ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook

Unit 26 Study Guide and Exercises

Directions: After you have read Unit 26 you should be able to tackle the following questions to
test your understanding of the main ideas raised in the unit.

1. You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit:

inference
entailment (logical)
implicature (conversational)
cancellation of implicatures
co-operative principle (be as helpful as possible)
maxim of relevance
maxim of informativeness
maxim of clarity (includes brevity, avoidance of ambiguity/obscurity)
2. What do the notions entailment and implicature have in common? How do they differ? What
does it mean to say that implicatures are non-truth-conditional inferences?

Both are types of inference (conclusions) that can be drawn from what is said
in a conversational exchange. They differ in that entailment is a matter of truth-
conditional sentence meaning, whereas implicature is a matter of utterance
meaning. Because implicatures evoke this kind of meaning, they don't make
reference to truth conditions.

3. An implicature can result through the flouting of one of the maxims by the speaker (B), in
which the hearer (A) can infer something not explicitly said if the speaker (B) disregards one of
the maxims (whether intentionally or not), though the hearer (A) assumes that the speaker is not
doing so. Give an implicature of B's utterance in each of the following situations, and then
identify the maxim(s) (i.e. relevance, informativeness, or clarity) that has/have been flouted (and
thus which led the hearer to this implicature). Note that none of the implicatures from B's
utterances are actually entailed by the sentences uttered by B. Answers may vary.

a. A: Professor, will you write a letter of recommendation for me?

B: Certainly. I will say that you were always neatly dressed, punctual, and are
unfailingly polite.

Implicature of B's utterance: A is not a very promising job candidate.

Maxim(s) flouted: relevance

b. A: How are you today?

B: Oh, Lansing is the capital of Michigan.

Implicature of B's utterance: B is having a bad day.

Maxim(s) flouted: relevance

c. A: I'm not feeling very well today.

B: There's a hospital across the street.

Implicature of B's utterance: B can get help across the street.

Maxim(s) flouted: relevance, informativeness

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© James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007
ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook

d. A: What did you think of that new movie?

B: Well, the costumes were authentic.

Implicature of B's utterance: B didn't like the movie.

Maxim(s) flouted: relevance

e. A: How did you get that car into the dining room?
B: It was easy. I made a left turn when I came out of the kitchen.

Implicature of B's utterance: B is making a joke or being sarcastic.

Maxim(s) flouted: relevance

f. A: What color did you paint your living room?

B: I painted the walls off-white to match the black sofa. The trimming will be
gray except by the door, which will be salmon to match the Picasso print I
bought two years ago.

Implicature of B's utterance: B is obsessed with color details.

Maxim(s) flouted: clarity

g. A: How's the weather?

B: It's 86.7 degrees Fahrenheit. The air is humid, muggy, and the pavement is so
hot I can feel it through my shoes.

Implicature of B's utterance: It is extremely hot today.

Maxim(s) flouted: clarity

h. A: What's your recipe for a birthday cake?

B: It should have icing. Use unbleached flour and sugar in the cake and bake it
for an hour. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and beat in three fresh eggs.

Implicature of B's utterance: B is disorganized, or B doesn't want to

share the correct recipe.
Maxim(s) flouted: clarity

i. A: How do you like my new suit?

B: Well, your shoes look nice.

Implicature of B's utterance: B doesn't like A's new suit.

Maxim(s) flouted: relevance

j. A: Have you done you homework and taken out the garbage?
B: I've taken out the garbage.

Implicature of B's utterance: B probably did not do the work.

Maxim(s) flouted: informativeness

k. A: I may win the lottery for $83 million.

B: There may be people on Mars, too.

Implicature of B's utterance: A won't win the lottery.

Maxim(s) flouted: relevance

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© James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007
ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook

4. For each of the following fill in an appropriate utterance for B which implicates (but does not
entail) the indicated implicature. There may be several appropriate possibilities.

Answers will vary considerably.

a. A: Let's see if this store has what we are looking for.

B: I hope you brought a lot of money with you.
Implicature: The store sells expensive merchandise.

b. A: Why don't we have lunch in this restaurant?

B: Well, if we do I'll have to work out afterwards.
Implicature: The food there is too fattening.

c. A: Are the Browns at home?

B: There's a car in the driveway.
Implicature: The Browns are usually home when their car is in the driveway.

d. A: Should we turn right or left?

B: Maybe we should stop and get directions at that service station.
Implicature: B isn't sure which way to turn.

e. A: How is your physics course going?

B: I have to see a tutor nearly every week.
Implicature: B is having trouble in the course.

5. Think about the meaning relationship between the following pair of sentences:

a. Most birds are on the lawn b. Many birds are on the lawn.

Does (a) entail or merely implicate (b)? Remember that entailments cannot be cancelled without
contradiction (because asserting a sentence and denying its entailment results in a contradiction),
as in the following contradiction:

c. Jack managed to open the door, but he didn't open the door.

Sentence (c) is a contradiction because the fact that Jack managed to open the door entails that he
in fact did open the door, but then the second clause denies that this is true. Implicatures, on the
other hand, can be cancelled without contradiction, as in the following sentence, where the
original implicature of the sentence I tried to buy food--i.e. that I couldn't buy food--is cancelled
by my saying that in fact I succeeded in doing so:

d. I tried to buy food, and in fact I succeeded.

Therefore, if sentence (a) above entails sentence (b), then the following sentence (e) should be a
contradiction, while if (a) only implicates (b) then the second part of (e) below (which negates
the proposition in (b)) should merely cancel (b) without a contradiction:

e. Most birds are on the lawn, but in fact there are not many birds on the lawn.

There may be a difference of opinion about these sentences. See if you can figure out what it is
about the meanings of most and many which appears to contribute to your answer.

As indicated, this is an open-ended question that does not necessarily have a

clear-cut answer for most speakers. We feel that sentence (a) merely implicates

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© James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007
ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook

sentence (b), because even though most seems to make reference to a

relatively large number of entities, this is only an implicature and need not be
the case. We feel that in order to have many of something you need to have
more than five or six things. So it is possible that if there are six birds total
around the yard and four are on the lawn, then it is not a contradiction to say
that most of the birds are on the lawn even if there are not that many there.

6. Consider the following exchange:

A: I may win the lottery for $83 million.

B: There may be people on Mars, too,
A: What are you, some kind of astronomer?

B originally triggered an implicature in her response to A's original statement, which you
provided earlier in question (3k) above. What effect does A's retort then have on the
implicature originally triggered by B?

A's retort to B's response has the effect of questioning B's authority about Mars
which led to the earlier implicature that A wouldn't win the lottery. The result is
that A is attempting to cancel that implicature and thus reassert that she thinks
she will win.

www.cambridge.org/hurford
© James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007