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teacher is working with one group of students, how does another student get included in the
group? If the teacher or the other students do not want the communication channel opened for
this individual, how is this managed?
Typical signals of American nonparticipants include averted eye contact. Of course,
averting one's eyes is not a universal signal that one wants to remain a non-participant. Nor is
hand waving a universal signal to gain access to communication in the classroom.
Nonparticipant constraint signals differ across settings and language groups. Still, each
language or culture group has some way of signaling nonparticipant versus participant status in
communication.

7. Preempt signals
In addition to nonparticipant constraints, there also have to be ways for participants to
interrupt an ongoing channel message. Emergencies come up when speakers must interrupt
each other. There need to be ways to do this. Imagine that a friend has called and has been
telling you his or her troubles for an extended period of time while you really have work you
must do. How would you interrupt the ongoing message?
During the process of writing, we may also receive preempt signals, such as ringing
doorbells or school buzzers. In the last few minutes, for example, two messages have flashed
on my computer screen that electronic mail has come in. When this happens, I can stop and
check the "mailbox" for the content of these messages (so the preempt strike worked), or I can
ignore the pre-empt attempts. It would, however, be strange to try to stop an overly long
troubles-sharing conversation by suddenly saying "message waiting"! So instead, we use
nonverbal signals (such as leaning forward, shirting forward in our seats, opening our eyes
wide and raising eyebrows, waving a pencil in the air, and so forth) or verbal signals, such as
"Oh the cookies! The cookies are burning!" (the "oh" is a particle that signals an unexpected
event).
In addition, there are times when we need to preempt the talk in order to request repairs
or message clarification.
While the signals, verbal or nonverbal, may differ across setting or culture groups, there
are always ways that the communication message can be preempted.

8. A Set of Gricean Norms
The cooperative principle
Communication cannot truly work unless speakers and listeners involved in conversation
cooperate with each other. People having a conversation are not normally assumed to be
trying to confuse, trick, or withhold relevant information from each other. In most
circumstances, this kind of cooperation is only the starting point for making sense of what is
said.
In most circumstances, the assumption of cooperation is so pervasive that it can be
stated as a cooperative principle of conversation according to which participants generally
observe four major norms of cooperation: quantity, quality or truthfulness, relevance, and
manner or clarity. These norms, called maxims, were proposed by Grice as criteria for
cooperative communication.
The cooperative principle states: Make your conversational contribution such as is
required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk
exchange in which you are engaged.