1 2

Reference Presupposition Entailment Implicatures

4 5

Inferencing

What does she say?

I will not lend you 10 or 20 $
Sentence/semantic meaning
entailment

What does she mean?

I will not lend you money
Speaker/pragmatic meaning
implicature

What is implicature?
It is not the semantic meaning of the sentence
It is the meaning that a speaker conveys, implies or suggest without directly expressing It depends on the specific situation or the given context

Example
1. Can you pass the salt? - Not a request for information about ones ability to pass salt A request for salt

Implicatures are context-dependent

Example:

Its the taste

It is the unique taste that people look for

A slogan in an advertisement for Cocacola

A person answers why she did not eat the cake

I found the taste awful

A shop assistant introduces a product

The product is very popular

The definition of Grice (1975)

The term implicature account for what a speaker can imply, suggest, or mean, as distinct from what the speaker literally says

Conventional implicatures Implicatures Conversational implicatures

1913-1988

Conventional implicatures
Determined by the conventional meaning of the words used (Grice) Eg: He comes from Ho Chi Minh City, he is, therefore, fond of sweet. the people from HCM city like sweet

 Mt quan huyn n tin lm, x vi dn tn nhn, c giy i quan i ni khc. i mi khng thy ai n tin, b huyn gi nha li vo trch: - Dn tnh y sao m bc th! Quan ph mu sp i i ni khc m chng thy a no ln tin chn c. Nha li tha: - Bm b ln c lng trong huyn u sp sn tin quan ri y ! B huyn mng r hi: - H l g th cc thy? Nha li n cn tha: - Bm ton go mui. ngi Vit Nam khng bao gi ly go mui lm qu cho ai c, m y l l vt dng ln cho ngi khut m thi.

Exercise: Guess the implicatures???

1. Washing your hand before eating is recommended ( wash your hand before eating) 2. It is hot in here (open the window) 3. My car has broken down (give me a ride) 4. I really dislike chicken (bring me a different dish) 5. You look nice in blue (wear blue more often) 6. All assignments are due tomorrow (finish your assignments before tomorrow )