If I may say so

This contribution examines those contexts in which a contribution is assigned the status of not such as is required (Grice 1975). The first part analyses the theoretical construct of appropriateness in an integrated framework based on Habermas’s theory of communicative action, Gice’s logic and conversation and Sbisà’s approach to speech act theory. The second part operationalizes the theoretical construct as appropriateness conditions. The third part presents a data analysis in which the form and function of explicit and implicit references to appropriateness are analysed in the genre of a political interview. Particular attention is given to the questions of where the inappropriateness is manifest, what constitutive part of the contribution is assigned the status of being inappropriate, who refers to the inappropriateness and how the inappropriateness is realized linguistically.