The Third Space: Vodafone’s Code of Ethics

The Third Space: Vodafone’s Code of Ethics

The Third Space: Vodafone’s Code of Ethics

The Third Space: Vodafone’s Code of Ethics

Vodafone’s Code of Ethics

Abdeslam Badre

Introduction

Vodafone Group Plc is the world's leading mobile telecommunications company, with a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States through the Company's subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures, associated undertakings and investments.

The Group's mobile subsidiaries operate under the brand name 'Vodafone'. In the United States the Group's associated undertaking operates as Verizon Wireless. During the last two financial years, the Group has also entered into arrangements with network operators in countries where the Group does not hold an equity stake. Under the terms of these Partner Network Agreements, the Group and its partner networks co-operate in the development and marketing of global services.

The Company had a total market capitalisation of approximately £80 billion at 15 November 2005.

Global Footprint

The Group has ownership interests in 27 countries across 5 continents. In addition, the Group has Partner Networks in a further 33 countries.

31 December 2006, the Group had 198.6 million proportionate customers in its subsidiaries, joint ventures, affiliates and investments, 600 million venture customers.

Code of Ethics

4. Disclosure
The Company strives to ensure that the contents of and the disclosures in the reports and documents that the Company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and other public communications shall be full, fair, accurate, timely and understandable in accordance with applicable disclosure standards, including standards of materiality, where appropriate.

5. Compliance
It is the Company's policy to comply with all applicable governmental laws, rules and regulations. It is the personal responsibility of each Relevant Officer to, and each Relevant Officer must, adhere to the standards and restrictions imposed by those laws, rules and regulations, including those relating to accounting and auditing matters.

6. Reporting and Accountability
The Audit Committee of the Board of Vodafone Group Plc is responsible for applying this Code to specific situations in which questions are presented to it and has the authority to interpret this Code in any particular situation. Any Relevant Officer who becomes aware of any existing or potential breach of this Code is required to notify the Group General Counsel and Company Secretary promptly. Failure to do so is itself a breach of this Code. 

Social responsibilities

v    Socio-economic Impact

£11.7 billion cash value added in 2005/06

The rapid spread of mobile technology has brought significant social and economic benefits. The challenge is to ensure that the benefits are spread as widely as possible while minimising negative impacts.

Vodafone’s social impacts

Published study on potential of mobile to improve healthcare

We published a study in 2006 that shows how mobiles can help patients to keep appointments, monitor their chronic conditions and seek advice confidentially, as well as increasing adherence to treatment programmes. These benefits are available to big and small businesses alike, including those in the developing world.

Conducted research in developed countries

We commissioned a programme of research, initially focusing on the impact of mobile phones in Africa. The findings from this research help to inform policies on mobile telecommunications and international programmes aimed at increasing access to information and communications technology (ICT) and bridging the digital divide.

In addition to the indirect economic value of our mobile services, our business makes a direct contribution to the global economy through the wealth we generate and the jobs we sustain directly and among our suppliers.

Vodafone’s direct economic impacts

 Accessibility

·                9% of the EU adult population (about 40 million people) is excluded from using mobile phones. This increases significantly with age, with conservative estimates suggesting that 20% of over 50s are excluded. We regard addressing this as both a social and commercial challenge.

Mobile phones have already had a positive impact on millions of people and have the potential to benefit many more.

Social Products and Enterprise Team in 2004 to focus on products with high positive social impact, including those that reduce exclusion from mobile usage. Vodafone is looking for ways to make phones more accessible for People who are elderly, blind, deaf or disabled.

Vodafone is working with UK company, Scientific Generics, to identify key features that will significantly reduce the level of exclusion from mobile communications.

Environment

·                Decreased carbon dioxide emissions per unit of data transmitted by 10% in 2005/06

·                New Group target set to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per unit of data transmitted by 40% by 2011

·                Total energy use increased by 23% this year

·                Energy sourced from renewables increased by 22% in 2005/06

·                Working with suppliers to make network equipment more energy efficient

·                Onsite renewable energy technologies trialled

·                97% of network equipment waste reused or recycled in 2005/06

·                Initiatives launched to raise awareness and encourage handset recycling

·                Recycling programmes established at all local operating companies

·                1.37 million mobile phones collected for recycling in 2005/06

We recognise that our global energy use is increasing and predict that it will continue to do so. Trying to implement a strategy to limit its impact on global warming by investigating how to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by increasing energy efficiency, and by using more renewable energy sources. 

