In
social science generally and
linguistics specifically, the
cooperative principle describes how people interact with one another. As phrased by
Paul Grice, who introduced it, it states, "Make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged." Though phrased as a
prescriptive command, the principle is intended as a
description of how people normally behave in
conversation. Jeffries and McIntyre describe Grice's Maxims as "encapsulating the assumptions that we prototypically hold when we engage in conversation".