The strategic principle and the maxim of selectivity – a new insight on Gricean implicatures in the law Cover Image

Zasada strategiczna i maksyma selektywności – nowe spojrzenie na implikatury Grice’owskie w prawie
The strategic principle and the maxim of selectivity – a new insight on Gricean implicatures in the law

Author(s): Izabela Skoczeń
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of Law
Published by: Stowarzyszenie Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej – Sekcja Polska IVR
Keywords: conversational implicature; Paul Grice; pragmatics; interpretation; strategic speech

Summary/Abstract: In the present paper, I attempt to answer three questions. First, whether the classical Gricean version of the implicature theory can be applied to describe legal discourse. Second, I provide an outline of one of the most popular theories of the pragmatics of legal language. Namely, Andrei Marmor’s theory of strategic speech. Strategic speech occurs mostly in indeterminate contexts, which contain elements that license even contradictory pragmatic inferences. Next, I attempt to flesh out the problematic points of this account. Third, I attempt to formulate a descriptive model of the strategic selectivity of pragmatic elements in the law, that could face the objections to Marmor’s ideas.

  • Issue Year: 14/2017
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 115-124
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Polish