GRICEAN COOPERATIVE MAXIMS FROM PRAGMATICS AND SEVEN CS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Business communication is an essential phenomenon for smoothly conducting operations in business and other professional organizations. For this reason, business communication courses are made a part of business and other professional studies. As an academic discipline, business communication
comprises various theoretical contents, among which Seven Cs are vital in addressing the multiple facets of composing a business message. This study examines the harmony and compatibility between the Seven Cs of business communication and Gricean cooperative maxims from pragmatics on qualitative theoretical grounds through a review of the characteristics and traits of both sets of concepts. It is found that there exists harmony between the Seven Cs and Gricean cooperative maxims, whereby the latter can make value addition to the former in both theory and practice. The cooperative maxims seem
facilitative in producing better business communication discourse due to their compatibility with Seven Cs. Future studies can explore theoretical compatibility among more concepts from business communication and pragmatics. Moreover, empirical investigations can also be conducted on the interface of business communication and pragmatics.