implicature
Sign in to saveIn pragmatics, a subdiscipline of linguistics, an implicature is something the speaker suggests or implies with an utterance, even though it is not literally expressed. Implicatures can aid in communicating more efficiently than by explicitly saying everything we want to communicate. The philosopher H. P. Grice coined the term in 1975. Grice distinguished conversational implicatures, which arise because speakers are expected to respect general rules of conversation, and conventional ones, which are tied to certain words such as but or therefore. Take for example the following exchange:
Article
21 sectionsContents
- Conversational implicature
- Standard implicatures
- Clashes of maxims
- Floutings
- Particularized versus generalized implicatures
- Properties
- Opting out of the cooperative principle
- {{anchor|Neo-Griceans}}Modifications to Grice's maxims
- Criticism
- Implicature in relevance theory
- The principle of relevance
- Distinction from explicatures
- Poetic effects
- Criticism
- Conventional implicature
- Criticism
- See also
- Citations
- General and cited references
- Further reading
- External links
In pragmatics, a subdiscipline of linguistics, an implicature is something the speaker suggests or implies with an utterance, even though it is not literally expressed. Implicatures can aid in communicating more efficiently than by explicitly saying everything we want to communicate. The philosopher H. P. Grice coined the term in 1975. Grice distinguished conversational implicatures, which arise because speakers are expected to respect general rules of conversation, and conventional ones, which are tied to certain words such as but or therefore. Take for example the following exchange: A (to passerby): I am out of gas. B: There is a gas station 'round the corner.
Here, B does not say, but conversationally implicates, that the gas station is open, because otherwise his utterance would not be relevant in the context. Conversational implicatures are classically seen as contrasting with entailments: they are not necessary or logical consequences of what is said, but are defeasible (cancellable). So, B could continue without contradiction: B: But unfortunately it's closed today.