Top Girls

1. WIN: Now, Louise, hello. I have your details here. You've been very loyal to the one job I see.

After her introductory remarks, in the first two sentences (which indicate that she is referring to some sheets Louise has already filled in with her relevant personal and employment details) Win flouts the maxim of manner in sentence 3 by accentuating the positive ('very loyal') in referring to the fact that Louise has been in the same job for a long time (she could have said more neutrally 'I see you've been in the same job for 20 years', for example, or more negatively 'You've been stuck in the same job for a long time.'). This implicates that she wants Louise to expand on the positive reasons which explain why she has not moved.

2. LOUISE: Yes I have

Louise breaks the maxim of quantity by not giving the information requested by the previous implicature. It is difficult to know whether this is a flout or a violation. She could be implicating to Win (via a flout) that she does not want to expand on the topic or she could just be trying to avoid it (via a violation). The fact that we are at the beginning of the interaction means that it is more difficult (because we have less contextual information than later on in the conversation) to interpret conversational behaviour with precision. Whether Louise's response is a violation or a flout at the character-character level, it is clear that the audience/reader is meant to infer that she is avoiding Win's implicated request.

3. WIN: Twenty years is a long time in one place

Win clearly flouts the maxim of quantity here - 20 years in one place is a long time for anyone, and she possibly flouts relation and manner too. The implicature is a suggested criticism of Louise and again invites Louise to expand on the reasons for her staying so long in the same job.

4. LOUISE: I feel it is. I feel it's time to move on

As with turn 2, although Louise agrees with Win, she breaks the maxim of quantity by not taking up the invitation to expand on why she has stayed in one job for so long and why she now wants to move. It is still difficult to know whether she flouts the quantity maxim or violates it, and this ambiguity appears to be leading to two alternative ways for an actor to play Louise at the beginning of the scene - as someone who is trying to avoid the issues Win is raising (violating the maxims covertly) or as someone who is being deliberately obstructive (flouting the maxims).