Lecture 4

Implicature

. Implicature
. Cooperative principles
. Types of implicature
 Implicature

The implied meaning generated intentionally

• Grice makes a very general distinction between

what is said by a speaker and what he means or
implicates.
- Some of the students are intelligent.
 Not all the students are intelligent.

A: What would you like for your birthday?

B: Well, my camera is not working.
 I like a camera.
 Implicatures arise from the interaction of the
following 3 factors:

1. The proposition actually expressed in the

utterance.
2. Possibly certain features of the context.
3. The assumption that the speaker is obeying
the rules of conversation to the best of their
ability.
 Cooperative Principle
• Make your conversational 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. (Yule, 1996, p.37)

• In other words, the listener presumes that the speaker

is being cooperative and is speaking truthfully,
informatively, relevantly, perspicuously, and
appropriately
 Maxim of Quantity

Maxim of Maxim of
Manner Quality

Maxim of Relation
 Conversational Maxims

1. The maxims of Quantity

a. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for

the current purposes of the exchange).

b. Do not make your contribution more informative than is

required.
2. The maxims of Quality
Super-maxim: Try to make your
contribution one that is true

a. Do not say what you believe to be false

b. Do not say that for which you lack
evidence
 Conversational maxims
3. The maxim of Relation: Be relevant

4. The maxims of manner

Super-maxim: Be perspicuous

a. Avoid obscurity of expression

b. Avoid ambiguity
c. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)
d. Be orderly
• Grice did not, however, assume that all
people should constantly follow these
maxims. Instead, he found it interesting
when these were not respected, namely
either
• "flouted" (with the listener being expected
to be able to understand the message)
• or "violated" (with the listener being
expected to not note this).
 Conversational maxims
• We can use the conversational maxims to generate
implicatures by:
a. Adhering to the maxim
- I’ve run out of petrol
- There’s a garage just round the corner
b. Violating a maxim
- Where does John live?
- Somewhere in the South of England.
c. Flouting maxims: Violating a maxim is enforced (usually by
clashing maxims). Flouting is deliberate
- John is John. (flouts Quantity)
- She produced a series of sounds that roughly
corresponded to the score of home Sweet Home. (Manner)
 Types of implicature

Implicature can be either

conversational implicature

or conventional implicature.
 Conventional implicature
• Conventional implicature is an implicature
that is
• part of a lexical item’s or expression’s
agreed meaning, rather than derived from
principles of language use.

• not part of the conditions for the truth of

the item or expression.
 Conventional meaning of the words
used will determine what is implicated.
- Even Bill likes Mary.

a. Other people besides Bill like Mary.
b. Of the people under consideration, Bill is
the least likely to like Mary.
 Conversational implicature
• A conversational implicature is not
intrinsically associated with any
expression.
• It is inferred from the use of some
utterance in context.
Alan : Are you going to Paul's party?
Cindy : I don't like parties.( No, I’m not )
 Conversational Implicature

Conversational implicature is a nonconventional

implicature based on an addressee’s assumption
that the speaker is following the conversational
maxims or at least the cooperative principle.
 Mechanics of Implicatures
• 1. The speaker has said that p
• 2. If by saying p, the speaker does not
appear to be observing the maxims,
literally, the addressee nevertheless
assumes the speaker is observing the
maxims
• 3. For S to say that p and be indeed
observing the maxims, S must think q
 Mechanics of Implicatures
• 4. S has done nothing to stop the
addressee from inferring that q
• 5. Therefore S intends the addressee to
infer that q, and so in saying that p has
implicated q.
 A: Let’s get the kids something.
B: Okay, but I veto I-C-E C-R-E-A-M-S.

B flouts the maxim of manner

• One can flout the Maxim of Quality to tell a
clumsy friend who has just taken a bad fall
that her gracefulness is impressive and
obviously intends to mean the complete
opposite.
The Maxims are therefore often
purposefully flouted by comedians and
writers, who may hide the complete truth
and manipulate their words for the effect of
the story and the sake of the reader's
experience.
 Conversational Conventional
implicatures implicatures
- Be in the particular - Depend on social
conversations contexts×
- Depend on special
- Depend on the
contexts
meaning of a words
 Conversational Conventional
implicatures implicatures
Cooperative principle Meaning of words
- Adverbs (already, also,
-Quantity barely, either, only, scarcely, still,
too, yet)
-Quality
-Connectives (but,
-Relation nevertheless, so, therefore, yet)
-Manner -Implicative verbs (bother,
condescend, continue, deign, fail,
manage)
-Subordinating
conjunctions (although, despite
(the fact that), even though)