WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
MAXIMS IN TEXT MESSAGE CONVERSATIONS

An Undergraduate Thesis Proposal
Presented to the Faculty of
St. Mary’s College of Bansalan, Inc.,
Bansalan, Davao del Sur

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor in Secondary Education
Major in English

Merry Grace O. Bajo
Maristelle R. Agcaoili
Kimberly Villarin
Ernyl Ver Egod

CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
Introduction
Grice's theory of conversational implicatures is considered as one of the basic and most interesting theories in the history of pragmatics (Levinson, 1983). It sets forward the mechanism that language users should follow in order to understand each other in so many instances when meanings and intentions are not explicitly conveyed (Terkourafi, 2007). Grice’s theory of Conversational Implicatures revolves around the maxims of quantity, quality, relation and manner and how they are violated or flouted. Paul Grice came up with these not as a set of prescriptive rules that people should follow in conversation, but as a means of describing and analyzing the way people convey meanings in real life interactions. The maxim of quantity refers to how much information is necessary in a particular conversation. In observance of this maxim according to Grice, “one should make his or her contribution as informative as required” and “one should not make his or her contribution more informative than is required” in a conversation. The maxim of quality on the other hand, pertains to how truthful is the information given by the speaker in a conversation. With regard to this maxim, according to Grice, the speaker must “not say what he or she believes to be false” and “must not say what he or she lacks adequate evidence for.” The maxim of relation pertains to the relevance of the information that the interlocutor give in a conversation. Finally, the maxim of manner deals with avoiding ambiguity or obscurity in speech. Grice said that a speaker should “avoid obscurity of expression, ambiguity, unnecessary prolixity and disorderliness of ideas.” According to Stenstrom (1994) violations of these four maxims are not rare cases and many researches have been conducted on Grice’s conversational implicatures and the four maxims. Nailufar (2001) from State Islamic University of Malang conducted research on drama “The Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller. In her thesis, Yuyun shows how the maxims of quality, quantity, relevance and manner are violated or flouted by characters in the drama, sometimes intentionally and most often unintentionally. Moreover, Khosravizadeh and Sadehvandi (2011) from Sharif University of Technology exercised their effort on the study of Grice’s maxims. Their topic of study was “Some Instances of Violation and Flouting of the Maxim of Quantity by the Main Characters (Barry & Tim) in Dinner for Schmucks.” Their study aimed at analyzing the maxim of quantity. Dinner for schmucks was a comedy movie and the language used by its characters was colloquial, so flouting of maxims was probable. They observed the violation of maxim of quantity through characters of this movie. In the Philippines, Nicanor Guinto from Southern Luzon State University analyzed the language use of Filipino youths as reflected in the collective linguistic features they employ in their columns. They found out that the Gricean Maxim that is flouted by all of the titles is the maxim of quantity. This is reflective of the discourse practice in print media that for titles to become effective. The ambiguity caused by the flouting of the maxim of quantity in the title can be considered as a genius attempt by young column writers to motivate readers to read the articles until the last word. On the other hand, all the titles strictly adhere to the maxim of relevance.

It is on the above context that the researchers are prompted to conduct a qualitative study about the application of conversational maxims in text messaging. As such, concerned beneficiaries may find solutions to related problems particularly on conversational misunderstanding and conflicts.

Research Objectives The main purpose of this study is to investigate the observance and non-observance of maxims among education students in St. Mary’s College of Bansalan, Inc. in their texting conversations. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What maxims do education students observe and violate in their texting conversations? 2. What are the implications of the observance and non-observance of education students in their texting conversations?

Theoretical Lens This study is anchored on the theory of Grice (1975) as cited by Parker and Riley (2010) who states that conversations are governed by Cooperative Principle which assumes that participants in a conversation are cooperating with each other.

