ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the Cooperative Principle (CP) and one maxim of the Politeness Principle (PP), viz the Tact Maxim for describing the Interpersonal Rhetoric. It considers Irony Principle (IP) in order to explain the relation between sense and force in human conversation. The discussion of irony has suggested that the IP takes its place alongside the CP and the PP in the Interpersonal Rhetoric. This principle, however, is parasitic on the other two, in the following sense. The CP and the PP can be seen to be functional by direct reference to their role in promoting effective interpersonal communication; but the IP's function can only be explained in terms of other principles. The IP is a 'second-order principle' which enables a speaker to be impolite while seeming to be polite; it does so by superficially breaking the CP, but ultimately upholding it.
