Chapter 4
Interaction and discourse
Construct some short conversations in a sign language that you know that violate the maxims of quantity, quality, and relevance. Present these conversations to others, if possible, in your group and have them work out which maxims are violated.
This exercise presumes that the students have enough knowledge of a sign language to be able to do this. Otherwise the instructor should construct examples; for example:
| Signer A: | stamps buy where? |
| Signer B: | walk left, then right (signer B knows that the post office is closed) |
→ Maxim of quantity is violated since the opening time should have been added.
| Signer A: | drink want index2? |
| Signer B: | yesterday index1 trousers buy |
→ Maxim of relevance is violated since Signer B ignores the question.
All maxims are valid for all languages, so that the examples provided in the chapter give a good basis for further examples.