Philosophy Pragmatics Questions Medium
Implicature is a concept in pragmatics that refers to the meaning conveyed indirectly or implicitly in a conversation. It is a form of inference that goes beyond the literal meaning of the words used. Conversational implicature research focuses on understanding how implicatures are generated and interpreted in communication.
According to philosopher H.P. Grice, who developed the theory of implicature, implicatures arise from the cooperative principle, which suggests that in conversation, participants strive to be cooperative and follow certain conversational maxims. These maxims include the maxim of quantity (providing enough information), quality (being truthful), relation (being relevant), and manner (being clear and concise).
Conversational implicatures occur when these maxims are violated or flouted, leading to the inference of additional meaning. Grice identified two types of implicatures: conventional and conversational. Conventional implicatures are based on conventional meanings associated with certain words or phrases, while conversational implicatures are context-dependent and arise from the speaker's intention.
Conversational implicatures can be generated through various mechanisms, such as implicature cancellation, where the implicature is canceled by providing explicit information, or implicature reinforcement, where additional implicatures are added to strengthen the intended meaning. These mechanisms help in understanding the pragmatic aspects of communication and how meaning is conveyed beyond the literal level.
Research on conversational implicature aims to explore how implicatures are processed and understood by both speakers and listeners. It investigates the role of context, background knowledge, and the cooperative principle in implicature generation and interpretation. Experimental studies often employ tasks like the "Gricean judgment task" to examine how people make inferences based on implicatures in different contexts.
Overall, the concept of implicature in relation to conversational implicature research provides insights into the complex nature of communication, highlighting the importance of context, intention, and inference in understanding the meaning conveyed in conversations.