Scope and Delimitation

Significance of the Study The findings of the study will benefit the following: Texters. The findings of the study will benefit the texters in a way that they will become aware of the violations they may commit when dealing with their friends in the text message conversations; hence, misunderstanding will be avoided. Students. The result of the study will give awareness and adequate knowledge about possible consequences that may take place in observing or non-observing of maxims in conversation occurs. It will make them conscious about the possibilities of misunderstanding in any conversation they are dealing with. It will also help them understand more their course specifically in the field of pragmatics. Teachers. The findings of the study will make them sentient on the possible effects if students are not rightly participating in the conversation; hence, it will give them insights on how to improve their teaching techniques in improving conversational skills of the students. It will also help them to be more aware about conversational maxims, thereby become more sensitive as they converse with students in a normal classroom setting. The study will be used also as reference for English teachers in the English course of pragmatics. Future Researchers. The findings of this study will be the guide for the future researchers for further studies about conversational maxims and other related studies.
Definition of Terms The following terms in this study are operationally and conceptually defined for clarity purposes: Text Message Conversation. It is the personal messages sent by a cellular phone user. In this study, this will be use in observing the maxims found in the conversations among the participants of the study. Conversational Maxims. These are general principles which can be characterized as guidelines “for efficient and effective use of language in conversation to further co-operative ends” (Levinson 1983, 101), and which jointly constitute the Cooperative Principle. In this study the maxims of Grice which in clued quantity, quality, relation and manner were used as bases in determining the patterns of conversations among the participants. a. Maxims of Quantity. It refers to how much information is necessary in a particular conversation. b. Maxims of Quality. It pertains to how truthful is the information given by the speaker in a conversation. c. Maxims of Relation. It pertains to the relevance of the information that the interlocutor give in a conversation. d. Maxims of Manner. It deals with avoiding ambiguity or obscurity in speech.

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Included in this chapter are the discussions on the research design, the research participants, the research instruments, the data gathering procedure, the data analysis and the trustworthiness and authenticity.
Research Design This study will use the qualitative research design. This is to get thorough information as to the conversational style within a mediated non-face-to-face context. According to Conrad and Serlin (2006) as cited by Balili (2010), qualitative research is holistic in its concern with process and context rather than simply outcomes or focusing on differences and comparisons, as in quantitative and experimental research.
Research Participants The participants of the study will involve 10 Education students of St. Mary’s College of Bansalan Inc. The research participants who are addict in texting will be chosen through the use of a Snowball technique.
Research Locale This study will be conducted at St. Mary ‘s College of Bansalan, Inc. SMCBI is located in Bansalan, Davao del Sur. Specifically it is located in Poblacion Uno, one of the barangays of the said municipality. The school is formerly known as Holy Cross of Bansalan College which was founded in 1959 under the supervision of the RVM sisters. This school offers the tertiary level. Courses offered are Bachelor in Elementary Education (BEED), Bachelor in Secondary Education (BSED) majors in English and Biological Science, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) major in Financial Management, Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management (BSHM) and Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM). SMCBI is composed of a 4-storey building for high school, 2-storey mini hotel for BSHM/HRM students and a 3-edifice for the college department. This school serves the entire town of Bansalan as well as neighboring municipalities a quality education.
Research Instrument The study will use a Snowball technique in choosing the prospective participants. A log sheet during the observation phase, and an interview guide. Discussion of these instruments is provided in the succeeding paragraphs. A log sheet will be constructed by the researchers as a means of gathering participants’ text message conversations. The log sheet will be use by the researchers to record the text message conversations that the interlocutors sent and received during the period of observation. The researchers tend not to change any spelling or punctuation marks entrenched in the messages in order for the data to be more indisputable. Moreover, an interview guide questionnaires will be use by the researchers for gathering data about the consequences of the observance and non-observance of maxims. This study will be enthused by the study of Rojo-Laurilla (2007) entitled “The Realization of Gricean Pragmatics in Filipino Text Messaging Conversations”. The said study explored the notion of Grice’s four conversational maxims as realized in mobile phone discourse, particularly text messaging or short messaging service (SMS). To sum it up, the researchers will use two instruments for gathering the data of the study. These are log sheet for the observation and the interview guide questions which were all validated by experts to ensure their validity and reliability. Furthermore, the study is inspired by the study of Rojo- Laurilla (2007) about conversational maxims in text messaging conversations.
Data Gathering Procedure The data of the study will be gather using three types: Snowball technique, log sheet for the observation and in-depth interview. The first type will be use in determining the participants appropriate for the study. The appropriateness is base on the following criteria: participants were education students, who were addict in texting. These participants converse with friends and talk about their experiences and feelings. They constantly receive nonsense and unclear messages from their friends. They also receive insufficient and unreliable messages. They frequently experienced misunderstanding because of the messages of some of their friends. The second type of data collection technique is the observation. The researcher will be observing the text messages of the interlocutors in their cellular phone to identify observance and non-observance of the maxims. The observation will take place for three (3) consecutive days. The text messages will be recorded in the log sheets wherein the researchers ensure that the messages will be recorded in its original form. Then the researchers will read and examine the recorded sheets of conversation and meticulously classify the conversation seta according to the four maxims.