Human Rights

Vodafone's commitment to human rights is embodied in its  Business Principles:

• respect and comply with all human rights legislation, regulations and standards in the countries where we operate.
•  welcome the development of the UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Trans-national Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights to help business build its understanding of human rights and explore the ways it can contribute.

Employees

• Vodafone is committed to protecting and enhancing the human rights of its employees.
• Its Group employment policies are consistent with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization's Core Conventions.

It employs approximately 55,000 people worldwide. Its goal is to recruit and retain the most talented, motivated people by providing a good working environment, treating people with respect, and offering attractive incentives and development opportunities.

Health & Safety

The health and safety of our employees is a priority. Our health and safety policy ensures consistently high standards are set throughout the company to make sure our employees can do their work safely. It covers health and safety management, radio frequency fields and health and driving safety.

·                Developed a strategy to focus on employee wellbeing at all local operating companies

·                Introduced a Performance Dialogue for every employee to receive feedback on their performance from their manager

·                Increased percentage of women in senior management (bands A-E) from 10% to 17% in 2005/06

·                Introduced two new global health and safety standards

·                Reduced work-related lost-time accidents by over 20% from 2004/05

·                Vodafone does not tolerate child labor, forced or compulsory labor.

Suppliers
Vodafone's Code of Ethical Purchasing aims to ensure that its suppliers share its values and uphold standards on human rights.

Content
Access to communications technology can support greater freedom of expression. However, new technology brings new challenges and we will balance the right to freedom of expression with the protection of vulnerable groups, such as children.

Driving safety in Spain
Vodafone Spain has dramatically reduced driving accidents among its employees through a sustained driving safety campaign over the last five years. The number of vehicle accidents resulting in lost time has fallen by more than 80% since 2003 (and by 50% since 2004). through running a training course: In 2005/06, 234 employees who work on the network took a refresher course in off-road driving.

Wellbeing programme in Ireland
In March 2006, Vodafone Ireland launched a wellbeing programme designed ‘to make people feel great at work’. The programme provides free online health checks and encourages employees to lead a healthier lifestyle. Health and fitness fairs provide information, products and services to help people understand and take steps to improve their health.

Equal Opportunities & Diversity

We believe that diversity is an asset to our business. With operations worldwide, Vodafone is not only multinational but multicultural. We are building a culture that respects the value of differences among us and encourages individuals to contribute their best within an environment that is inclusive, open, flexible and fair. We will not tolerate discrimination or unfair treatment on any grounds.

Vodafone’s Foundations

·                Begun a major review of the Group Foundation’s donations strategy

·                Donated £38.1 million to charitable causes worldwide in 2005/06

·                New foundations in Albania and the Czech Republic

·                It invests in the communities where it operates through donations of cash, equipment, products and services.

·                Employees also give their time as volunteers to support good causes.

·                It is also looking at ways its technology can assist emergency response to natural and manmade disasters.

it aims to focus our contributions on areas directly related to the impacts of our business on society. Our Social Investment Policy identifies the following priorities:

·                Reaching the excluded with the benefits of mobile technology

·                Promoting sustainable business practice and environmental protection

·                Supporting the personal involvement of our employees in their local communities.

We aim for our grants to have the greatest possible impact. We measure our total social investment by combining the value of cash donations and other contributions.

 

References: www.vodafone.com

A post structuralist Reading of Friendship in one of The Simpson's Episode

By Abdeslam Badre

I – Introduction                                      

‘To have a friend you must be one’

 

This paper attempts to construct a critical reading on the issue of friendship, being the prevalent theme in The Simpsons episode we watched in class. Despite its being one of the prerequisites of the individual’s social life, the meaning of ‘friendship’ and the value of a ‘friend’ may differ from one individual to another, from one life-stage to another, and from one community to another; further, they may even differ between males and females. On the this ground, my reading of friendship, as tackled in the episode, will be built in terms of binary oppositions between sexes and generations. Put simply, being the catalyst of the theme in this episode, Liza’s understanding of friendship will be opposed to both her brother, Bart, as a representative of the opposite sex, and her mother, Mrs. Marge, as being the emblem of the older/adult generation. For so doing, I will approach these elements from post-structuralist perspective to show that the notion of friendship is a constructed concept whose meaning is elusive, always absent/present: something that one can not fix down, since its meaning differs among individuals, sex, groups, and generations.

