| Context |
The only explanation that might be offered for his responses, Hawkins suggests, is that he has understood the word "hot" but little else. His reply is of the son "tell him anything you know about hot". While the use of Gricean maxims is of use in explaining the reason for the inappropriateness of EP´s responses it is necessary to ask whether this problem arises from the loss of knowledge of the maxims which guide conversation (i.e., EP no longer appreciates that contributions to conversation should be relevant) or whether the problem of appropriacy is the manifestation of a severe auditory comprehension problem which EP deals with by using a strategy of picking on salient lexical items and taking these as his topic.
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