Conversational Implicature

Overview

Conversational implicature is a core concept in pragmatics, explaining how listeners infer meanings that aren’t explicitly stated by the speaker. It relies on the assumption that participants in a conversation are cooperating.

Key Concepts: Grice’s Maxims

H.P. Grice proposed four conversational maxims that guide cooperative communication:

• Quantity: Be informative, but not more informative than required.
• Quality: Be truthful; do not say what you believe to be false or lack evidence for.
• Relation: Be relevant.
• Manner: Be clear, brief, and orderly; avoid ambiguity and obscurity.

Violations or apparent violations of these maxims often generate implicatures.

Deep Dive: Generating Implicatures

Implicatures arise when a speaker’s utterance seems to flout a maxim, but the listener assumes the speaker is still cooperating. For example, if asked about a colleague’s job performance and the response is, “He’s a nice guy,” the listener might imply that the colleague isn’t a good worker, inferring the maxim of relation was subtly violated to convey negative information.

Applications

Understanding implicature is crucial in:

• Linguistics: Analyzing language use and meaning.
• Philosophy of Language: Studying how meaning is conveyed.
• Artificial Intelligence: Developing more natural conversational agents.
• Everyday Communication: Navigating social interactions and understanding nuances.

Challenges & Misconceptions

A common challenge is distinguishing between conventional implicatures (part of the word’s meaning) and conversational implicatures (context-dependent). Misunderstandings can occur if the listener fails to grasp the implied meaning or misinterprets the speaker’s intent.

FAQs

What is the difference between entailment and implicature?

Entailment is a logical consequence of an utterance (e.g., “John killed the fly” entails “The fly is dead”), whereas implicature is a suggested meaning that can be cancelled.

Can implicatures be false?

Yes, implicatures are about what is suggested or implied, not necessarily what is true. The speaker might imply something that is not factually correct, though this can lead to a breakdown in cooperation.