 

 

II – Description of the scene

 

In this episode, Liza Simpson is seeking friends. Right from the beginning, we see her craving to have some schoolmates signed her yearbook: she joined more than one group to have her desire satisfied, but it seems that no one recognizes her presence, and her effort to have a memorable word from a friend goes in vain. It is at this point that the feeling of loneliness infiltrates her soul and keeps growing to the existent of a feeling of marginalization, then a rejection by her peers. After leaving the Springfield house for the summer vacation, that feeling of loneliness is still dwelling in her heart. Boldly enough, Liza does not seem to give up easily, for she decides to confront that emptiness by a pertinent quest of new friends in the beach-house area where she is to spend her holidays. However, until now, all her attempts give no fruitful results, a fact which induces a number of questions in her mind the main of which is what might be the reason behind her being rejected by her peers. And after seeking her mother’s advice, she is told that she’d better be what she is not in order to have what she seeks. Thus, she decides to go for her brother’s persona, and then we hear her saying “bye, bye Liza Simpson.” Right after changing her personality, she finds a three-peer group (two boys and one girl) which has been indifferent to her presence. So, she decides to take more risk in order to catch their attention: she, for instance, has accepted to go skating with them though she is not good at skating. As a rewarded, they finally grant her a little space within their circle; but Liza decides to gain more space within the group by inviting them to her house, suggesting the idea of a beach party, and showing them all her skills. By so doing, Liza wins her friends’ confidence and more importantly, she gains their sympathy, which is incarnated in the fact that she receives a little gift (bracelet) from one of her new friends. However, things do not always go as we wish them. Driven by jealousy and envy, her brother, Bart, is determined to put an end to her relation with the group of friends; accordingly, he reveals to them that Liza is not actually what she appears to be but simply a ‘teacher-pet,” who is incarnating her brother’s actual personality in order to impress them, a fact which upsets the beach kids. Liza again ends up lonely, with no friends. But this time she is tired of what she is and what she has pretended to be, for, as she said: ‘in me it does not work. In someone else it does not work.” Now, she spends most of her time with her brother with whom she is at the defensive. Noticeably, her antagonistic contact with her brother underlines another dimension of juxtaposition: though she goes to some entertainment parks with him, she does not enjoy her time as she would have done if she had been with friends. By the end, the three friends are going to visit Liza and admit to her that they consider her as a friend, regardless of what or who she is as long as she a Friend. They also signed her yearbook, which was a nice and rewarding surprise for Liza.

 

III - A post-stucturalist analysis

 

The above mentioned scene is loaded with media artifacts, revolving around the theme of friendship. Starting from the school end-year party, the signing of the year-book, beach-kids, the bracelet Liza received from her friends, to the signed book she got by the end of the episode. All these sings, both denotative & connotative- refer to the signified ‘friends’/friendship.’ At first, the reader/viewer perceives the notion of friendship though Liza’s eyes: her spontaneous behaviors with the schoolmates inform us that friendship is a sublime socialization process that requires no specific socio-economic status, social-class belonging, or typical personality traits. All what one needs to do/have so as to have friends or be accepted among them is to be a friend. Strikingly, the fact that she did not have her book signed by her peers besides her being neglected by them reveals that Liza’s perception of the notion is not accurate or not agreed-upon by her community. Again it is through Liza’s reflection that we reach this reality which sets a question mark against the actual meaning of friendship.

 

Upon her attempt to modify her understanding of friendship, Liza learnt from her Mum that one should not always be what one is, if willing to have friends. Hence, Mrs. Marge tells the reader/viewer that Liza’s understanding of friendship is rather instinctive, naïve, and innocent, for it lacks the social dimension – the agreed upon codes. This idea is ascertained by Lisa’s actual decision to change her personality and incorporate her brother’s. Indeed, this decision marked a bold line between Liza’s previous and present understanding of friendship. Further, it marks Lisa’s departure from the stage of innocence to the phase of experience, where every human interaction is – or should be- mingled with social and cultural norms in order to be recognized and approved by the group.

 

After going for her brother’s persona, Liza managed to make friends and apparently appeared to grasp the social meaning of friendship; and so does the viewer/reader. However, Bart unveiling of the real Liza to the beach-kids, and the disapproved reaction of the latter towards her have again destabilized both Liza and the viewer’s understanding of the exact meaning of friendship. This is so because Bart added another dimension to the concept. When he said, for instance, that the beach-kids were supposed to be his friends, simply because they appreciated his personality, acted out through Lisa, he was lucidly claiming that friendship is void of any social norms: for him friendship is gained on the basis of the individual’s personal skills and performances within the group. Unlike his mother who defined friendship from a socio-cultural perspective, Bart understood it from an individualistic stand. And in the realm of both extremes, Liza, the meaning of friendship along with the reader/viewer are lost. We understand this from her saying: ‘In me it does not work. In someone else it does not work,”

 

The final decision of the beach-kids to visit Liza and admit that they accepted her no matter who she was as long as she was a FRIEND has an outstanding significance. The importance of the act lies not only on its positive effect on Liza, but it also caters for an alternative definition of friendship that the reader/viewer has to adapt, namely, being as it is, friendship should be based on what friends are able to do to save their friendship and not on how they do it.

