Grice's Maxims - Teacher and Student Text
Quote from the text:
Teacher: Right. Well the "winter" stands for society that is er priggish and . (looks at Alex, who is toying with his pen) What does "winter" stand for, Alex?
Alex: (smiles) What if I don't answer?
Analysis
Alex deliberately flouts the maxim of relevance in this text, by answering a question from his teacher which he is obliged to answer, with a following question. This interrogates his teacher by challenging her instrumental power and dominance in the classroom, and almost battles for status in order to look more powerful in front of his classmates. This actually results in any influential power that the teacher may or may not have, being taken away from her in a competitive way. From the contextual information we can understand that the teacher is going to have a strong personal (role) power according to Wareing's types of power. However we can tell particularly in this text that that power is questioned when Alex challenges her and tries to gain some influential power by defying the rule of relevance in Grice's Maxims. Although his reply is still weakly linked to the previous conversation, as it is about answering the question, he still does not answer it and shifts the agenda of the conversation, which is usually seen in powerful roles. This gives him more social power, according to Wareing's types of power, due to the affect that flouting the rule had on the dynamics of power roles in the classroom.
Some very good application of theory - don't forget to 'mine the quote' to get terms in too. Check 'social' power again - as I said in class, it isn't social status within a group, it is the power that comes from the social group you are part of (if that group has any influential power in your society e.g. upper class, middle class white males, celebrities). Does Alex temporarily 'opt out' of answering the question rather than overtly flout it? He seems to accept that the teacher might have the instrumental power to make him answer but is asking how it might be applied in a way that attempts to remove the teacher's influential power and raise his own in the eyes of the class. Good development of the point in the light of relevant theory.
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