Semantics
HUFLIT

truongvananh@cvseas.edu.vn

Unit 6: Non-literal Meaning
CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE
In this unit we will explain the notion of conversational
implicature. Implicature (as we will call it for short) is a
concept of utterance meaning as opposed to sentence
meaning, but is parallel in many ways to the sense
relation (i.e. sentence meaning concept) of entailment
(Unit 10). Furthermore, implicature is related to the
method by which speakers work out the indirect
illocutions of utterances (Unit 24). We will do a little
reviewing of these areas and then get across the idea
of implicature.

If, when a proposition A is TRUE, a proposition
B must therefore also be TRUE, then
proposition A ENTAILS proposition B. (We
extend this definition in a natural way to
involve the SENTENCES expressed by two such
propositions, A and B.)

An INFERENCE is any conclusion that one is
reasonably entitled to draw from a sentence or
utterance.
An implicature of one part of an utterance is said to
be CANCELLED when another part of the utterance
or a following utterance explicitly contradicts it.
Ex: In the utterance 'I tried to buy salt, and in fact I
succeeded', the implicature (from the first half of
the utterance) that the speaker did not in fact buy
salt is explicitly cancelled by the assertion in the
second half of the utterance.

This unit has outlined the notion of
conversational implicature, a form of
reasonable inference. Implicature, a notion of
utterance meaning, contrasts with entailment,
a notion of sentence meaning.
Implicature exists by reason of general social
conventions, the chief of which is the principle
of co-operativeness between speakers. (The
idea of implicature, which links logic and
conversation, was developed by the
philosopher Paul Grice.)

GOOD LUCK!