IMPLICATURE 语用学

1、IMPLICATUREGroup: 王莉 王妍琨 廖晶 刘靓利1.Definition of implicature2.Generalized implicature3.Particularized implicature4.How to distinguish implicature and presuppositionImplicature is a technical term in the pragmatics subfield of linguistics, coined by H.P.Grice, which refers to what is suggested in an ut

2、terance, even though neither expressed nor strictly implied by the utterance.(a)Carmen: Did you get the milk and the eggs? Dave: I got the milk. (Did Dave buy the eggs?) Dave did not buy the eggs.(b)Carmen: Did you manage to fix that leak? Dave : I tried to. (Did Dave fix the leak?) Dave did not fix

3、 the leak.(c) Carmen: I hear youve invite Mat and Chris. Dave : I didnt invite Mat.(Did Dave invite Chris?) Dave invited Chris.The notion of implicature provides some explicit account of how it is possible to mean more than what is actually “said” , or more than what is literally expressed.A: Shall

4、we hold the football match tomorrow?B: It is raining.Semantic and literal meaning: his answer unrelated to the question.Intended meaning: the football match will be canceled as ground is wet and slippery after the rain.There is a gap between what is literally said and what is implied. So in this cas

5、e, implicature helps to explain how some seemingly unrelated sentences come to mean the same. With the help of context , the use of implicature makes our language use more colorful. We may express the same meaning in different ways to suit appropriate context.(何自然)If you were Jane, what implicatures

6、 would you have drawn from each of Steves responses?a. Jane: Who used all the printer paper? Steve: I used some of it.b. Jane: I hear youre always late with the rent. Steve: Well, sometimes I am.Implicatures:a. Steve did not use all of the printer paper, only some of it.b. Steve is not always late w

7、ith the rent, only sometimes.These responses are true in technically. However, from a pragmatic point of view, Steves utterances have certainly misled Jane because of the implicatures that people normally draw in these circumstances. Steves trickery involved what we call Scalar implicatures. All of

8、Steves responses use words that participate in a scale of values:Scale of quantity: some most allScale of frequency: sometimes often alwaysScale of coldness: cool cold freezingWe normally assume that, where speakers have a scale of values at their disposal, they will chose the one that is truthful a

9、nd optimally informative. So we normally draw the implicature not any of the higher values on the scale.Generalized conversational implicature: The implicatures that they are so strong that they do not seem to require any extra knowledge to extract the meaning. Generalized implicatures can be drawn

10、with very little inside knowledge. If you heard a tape recording of the conversation but knew noting about the participants or the physical characteristics of the context, you could still draw those implicatures. They are closely connected to the degree of informativeness that we normally expect a s

11、peakers utterance to provide.Scalar implicatures are a special type of generalized implicature where the inference is made by reference to a scale of values, one of which has been chosen by the speaker. The speakers choice implicates not the higher values.Inferences which require this kind of shared

12、 knowledge between the speaker and the hearer are sometimes called particularized conversational implicatures.a) Tom : Are you going to Marks party tonight? Annie : My parents are in town. (No.)Shared knowledge : Annies relation with her parentsb) Tom : Wheres the salad dressing? Gabriel : Weve run

13、out of olive oil. (There isnt any salad dressing.)Shared knowledge : Oliver oil is a possible ingredient in salad dressing and they only use salad dressing made from olive oil.c) Steve : Whats with your mother? Jane : Lets go into the garden. (I cant talk about it here.)Shared knowledge : Someone mi

14、ght overhear Janes answer.d) Mat : Want some fudge brownies? Chris : There must be 20000 calories there. (No.)Shared knowledge : Food with a high number of calories makes people put on weight and Chris is trying to lose weight.Generalized implicatures can be drawn with very little inside knowledge.P

15、articularized implicatures require not only general knowledge but also knowledge which is particular or local to the speaker and the hearer, and often to the physical context of the utterance as well. There is a test that is sometimes uesd to distinguish presuppositions from implicatures. Cancellati

16、on testHere are four dialogues where Annie has cancell either a presupposition contained in her utterence(the cancellation come after the dash). Do you notice a difference between presuppositions and implicatures when they are cancelled?(a) Cancelling an existential presupposition:MIke: What happene

17、d?Annie: Steves dog wrecked the garden - and in fact, Steve doesnt have a dog.(b) Cancelling a lexical presupposition:MIke: Whats up ?Annie: Iv stopped smoking - although Iv never smoked.(c) Cancelling a generalized implicature:MIke: Whats happened to the shampoo? Annie: I used most of it - actually

18、, I used all of it.(d) Cancelling a particularized implicature:MIke: Are you coming to the party?Annie: My parents are intown - but I am coming. When a speaker cancels a presupposition, the result usually sounds rather contradictory or incoherent. However, when both generalized and particularized implicatures are cancelled, the results sound much more normal.ExerciseLinda: Whats with Jean ?Jen: She discovered that her central heatings broken. (Her central hearting is broken)presupposit