 

To rap it up, the three or four definitions of friendship that we got from this episode reveal the arbitrariness of the concept. From a post-structuralist point of view, each of the episode’s characters holds a different signified for the same signifier: each of them defines friendship differently. Liza’s quest of friends, in this respect, represents an attempt to pin down a fixed meaning of the concept; but at each time she believed to have it fixed, ‘meaning’ keeps escaping grasp. Even after she gained her friends’ approval, by the end of the film, she had to leave them and go back home; and thus, meaning again proved to be slippery. This image epitomizes the post-structural idea of the absent/present meaning where the signifier is void of a particular signified.

 

IV – conclusion

 

True enough, Liza has learnt new tricks on how to make new friends. Yet, it is not sure whether what she learnt will help her gain new friends because it all depends again on how friendship will be defined by the people she might meet, on the special/time settings, and on the purpose of having friends. With these elements in mind, friendship – the signified- will keep incarnating different meaning which may not correspond to the signifier.

 

New Criticism and "Meaning"

By Abdeslam Badre

 

"What is new criticism and the various assumptions formulated by the new critics, and the limitations together with the drawbacks as well as the strengths of this  mode of criticism?"

 

 

New criticism is a literary approach or a mode of reflection in literary works which has emanated from and chiefly dominated the American literary criticism, with the publication of New Criticism by John Crowe Ransom. Before its emergence, critics were concerned in their analysis of texts with the historical context and the author’s biographies in an attempt to uncover the meaning of the text. Accordingly, they depended on an extrinsic analysis, focussing mainly on the elements outside the text for interpretation.

 

However, this common mode of analysis was rejected by the new critics. For the latter , the poem, which is synonymous to any literary work be it writing or painting, is a self-enclosed and a concrete entity. It has an objective existence, and can therefore only be objectively evaluated: with no feeling as was the case with the romantics, or moral values as believed the new humanists, or impression in the work’s beauty as did the impressionists. Thus the new critics apply an intrinsic analysis of the text, focussing on the “words on the page”, not on any thing outside it. Thy overlooked the author’s historical background along with influence of his life on his work of art.

 

American new criticism has derived some of its principles from some British critics and writers  who helped lay the foundation of this form of criticism. The idea that criticism should be directed to the poem and not the poet was borrowed from T. S. Eliot. In many of his critical essays, he insisted that a poet does infuse the poem with his or her personality &emotions, but uses language to incorporate within the text his/her experiences that are similar to human beings’. That is, the poet does not reflect his/her personal feelings & experiences, but simply mirrors experiences which are basically shared by everybody. I. A. Richard has also contributed to this movement through his books, such as Literary Criticism & Science and Poetry.

 

Clean Brooks, Robert Warren , and W. K. Wimsatt are among the prominent  figures who adopted new criticism as a mode of textual analysis. Despite some individual differences concerning the various elements that constitute a poem, they shared a number of similarities. First, they asserted that a poem has ontological status: possessing its own being. For them a poem should be regarded as independent and self-sufficient body. Second, they considered the poem as an artifact and autonomous unit, with its own structure. Third, they believed that the meaning of a given text must not be equated with the authors intentions. Indeed, they warn against critical modes which localize the text meaning in the private experience  or intention of its author. The new critic referred to this tendency as the “intentional fallacy”, pointing out that  if reliance on the author’s intentions misleads the critic towards this fallacy. Likewise,  they warned against the “affective fallacy” which stations the reader or the author’s emotional response to the center for the  interpretation of the text. The new critics held that the poem is neither the author’s nor the reader’s own: once it is published, it becomes public and cut off the emotions of its creator. Forth, they adopted the strategy of closure, that is a text is a self-enclosed entity, sealed of the outside world; accordingly, a critic should interact  with it through a close reading: stick to the text and outlook what is outside it to produce meaning. Fifth, one important point for the N. Critics is that literature is verbal: form/structure and content/meaning go together and constitute a verbal organization of devices. They believed that a poem cannot be understood through paraphrasing. This error, they called, “ heresy of paraphrase” . that is no simple paraphrasing of the poem can lead to its actual meaning, though they did not deny that the paraphrasing of a poem may help for only an initial understanding. Finally, the new critics disregard the distinction between literary genres, for what is essential for them in the text is not characters or plot, but the paradoxes, ironies, and images.

