IMPLICATURE

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IMPLICATURE
Preliminaries
A fundamental fact about linguistic communication
is that it is possible to mean more than you say.
In addition to what is said, something else may
be suggested or implicated.
These additional meanings are known as
implicatures.
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In (1), B does not say that that Kim is in, but
he/she is likely to be understood as suggesting
(2).
1) A Is Kim in? B His light is on.
2) Kim is probably in.
If B knows perfectly well that Kim is not in,
he/she would probably be accused of being
misleading but not of lying.
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Evidence that (2) is an implicature comes from
the fact that it is defeasible, i.e. it can be
cancelled.
In (3) Bs reply does not implicate (2) because
the clause following but cancels it.
3) A Is Kim in? B His light is on, but he
often leaves it on when he goes out.
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(4) implicates (5).
4) It is possible that Lee knows the
answer. 5) It is not certain that Lee knows the
answer.
(6) shows that this is an example of implicature.
6) It is possible that Lee knows the answer. In
fact its certain.
5
Where and is understood as and then, this can
be analyzed as a case of implicature.
7) Sandy got drunk and got into an argument.
The possibility of cancellation supports this
idea.
8) Sandy got drunk and got into an argument, but
not in that order.
If the extra meanings associated with and can be
analyzed as instances of implicature, it may be
possible to assume that and has the same meaning
as its counterpart in logic (?), i.e. that it
just indicates that both of two propositions are
true.
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Grice
Paul Grice (1913-1988), an English philosopher,
sought to explain how implicatures arise.
He argued in Grice (1975) that most implicatures
stem from the fact that communicators normally
try to conform to certain standards. In
particular, they conform to the Co-operative
Principle and certain maxims of conversation.
These implicatures are known as conversational
implicatures.
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The Co-operative Principle
Make your 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.
The Maxim of Quality
Try to make your contribution one that is true,
specifically (i) do not say what you believe to
be false (ii) do not say that for which you lack
adequate evidence
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The Maxim of Quantity
(i) make your contribution as informative as is
required for the current purposes of the
exchange (ii) do not make your contribution more
informative than is required
The Maxim of Relation
Make your contribution relevant
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The Maxim of Manner
Be perspicuous, and specifically (i) avoid
obscurity (ii) avoid ambiguity (iii) be
brief (iv) be orderly
The assumption that the speaker is obeying the
co-operative principle and the maxims allows the
hearer to infer that the speaker intended to
communicate more than he/she said.
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Speakers sometimes observe the maxims in a
straightforward way.
9) Kim is in town.
- implicates that speaker believes Kim is in
town and has evidence for this. (Quality)
10) Lee has three children.
- implicates Lee has only three children and no
more (Quantity)
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11) A Does Lee have a new girlfriend? B All
his shirts have been ironed recently.
- implicates that Lee probably does have a new
girlfriend (Relation)
12) Kim had a drink and went out.
- implicates that Kim first had a drink and then
went out (Manner)
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Grice noted that speakers sometimes flout the
maxims, i.e. appear to violate them. Such
utterances are still seen as co-operative and are
interpreted accordingly.
13) Referring to a person Lee is a dinosaur.
- apparently violates Quality, implicates that
Lee is like in a dinosaur in some ways.
14) speaking after Kim has failed all his
exams Kim is a real genius.
- apparently violates Quality, implicates that
Kim is anything but a genius.
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15) Either Kim is a spy or he isnt.
- apparently violates Quantity, implicates that
there is a real possibility that Kim is a spy.
16) A Mrs X is an old bag. B The weather has
been quite delightful this summer, hasnt it?
- apparently violates Relevance, implicates that
As remark was a social gaffe.
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17) Miss X produced a series of sounds that
corresponded closely with the score of Home
sweet home.
- apparently violates Manner, implicates that
Miss Xs performance was not very good.
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Properties of implicatures

• They are defeasible, i.e. they can be cancelled.

• They are non-detachable, i.e. they depend on the
  explicit content of utterances not on their
  linguistic form. Hence utterances with the same
  explicit content will have the same implicatures.

Manner implicatures seem to be an exception. Here
the linguistic form matters. The following
arguably have the same explicit content but
different implicatures.
18) Nobody talked to Lee and he got drunk.
19) Lee got drunk and nobody talked to him.
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• They are calculable, i.e. the addressee can
  infer the intended implicature on the assumption
  that the speaker is obeying the co-operative
  principle and the maxims.

• They are non-conventional, i.e. they are not
  part of the conventional meaning of linguistic
  expressions.

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Generalized vs particularized conversational
implicatures
Grice argued that there is a distinction between
generalized implicatures, which do not require
any special context but normally arise, and
particularized conversational implicatures, for
which some special context is necessary.
(20) implicates (21) as a reply to (22). It would
not implicate (21) in some other context.
20) Kims light is on. 21) Kim is probably
in. 22) Is Kim in?
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(23) normally implicates (24) and does not
require any special context.
23) Some of the students were drunk. 24) Not all
of the students were drunk.
19
A particularly important type of generalized
implicature is a generalized quantity implicature.
Where a speaker produces an utterance and there
is some obvious stronger utterance which she
might have produced, she normally implicates that
the stronger utterance is not true. See (4),
(10), (23).
4) It is possible that Lee knows the answer.
10) Lee has three children.
23) Some of the students were drunk.
20
Generalized quantity implicatures arise where
there is a linguistic scale a set of linguistic
alternates ... which can be arranged in a linear
order by degree of informativeness or semantic
strength (Levinson 1983 133)
Given a scale lte1, e2, e3, ... engt, if a speaker
asserts ... en ... then she implicates that ...
en-1 ... is not true.
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Some scales
ltcertain that p, probable that p, possible that
pgt ltn, ... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1gt ltall, most, many,
somegt ltalways, often, sometimesgt ltmust, should,
maygt ltknow, believegt
25) Lee often drinks vodka.
normally implicates
26) Lee doesnt always drink vodka.
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27) Sandy may do sociolinguistics.
normally implicates
28) It is not the case that Sandy must do
sociolinguistics.
29) Kim believes that Lee is a spy.
normally implicates
30) Kim doesnt know that Lee is a spy.
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Conventional implicatures
Grice noticed that certain lexical items give
rise to implicatures. He calls these conventional
implicatures.
However implicates that what follows is
unexpected given what has just been said.
31) Kim is a linguist. However, he isnt
interested in languages.
So implicates that what follows is expected given
what has just been said.
32) Kim is linguist. So he understands Chomsky.
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After all implicates that what follows provides
evidence for what has just been said.
33) Kim is linguist. After all he understands
Chomsky.
Consider also moreover, furthermore, also,
besides.
REFERENCE
Grice, P. (1975), Logic and conversation, in P.
Cole and J.L. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and Semantics
3 Speech Acts, New York Academic Press, 41-58.