Cooperation and implicature

It is generally assumed that speakers and listeners involved in a conversation are

cooperating with each other. For instance, in order to accept a speaker's
presuppositions, the listeners necessarily need to assume that a speaker who says
"my wife", is really married. Thus, people having a conversation are generally
assumed to being honest and conveying relevant information.

Consider the following scene: In the cafeteria of a university, one student asks
another how she likes the sandwich she just started eating. The addressed
student replies:

A sandwich is a sandwich.
Merely looking at the sentence from a logical perspective reveals that it does not
have a communicative value since it expresses a tautology (like "new innovation",
"free gift"). Yet, when used in conversation we assume that the speaker intends
to express more than is actually said. Thus, the student who received the
tautologies answer has to assume that her fellow student is being cooperative
and intends to communicate something and then needs to work out the
additional conveyed meaning, called implicature.

Maxims of the cooperative principles:

 Quantity – Make your contribution as informative as required. Do not make it
ore informative than required.
 Quality – make your contribution true. Do not say what you believe is false. Do
not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
 Relation – Be relevant.
 Manner – Be perspicuous: •Avoid obscurity of expression •Avoid ambiguity
•Be brief (void unnecessary prolixity) •Be orderly
These maxims should be recognized as unstated assumptions we have in
conversations
However, there are certain expressions speakers use to mark that they may be in
danger of NOT fully adhering to the principles.
HEDGES: cautious notes about how an utterance should be taken when giving
information.
Examples of hedges:
HEDGES OF QUALITY:
“As far as I know, they’re married.”
“I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw a wedding ring on her finger.”
“I’m not sure if this is right, but I heard it was a secret ceremony.”
“He couldn’t live without her, I guess”
HEDGES OF QUANTITY:
“As you probably know, I’m terrified of bugs”
“So, to cut a long story short, we grabbed our staff and run”
“I won’t bore you with all the details, but it was an exciting trip”
HEDGES OF RELEVANCE
“I don’t know if this is important, but...”
“This may sound like a dumb question, but...”
“Not to change the subject, but...”
“Oh, by the way...”
“Well, anyway...”
HEDGES OF MANNER
“This may be a bit confused, but I remember being in a car”
“I’m not sure if this makes sense, but the car had no lights”
“I don’t know if this is clear at all, but I think the other car was reversing”

CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE
The basic assumption in conversation is that, otherwise indicated, the participants
are adhering to the cooperative principle and the maxims.
The following examples show a speaker conveying more than he said via
conversational implicature