 

Cleanth Brooks and Robert Warren re-commanded a method of analysis to approach a text from new criticism perspective. A critic should begin with a full and innocent immersion in the poem then raise inductive questions that would lead the critic to examine the materials within the text. Brooks focussed on the point of innocence  approach of the text, meaning to disregard any outside element that may affect the reader’s judgement.

 

            However, new criticism, like any critical mode of reflection, has its areas of strengths as well as drawbacks. The fact that new criticism made a science of literary criticism by following  objective analysis and evaluation is one of the advantages of this mode, adding to that the professional discipline it provided. Also, it developed  closes reading which is an important principle for analyzing poetry. This strategy leads to a complete criticism of the text without leaving any unasked question or gaps within it. However, the rejection of the historical context together with notion of intertextuality, reception, and gender are the inefficiencies of the new critics. They also give importance to the text and literature, but relegate the role of the author and literary criticism, which creates a sort of passive reader.

 

            To put it in nutshell, new criticism is a theory broke with the previous theories that followed traditional ways of interpretation, depending mainly on an extrinsic strategy. It has also rejected the idea that great literature is the product of the great man, since ,for them , the author has no authority over the text. The attempt to find the author within the text or the work of art through the author can simply mislead toward either the intentional or the affective fallacies. Left to be said, that new criticism, unlike many of the critical approaches, did not set up any kind of theory under which their study might be carried out.

D. Danial's "Realism" and F.R. Leavis' "the Great Tradition"

By Abdeslam Badre

Realism is associated mainly with the 19c. Having began in the 18c., realism and naturalism came as response to Romanticism. The purpose and main distinctive feature of realism was to represent “life as it is” as opposed to romanticism which was based on feelings. Realism in literature was derived from art , especially painting. In Europe, this mode of thinking is associated with Balzac, who is considered the father of literary realism, Gustave Flaubert, whose novels -following Balzac- were based on observation of real life. Then, came Emile Zola, the father of Naturalism, who build up his novels on scientific discoveries, and focussed on ordinary people who turned to be the product of their environment. In England, the realist movement was associated with writers as Daniel Defoe, the father of the realist novel, Moll Flanders- , Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding.

 

            Realism in art deals with scenes of ordinary people in their humble life: it represents life as it is and not as it should be. John Ruskin in Modern Painters stated that what is important in painting is what is expressed through the act of painting. That is, a painter who simply copies faithfully objects of the reality out-there has just learnt the basic techniques/language of art through which the artist’s ideas are to be expressed. Therefore, for Ruskin, greatness in art is not achieved through the exact imitation of nature, it is more importantly achieved through the many ideas that are expressed though that imitation. Put otherwise, greatness in art is the artist’s capacity to convey reality through great ideas by virtue of the expressive and mimetic skills. This is John Ruskin’s theory of “expressive realism”.

 

            Realism in literature is mode of writing which bases itself on rationalism and represents the subject as an illusion that looks like reality. The heroes of the realist fiction are the figures that have been neglected by the romantic writer. They are common people, uprooted from lower and working classes, living under ordinary or humble circumstances. By way of example, Daniel Defoe’s heroin Moll Flanders under whom the novel is titled, is a female outcast who after many failed experiences  turns to an adulterous, whore, thief, and ends up in the prison. The pioneers of the English realist fiction are Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding. Those three have broken with the old fashion romance, adopting a new method of writing which shapes up its structure on a real human experience with a realistic aspect of life. This realistic aspect of life does not only reside in the kind of life under study or the identity of the character who acts the experience, but also in the way this life-experience in represented. In short, Realism is one feature that differentiates between the new form –namely the novel- and the other forms of writing.

 

            The major novelty brought about with the rise of realism is the novel genre. More than any other literary form, the novel raises the question of the correspondence between the literary work and the imitated reality. The novel came as to assert that the individual experience which is free from any past assumptions or traditional beliefs may lead to the “truth”. Accordingly, the novelist rejects literary traditionalism: he moves away from the traditional plots, adopting the individual experience, which guarantee the novel its originality. The realist writer, unlike all those who have preceded, does not plot their narratives on reliance on mythologies or histories; he uses original plots. He also stresses the fact that this plot should be acted by particular people in particular circumstances. This new tendency has the effect of individualizing the fictitious characters and giving them a detailed presentation of their environment, as it is demonstrated in the novel of Emile Zola. Adding to that, the focus on the character’s real personal identity with contemporary name and surnames and not with traditional ones.

