Manner implicatures and how to spot them

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Rett
Keyword(s):  
Propositional Attitude ◽  
Scalar Implicature ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
General Sense ◽  
General Picture ◽  
Gradable Adjective ◽  
Scalar Quantity ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
Attitude Verbs ◽  
Question Under Discussion

Abstract The goal of this paper is to help develop a general picture of conversational implicature (Grice, 1975) by looking beyond scalar implicature to see how the phenomenon behaves in a general sense. I focus on non-scalar Quantity implicatures and Manner implicatures. I review canonical examples of Manner implicature, as well as a more recent, productive one involving gradable adjective antonym pairs (Rett, 2015). Based on these data, I argue that Manner implicatures—and conversational implicatures generally—are distinguishable primarily by their calculability; their reinforceability; their discourse sensitivity (to the Question Under Discussion; Roberts, 1990; van Kuppevelt, 1995; Simons et al., 2011); and their embeddability (under negation, propositional attitude verbs, quantifiers, etc.). I use these data to draw conclusions about the usefulness of implicature-specific operators and about ways to compositionally represent conversational implicatures.

scholarly journals ANALYZING IMPLICATURES IN TALIWANG DIALECT

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 432
Author(s):  
Ismiati Ismiati
Keyword(s):  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Ambiguous Information ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
Needed Information ◽  
Descriptive Method

This study aims to analyze the types of implicature and flouting maxims and the reasons for doing the flouting in Taliwang Dialect. It applied the descriptive method with a qualitative approach. Data was collected by recording natural conversations among the natives of Taliwang Dialect. It was found two types of implicature, namely, Generalized Conversational Implicature (GCI) and Particularized Conversational Implicatures (PCI). In GCI, the speaker and interlocutor could easily understand the conveyed utterances because they mostly used general statements which are commonly spoken in the Taliwang dialect. In PCI, both speaker and the interlocutor needed a particular knowledge to understand each other because of the flouting maxim. Some speakers or hearers in PCI often break the maxim in a conversation due to some reasons such as accepting untrue or lie information, receiving more information than the needed information, getting irrelevant information and having unclear or ambiguous information.

scholarly journals What is wrong with false-link conditionals?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (s3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Krzyżanowska
Keyword(s):  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Indicative Conditional ◽  
Missing Link ◽  
Conversational Implicatures

AbstractIt is a common intuition that the antecedent of an indicative conditional should have something to do with its consequent, that they should be somehow connected. In fact, many conditionals sound unacceptable precisely because they seem to suggest a connection which is not there. Although the majority of semantic theories of conditionals treat this phenomenon as something pragmatic, for instance, something that is conversationally implicated, no one has offered a full-fledged pragmatic explanation of why missing-link, and, in particular, false-link conditionals strike us as odd. The aim of this paper is to explore the possibility that the link is an example of a conversational implicature. We discuss possible tests one can employ to identify conversational implicatures, and, ultimately, we show that the connection between a conditional’s antecedent and consequent fails them all.

scholarly journals Semantic Information and the Syntax of Propositional Attitude Verbs

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 416-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron S. White ◽  
Valentine Hacquard ◽  
Jeffrey Lidz
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Information ◽  
Propositional Attitude ◽  
Attitude Verbs

scholarly journals The Understandable English Conversational Implicatures by Yemeni EFL University Learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Haifa Nassar ◽  
Abdusalam Al-Ghrafy
Keyword(s):  
Study Data ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Rhetorical Question ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Test Scenarios ◽  
Descriptive Method

English, as a communication tool, is playing an extremely significant role in cross-cultural communication. While it is true that language users can mean exactly what they mean in their utterances, it is also true that they can have their utterances mean much more than what they say.  Speakers of English choose to speak indirectly, and that using conversational implicatures is a way to be indirect. This research paper examined the perception of English conversational implicatures among Yemeni EFL university learners. It followed an empirical analytical-descriptive method consisting of a test and an interview. The study subjects were 62 Yemeni EFL university learners. A multiple-choice discourse completion test and an interview were used for collecting the study data. The test contains six types of conversational implicature: Stating, Tautology, Rhetorical Question, Understatement, Indirect Refusal and Indirect Request. All the implicatures included in the test were adapted from the study related literature, whereas most of the test scenarios containing these implicatures were ready-made ones that the researcher came across throughout her reading. The results revealed that these implicatures were found easy by Yemeni EFL university learners to understand.

scholarly journals A Conversational Implicature Analysis In Oscar Wilde’s Short Story “Happy Prince”

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Faizal Risdianto
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Qualitative Research Method ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
Maxim Of Quality ◽  
Implied Meaning

The title of this paper is a conversational implicature analysis on Oscar Wilde’s “Happy Prince”. In this paper, the writer discusses conversational implicature in one of Oscar Wilde’s short stories entitled “Happy Prince”. The objectives of the study are to identify the implicature utterances conveyed by the characters in Oscar Wilde’s “Happy Prince” and to describe the implied meaning uttered by the characters in Oscar Wilde’s “Happy Prince”. In this study, the writer applies qualitative research method. The objects of this study are ten utterances of conversational implicature in Oscar Wilde’s “Happy Prince”. Those conversational implicature are obtained through frequent reading and analysis. This study employed the researcher as the instrument to find adequate and profound data and analyze them. The procedures and steps that have been used in this research are: (1) the provision of data, (2) data classification, (3) and data analysis. In analyzing the data, the writer uses Gricean theory. It is a theory about conversational implicature generated by four maxims. Those are maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relation and maxim of manner. Then the last step is (4) the presentation of data analysis. After conducting the research, the writer found ten conversational implicatures in Oscar Wilde’s short story “Happy Prince”. In the short story, there are some variation’s meanings of the conversational implicature used in the short story which closely related to the conversational implicature; they are cooperative, politeness and ironical principle. In Oscar Wilde’s short story “Happy Prince”, there are six maxims of politeness principle, two maxims of cooperative principles and two maxims of ironical principles. Besides that, the reasons of the conversational implicature used in Oscar Wilde’s short story “Happy Prince” are to make us easyly understand the dialogue in the short story conversations and it is aimed at minimizing misunderstanding among the readers and literary critics.Keywords: Conversational Implicature; Maxims; Gricean Theory; Short Story

