"An implicature is something the speaker suggests or implies with an utterance, even though it is not literally expressed."
The implied meanings of utterances that arise through context and cooperation, rather than being explicitly stated.
Grice's Maxims: These are a set of guidelines developed by philosopher H. P. Grice that suggest how people should communicate with each other. They include the maxim of quality, quantity, relevance, and manner, which help speakers understand how to optimize conversations by being clear, informative, and cooperative.
Cooperative Principle: This principle suggests that people engage in conversation in a cooperative way, seeking to be informative, truthful, relevant, and clear. Conversational implicature occurs when people violate this principle in some way.
Presupposition: This is an assumption that people make about the world, which can become part of the shared knowledge between speakers. Sometimes, speakers can imply something by presupposing a certain piece of knowledge, even if they don't explicitly state it.
Implicature vs. Implication: Implicature refers to the inferences that people make based on what isn't explicitly stated in a sentence. Implication refers to what is explicitly stated in a sentence.
Context: The context of a conversation can be just as important as the words used to convey information. People use context to understand the meaning behind what's being said, and this can lead to implicatures.
Scalar Implicatures: This refers to situations where speakers choose to use a certain word or phrase to imply something, rather than stating it outright. For example, saying "some" when you really mean "all.".
Conversational Maxims: These are specific principles of Grice's Maxims that people use to optimize conversations. For example, the maxim of politeness encourages speakers to be respectful and considerate of others.
Irony: Irony occurs when there is a difference between what is said and what is meant. People can use irony to imply something without explicitly stating it.
Metaphor: Metaphors are figures of speech that compare two things that are not actually alike. People can use metaphors to provide additional meaning beyond what is explicitly stated.
Presupposition Triggers: Certain words, phrases or constructions can trigger presuppositions that lead to implicatures. For example, using a negative statement like "I don't dislike pizza" presupposes that there is a possibility the speaker once disliked pizza.
Relevance Theory: This theory suggests that people seek to maximize their relevance to their conversation partner, and that our understanding of implicatures is based on this principle.
Speech Acts: These refer to the different types of communicative acts that people engage in during a conversation, such as making a statement, asking a question or making a request. Different types of speech acts can be used to imply different things.
Indirect Speech Acts: These refer to situations where people use speech acts to imply something other than their literal meaning. For example, using a question to make a request or giving advice indirectly.
Deixis: This is a way of pointing to something or someone in a conversation, usually using words like "this," "that," "here," or "there." Deixis can be used to imply additional meaning beyond what is explicitly stated.
Politeness Theory: This theory suggests that people use language to save face and maintain social harmony. People can use politeness strategies to imply meaning, such as using indirect language to make a request.
Scalar implicature: This type of implicature arises when a speaker uses a weaker term to imply a stronger one, such as "some" implying "not all" or "a few" implying "not many.".
Quantity implicature: This type of implicature arises when a speaker provides more or less information than is necessary to convey their intended message. For example, if someone asks for directions to a store, and the other person responds with a detailed history of the city, it creates the quantity implicature that the speaker is not willing to provide the necessary information.
Quality implicature: This type of implicature arises when a speaker implies that their statement is true, when it is not. For example, if someone says "I always tell the truth," it creates a quality implicature that the speaker is not lying.
Relevance implicature: This type of implicature arises when a speaker implies that their statement is relevant to the conversation at hand, even if it does not seem immediately relevant. For example, if someone is discussing a particular book, and someone else mentions that they read a lot, it creates a relevance implicature that the speaker believes their book knowledge may be valuable.
Manner implicature: This type of implicature arises when a speaker implies something about the manner in which their statement was made. For example, if someone says "I made it crystal clear," the manner implicature is that the speaker made their statement exceptionally clear.
Politeness implicature: This type of implicature arises when a speaker implies something about their intentions or attitudes towards the other person involved in the conversation. For example, if someone says "can you do me a favor," the politeness implicature is that the speaker is looking for help and values the other person's time.
Presupposition implicature: This type of implicature arises when a speaker implies something that is a presupposition of the conversation. For example, if someone says "I'm not going to talk about politics," the presupposition implicature is that politics was a topic of discussion before.
Conventional implicature: This type of implicature arises when a speaker implies something that is conventionally understood within a particular community or context, such as sarcasm or irony.
Compound implicature: This type of implicature arises when multiple implicatures are present in a single statement. For example, if someone says "I only run for fun," it creates a scalar implicature that the speaker doesn't run for other reasons, as well as a quality implicature that the speaker is not trying to deceive the listener.
"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... and conventional ones."
"Conversational implicatures... arise because speakers are expected to respect general rules of conversation."
"Conventional ones... are tied to certain words such as 'but' or 'therefore'."
"B: There is a gas station 'round the corner."
"...because otherwise his utterance would not be relevant in the context."
"They are not necessary or logical consequences of what is said, but are defeasible (cancellable)."
"B: But unfortunately it's closed today."
"An example of a conventional implicature is 'Donovan is poor but happy'..."
"The word 'but' implicates a sense of contrast."
"Later linguists introduced refined and different definitions of the term."
"Different ideas about which parts of the information conveyed by an utterance are actually implicatures and which are not."
"In pragmatics, a subdiscipline of linguistics..."
"...something the speaker suggests or implies with an utterance, even though it is not literally expressed."
"...communicating more efficiently than by explicitly saying everything we want to communicate."
"Grice distinguished conversational implicatures... which arise because speakers are expected to respect general rules of conversation."
"...tied to certain words such as 'but' or 'therefore'."
"...which parts of the information conveyed by an utterance are actually implicatures and which are not."