Grandma's pragmatics

Today's class reminded me of the many seemingly irrelevant locutions my grandma uses in conversation.

So, if she couldn't see the television and would like me to move, she would not use positive politeness, negative politeness, a bald request or a hand gesture. She would give her familiar hint: "You make a better door than a window" which means "move!" or "please move", depending on the tone of her voice.

Her response to the question: "Would you like some tomatoes?" would be "Tomatoes and I have an agreement". This may, at first seem to violate the maxim of relation (how could this be relevant to the question?) and possibly the maxim of quality (how could a sane person reach an accord with either fruit or vegetable?). However, it actually becomes relevant when you know the unstated second part of the statement: "Tomatoes and I have an agreement. I don't eat them and they don't bother me." So this translates to: "No."

An alternative answer to "Would you like some tomatoes" might be "I don't eat tomatoes on sunday*" (*insert here whatever day the question is asked on). This also translates to: "No."

If asked "Did you like the seasoning on the turkey?", she might respond: "I prefer a suggestion, not a shout", which is another way of saying "no".