The Difference between Lying and Misleading

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Stokke
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
What Is Said ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
The World ◽  
Question Under Discussion ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Prosodic Focus

The notions of what is said and assertion, as relative to questions under discussion, are used to provide an account of the lying-misleading distinction. The chapter argues that utterances are sometimes interpreted relative to the so-called Big Question, roughly paraphrased by “What is the world like?” This observation is shown to account for the fact that, when conveying standard conversational implicatures, what is asserted is likewise proposed for the common ground. The chapter applies the resulting account of the lying-misleading distinction to ways of lying and misleading with incomplete predicates, possessives, presuppositions, pronouns, and prosodic focus. A formal notion of contextual questionentailment is defined which shows when it is possible to mislead with respect to a question under discussion while avoiding outright lying.

Propositions First: Biting Geach's Bullet

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 87-110
Author(s):  
M. J. Frápolli
Keyword(s):  
Propositional Attitude ◽  
Standard Approach ◽  
Theoretical Principle ◽  
Attitude Verbs

AbstractTo be a proposition is to possess propositional properties and to stand in inferential relations. This is the organic intuition, [OI], concerning propositional recognition. [OI] is not a circular characterization as long as those properties and relations that signal the presence of propositions are independently identified. My take on propositions does not depart from the standard approach widely accepted among philosophers of language. Propositions are truth-bearers, the arguments of truth-functions (‘not’, ‘or’, ‘and’, ‘if’), the arguments of propositional-attitude verbs (‘know’, ‘believe’, ‘doubt’, ‘assume’, ‘reject’) and the kind of entity capable of standing in inferential relations (which are basically implication and incompatibility). The aim of this paper is to argue for [OI]. In doing so, I will show that even what is probably the most repeated argument against non-descriptivism, the so-called Frege-Geach Argument (FGA), presupposes something like [OI], a presupposition that Geach shares with his critics. Despite the huge success of FGA, a thorough analysis of the actual scope of this argument has yet to be given. I will provide such an analysis in section 3 below. In this paper, I argue that [OI] is a meta-theoretical principle which is neutral with respect to specific metaphysical debates about the nature of propositions, as well as specific proposals about the semantics of declarative sentences.

scholarly journals Standard and Non-standard Suppositions and Presuppositions

Axiomathes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Kasjanowicz
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Coherence ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
The Family ◽  
Question Under Discussion

AbstractIn this paper, I argue that the distinction between standard and non-standard pragmatic implications, originally used to differentiate among types of conversational implicatures, applies to the family of contents—traditionally referred to as ‘presuppositions’—that exhibit projective behaviour. Following the scholars working within the Question Under Discussion model of communication, I distinguish between two types of projective implications: suppositions and presuppositions narrowly construed. Next, I identify two rules of appropriateness that govern the use of, respectively, supposition-triggering and presupposition-triggering expressions. Finally, I argue that the ostentatious violation of the rules in question gives rise to non-standard projective implications, whereas their observance results in standard suppositions and presuppositions; I also use the idea of discourse coherence to develop a sketchy account of the mechanisms underlying the functioning of non-standard projective implications.

scholarly journals Realizations of Conversational Implicatures in The Great Gatsby-A Psycholinguistic Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Yufei Ren ◽  
Gang Cui
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Psychological States ◽  
Great Gatsby ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
The Great Gatsby

The studies of conversational implicature mainly focus on discourse analysis, but relatively few studies are from psychological perspective. This paper aims to investigate how specific words and silence of the masterpiece The Great Gatsby manifest conversational implicatures related to psychological states. The paper is based on the corpus of chapter seven from The Great Gatsby, with high frequency words (i.e. ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘well’, ‘heat’) selected quantitatively in statistics using corpus linguistics methods such as segmentation, clustering, and frequency. The analysis of examples extracted from the novel could manifest that specific words as well as silence are psychologically adequate for conversational implicatures. The psychological accounts of conversational implicature are convincing in the novel, not only rendering it a masterpiece but also leading us to the inquiry of psychologically-based implicatures.

scholarly journals Triviality and grammatical cor­rectess: contemporary issues in intensional semantics

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-68
Author(s):  
Ekaterina V. Vostrikova ◽  
◽  
Petr S. Kusliy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Propositional Attitude ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Embedded Questions ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Attitude Verbs ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Interrogative Clauses ◽  
Key Aspects

The article is devoted to the study of the semantics of embedded questions (interrogative subordinate clauses), as well as the nature of restrictions on the licensing of declarative and interrogative clauses as complements of propositional attitude verbs. The authors show that this topic goes back to the key aspects of the semantic and cognitive program of G. Frege and is of key importance for the philosophy of language. Using the analytical apparatus of contemporary semantics, the authors investigate this topic on the material of the most recent theoretical works. They show how the semantics of embedded questions contributes to the development of a new perspective on the structure of meaning and the cognitive potential of natural language users. The authors also identify a number of theoretical shortcomings and empirical limitations of several theories of the semantics of embedded questions and point at some directions for future research.

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