

Kridalaksana, H. (2011). Kamuslinguistik. Jakarta: Gramedia.

Levinson, S. (1983). Pragmatics. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Lyons, F. (1995). Language and linguistics: An introduction. USA: Cambridge

University Press.

Mey, J. L. (1993). Pragmatics: An introduction.Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Meyer, C.F.(2009). Introducing English linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Peccei, J. S. (1999). Pragmatics. London: Routledge.

Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics. New York:

Longman.

Wright, R. A. (1975). “Meaning non-natural and conversational Implicature”InP. Cole, &J.

Morgan (Eds.) Syntax and semantics, Vol. 3: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press.

Yule,G . (1996). Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Appendices



Extract 1.

Extract 2.



Extract 3.

Extract 4.

Extract 5.