 

            Other specificities of the novel form are the correlation of space as well as  time dimension and the referential language. On the one hand, the realist writer defines their characters by referring to space and time, for those element have a great impact on shaping up the personality of the character. On the other hand, the type of language that realism uses is prose style, which gives a sense of authenticity. Hardly composed of the rhetorical and figurative images, the language becomes more corresponding to the things it describes . By so doing, the realist writer wants to convey the concrete reality of words. And by this exhaustive presentation rather than elegant concentration, the writer is enabled to get closer to what he describes.

 

 

F.R. Leavis :         The Great Tradition

 

F.R. Leavis attempts to fix a definition of greatness in literary fields. For so doing, he traces a traditional going to Fielding and Richardson, the ones who led to Jane Austan, George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, and D.H. Laurence. Those novelists are , in Leavis’s view, great because they through their literary productions promote human ‘awareness of the possibility of life’. For leavis, Jane Austan is great not because she has individual talent, but because she successfully carried out the tradition, in the sense that she led to appearance of other great literary figures who learnt from her. Also, because she, together with George Eliot, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad, have a conveyed ideology that teach the reader. Their work is great because it is involved with the tradition of Morality. Another element that helped those figure to attain greatness, in Leavis’s stand, is their concern with “form”. All the above-mentioned novelists were chiefly concerned with “form” as well as the question of how morality is revealed through “form”. Charles Dickens was also a great writer, however his writings  tend more to entertain than to teach morality.

 

Indeed, leavis’s judgements have paved the way for a whole critical discourse along with the notion of the ‘canon’. He permeated a whole literary culture, a whole educational system, which produced a high degree of consensus concerning the criteria if greatness in literature. He is the one who defined the great tradition which, in return, produced the notion of the ‘canon’, for people wanted to be taught something worthwhile at universities. Hence, the old religious ideology, which had lost force, has been replaced by the entity of literature which now  provide the reader with a morally correct ideology, aiming at guiding people toward universal human values, and thus to the truth.  Leavis’s ‘tradition’ has challenged the moral set up of aristocracy, and questioned the assumptions of the upper classes.

The Impacts of Romanticism on Literature

By Abdeslam Badre

Romanticism is a revolutionary movement associated with the French working-class revolution against the monarch and the aristocracy : they called for liberty, equality, and fraternity. The movement is also associated with the industrial revolution in England where the industrial town grew dramatically and a large working class, which was living very bad conditions, emerged.

 

            As mode of thinking, romanticism revolutionized literature, religion and philosophy. It questioned the settled way of thinking which had widely spread with the age of Enlightenment : the age that gave priority to reason, and preference to ideas. The romantic ideological novelty can be seen, for example, in the French philosopher, Jean Jack Rousseau, who says : ‘ I felt before I thought’. In this statement, he opposes Descartes who rather supports reason : ‘ I think therefore I am ‘. Rousseau also stated that Man should liberate his spirit. This must bring a new idea, which is feelings may lead to ‘truth’. Hence, the romantic philosophy rejected the 18C. concept of the mind as a mirror  or as a simple recipient of the reality out-there ; it rather considers the mind as itself the creator of the universe it perceives.

 

            Romanticism had a great impact on literature. Literary Romanticism has changed the notion of literature. The latter,  prior to the 18C., simply consisted of essays, history, and the study of ancient Greek & Roman languages. It was restricted to the study of Classics, and it was not something imaginative/inventive ; rather, it was very much limited and dominated by rationality. Poetry was regarded primarily as an imitation of nature. Then,  Romanticism came as new beginning with new conception for literature, by introducing new ideas and ways of perceiving things. By this time, literature was becoming virtually synonymous with the ‘imaginative’ & ‘inventive’ & ‘creative’. The literary work itself came to be seen as an organic unity : it became, as William Wordsworth defined it : ‘ the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling’. Poetry acquired then deep social, political and philosophical implications. Literature has become a whole alternative ideology governed by ‘imagination’. 

