Pragmatics: Implicature

What is said and what is meant: These are not always the same thing. The reasons for what
we say and the implications of what we say matter. Also, what we say is often ambiguous,
over-general or uninformative, when considered out of particular contexts. So understanding
utterances involves much more than ‘decoding’ the language used

Cooperative Principle

 Make your contribution such as is required at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted
purpose/ direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.

. Maxim of quality

– 1. not false

– 2. not lacking evidence.

Mita has got a first class (but I don’t believe she is

Maxim of quantity

– . as informative as required for the current purposes of exchange.

– 2 do not make your contribution more informative as is required for the current
purpose of exchange.\

• Bimal has 3 children (and 5 children in total)

• The flag is black (and white)

Maxim of relevance

Make your contribution relevant

– Pass the salt (now)

Maxim of manner

 . avoid obscurity

 2. avoid ambiguity

 3. be brief

 4. be orderly

• open the door

• walk up to the door, turn the door handle clockwise as far as it will go, and
then pull gently towards you

– Conventional implicature is non-truth-conditional meaning associated with a

particular linguistic expression

• John is poor happy.

– : A conversational implicature is not intrinsically associated with any expression.