Вип. 26 (2011)

Pasternak T. A.COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH «JOB INTERVIEW» ...
describes how effective communication in conversation is achieved in common
social situations and is further broken down into the four Maxims of Quality,
Quantity, Relevance and Manner. According to P. Grice, if a speaker observes this
principle and is aware of mentioned maxims, it enables him to conclude about the
strategies and hidden intentions of the interlocutor, generated as implicatures. The
implicatures are understood as communicatively significant deviations of conserving
predictable and generally-accepted conversational maxims. For example, the
phrase following at the end of the job interview “Do you work with an agent?”
is perceived by both interactants as mutually shared sign of successful outcome
of the job interview – the candidate is hired. Flouting the Maxims of Relevance
and Quantity in this case (previous discussion of the candidate’s working experience
„ ... we’ll walk over to Projection and look at your film and videos” is not
connected with the interviewer’s question about the agent „Do you work with an
agent?”) leads to the deduction of the conversational implicature: “If you have
an agent we’d like to negotiate terms of your work contract with him”.
We are going to analyze the conversational maxims and their flouting or
violating by the participants in the communicative strategies of English “job
interview”.
The Maxim of Quantity is connected with the quantity of information, which is
necessary to deliver. It states: “Make your contribution as informative as is required
and do not make your contribution more informative than is required by the local
aim”. There are some doubts concerning the excessive information: whether it’s a
violation of cooperative principle or individual peculiarity of a speaker. Sometimes
excessive information can delude a speaker, causing additional questions and
reasoning. Besides there can appear a side effect when a deluded speaker might
look for hidden aims or significance of delivering such information.
Let’s consider the example:
Michael: Okay. I just saw a little gap here in your resume … eighteen months
… what were you doing?
Alexander: I was finishing my Master’s thesis on Ladislav Klima, the Czech
novelist and philosopher. It was the most important thing in the world for me,
so I had to take some time out.
Michael: That’s interesting.
Alexander: Yes. You know, and Ladislav Klima is my hero. He only ever took
on short-time work, so I wanted to see the world through his eyes.
Michael: Right. Got that. So, what do you consider to be your greatest
accomplishment?
In the job interview for a position of a supervisor in an electronics retail store
the interviewer finds a hidden significance of delivered detailed information about
18-months gap in the candidate’s resume:
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