A Reading of Paul Grice’s Presupposition & Conversational Implicature

By Abdeslam Badre

Introduction :

       Two principal reasons are enough to account for both the importance as well as the reason behind designing social rules of natural language use. On the one hand, they – or some of them- are used to protect one’s feelings by showing respect. On the other hand, more importantly, rules of language use are designed to protect the integrity of language; otherwise, the latter would cease to be of any importance to us if people went on telling lies in such a random manner. For this reason, a set of conventions (governing language-use that preserves its integrity) is settled, requiring us: (1) to be honest –among other things- (2) to have evidence for what we say, and (3) to make what we say relevant to the speech context. For further explanation of the rules of language use as introduced by P.Grice, and the way they operate in a conversation, a thorough reading of Grice’s above mentioned article is highly recommended, which is the attempting aim of this paper.

 

1 - The basis of P. Grice theory:

      The overriding aim of the Griciane theory is to show the meaning of both some logical devices and the meaning of their counterparts in natural language- such as: ( “and” →  “&”), ( “not” → “┐”), (“the” → “Ś”)... Simultaneously, Grice endeavours to show whether there is a divergence between the meaning of the formal logical devices and their natural language counterparts. That is to say, divergence may appear to exist as follows:

 

• First, “The” → “Ś”= many logicians hold that if “the” appears in a definite description, then the phenomenon being referred to by whatever “the” modifies must exist and be unique. So, in logic, if you say: “ the restaurant in the Bristole road is excellent,” you would be taken to mean that there is one and only one restaurant in the Bristole road, and that is excellent. However, this is not the case in

 

 

natural language, for anyone to whom you may make the statement would ask: “ which restaurant do you mean?”

 

• Second, “not” → “┐” = in logic the negator  works in such a way that :  if  “┐P” is true, then “P” is false, and vice versa. But in natural language, there seem to be many cases in which this is not the case. For example, it may not be true that Salim is happy, but this does not guarantee the truth of the statement “Salim is happy”: He could simply be in a mental state in between happy and not happy.

 

• Third, “and” →  “&” =  in logic P & Q is true in exactly the same circumstances as Q& P. But in natural language, “I fell down and got up” is not necessarily true in the same circumstances as “I got up and fell down”. Grice suggests two sorts of tests by which one might hope to identify a conversational implicature, namely: 1) concellation, 2) non-detachability. A further explanation of these two notions is to be provided in coming part.

 

2 - Introduction To Conversational Implicature:

 

In all these three cases, it is tempting to suggest that the formal logical devices do not, in fact, have natural-language counterparts at all: that is, their meaning is radically different from the meaning of those natural-language items which just happen to look like translations of the formal logical items. To warrant this claim, Grice draws a distinction between what is said and what is conversationally implicated. A logician and a natural-language user say exactly the same, but it is a convention of natural language not shared by logic that the use of words we are concerned with  has certain implications in addition to what they say. This use normally implicates one particular order of succession or exclusion of one of the disjuncts (if/then, either/or...). As we are going to see, implicature cannot be part of what is being said, by considering the fact that it can be cancelled out: I can say : “A happened and B happened, but not in this order,” where “but not in that order” obviously cancels out the implication of succession of “and”.

 

To illustrate what is meant by implicature, and to show that it is quite distinct from what is said, Grice introduces a third notion, namely non-conversational implicature. This differs from conversational implicature in that it is very obviously distinct from what is being said. To illustrate on this, let us consider the following example:

“A “and “B” are talking about a mutual friend, “C”, who is now working in a bank. “A” asks “B” how “C” is getting in his job, and “B” replies :” oh quite well I think; he likes his colleagues, and he hasn’t been to prison yet.”

 

Whatever is implied here obviously depends on many facts about “A”,”B”, and ”C” and their life history, which is thus in no sense conversationally implicated.

 

       There is, however, a subclass of non-conversational implicature which has aspects of conventionality in it, and it is this class which has been so influential in pragmatic theory: it is what Grice calls conversational implicature. The latter is essentially connected with general features of discourse; and these general features of discourse arise from the fact that if our talk exchanges are to be rational, they must consist of utterances which are in someway connected with each other. What guarantees this connection, according to Grice, is the co-operative principle

 

3 - The Co-Operative Principle:

Central to Paul Grice’s theory of conversational implicature is the notion of Co-operative Principle. It is believed that co-operative principle underlies language use, according to which we are enjoined to make sure that what we say in a conversation furthers the purpose of a given talk exchange. In this sense, the “principle” entails that : once in a conversation, a speaker should make his/her contribution such as required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of talk exchange in which the speaker is engaged.

 

Obviously, the requirements of different types of conversations will be different according to the degree of formality of speech, the context and the addressee. But this does not mean that the least formal sort of conversation is not rule-governed. Put other way, even the most casual talk exchange is unlikely to consist of such random sentences or disconnected discourse as:

 

       Badre:              How are you today?

       Amin:              Ottawa is the capital of Canada.

       Ali:              Really? I thought the weather would be warmer.

       Hanan:       in my opinion, the soup could have used a little salt.

 

In this talk exchange, no sentence seems to establish a link between what is said or yet to be said. The reason behind this disconnectedness can be explained in term of the co-Operative Principle. Grice argues that there are a number of rules, or maxims, that regulate conversation by way of enforcing compliance with the C.P. At  the heart of this system of maxims is the Maxims of Quality.

 

1-    Maxims of Quality:

Supermaxim:             Try to make your contribution one that is true.

More specifically:             a) Do not say what you believe to be false.

                                    b) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

 

2-     Maxims of quantity:  (related to the amount of information to be provided.)

a) Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purposes of the exchange.

b) don’t make your contribution more informative than is required.

 

3-    Maxims of relation: Be relevant.

 

4-    Maxims of manner:  concerned with how it is said rather than what is said.

Supermaxim:             Be perspicuous.

More specifically:            a) avoid obscurity.

                                    b) avoid ambiguity.

                                    c) be brief.

                                    d) be orderly.

 

4 - How a CP can be flouted?

A participant in a talk exchange may fail to fulfil a maxim in a number of ways. Firstly, A speaker may violates the maxim, in which case s/he will be likely to mislead. Secondly, a speaker may opt out of observing the principle by saying things like “I don’t want to talk about it”. Thirdly, there may be a conflict of maxims. That is you cannot be as informative as is required if you do not have adequate evidence. Finally, a speaker may blatantly flout a maxim. When, for instance, a maxim is being flouted while it is clear that the co-operative principle is being observed, the hearer will supply whatever implicature is necessary to reinstate the maxim. When this happens, Grice says that a maxim is being exploited.

 

5 - The five features of the Conversational Implicature.

Conversational implicature, confirms Grice, must possess five features:

1-    It can be cancelled, since it depends on the co-operative principle being observed; and one can opt out of observing it, by simply saying:” I don’t mean...”

2-    It is non-detachable from what is being said. If the same thing is said in different way, then the same implicature will attach to both manners of expression: the same implicature of “having failed to achieve something” which attaches to “I endeavoured to do it”, will also attach to the paraphrases  “I tried to do it,” or “I attempted to do it”.

3-    It is not part of the meaning of the expression, since if it were, it could not be cancelled, but is dependent on the prior knowledge of that meaning.

4-    It is not carried by what is said – the meaning- but by the saying of what is said (by the speech act, but not the propositional content).

5-    It is indeterminate: there are often several implicatures.

 

Although Grice states his maxims as if the purpose of talk exchange is always simply the effective exchange of information, he is aware that there are many other reasons for engaging in a conversation, and that other maxims, principles, and concerns may influence the ways in which people conduct themselves in conversations. We shall see below how later research in pragmatics has added to the basis provided by Grice.

 

6 - Leech’s Politeness Principle:

Leech (1983, p.80) points out that the CP in itself cannot explain why people are often so indirect in conveying what they actually mean; and what is the relation between sense and force when non-declarative types of sentence are being produced. So he suggests that a further, complementary, principle, the politeness principle (pp), is required to complement the CP. The PP has two formulations, one negative: it minimises the expression of impolite belief; the other is positive, and it maximises the expression of polite belief. This principle works as follows:

 

A : we’ll miss Bill & Iman, won’t we?

B : well, we’ll all miss Iman.

 

In this example, B apparently fails to observe the maxim of quantity: when A asks B to confirm A’s opinion, B merely conforms part of it, and ignores the rest. From this we derive the implicature: B implies that we wont miss Bill but Iman. We arrive at this conclusion not only on the ground of CP, because B could have added “... but not BILL,” without being untruthful, irrelevant or unclear. Indeed, our conclusion is that B could have been more informative, but only at the cost of being more impolite to a third part. So, B suppressed the desired information in order to uphold the PP.

 

Conclusion:

In short, politeness is gradable, an utterance tending to be more polite in proportion to the directness of its force. This is because an increase in indirectness seems to allow the hearer more choice in how s/he response. Leech outlines a number of maxims covering politeness, and points out that different societies differ in their weigh they attach to different maxims.

 

Bibliography:

1 - Cole., P. ‘‘Presupposition and Conversational Implicature,’’  in  Radical Pragmatics (Academic Press: 1981 ).

 

2 - Malmkjaer Kirsten, ed., The Linguistics Encyclopedia, ( London : Routledge, 1995).