1 Cooperation and Implicature.pptVIP

Presupposition or Entailment? My brother ate a pig. ___ The pig was dead. My brother ate a pig. ___ I have a brother. John couldn’t kill the pig. ___ He tried to kill it. John couldn’t kill the pig. ___ John exists. Jon and Mary kissed. ___ They were able to. Jon and Mary kissed. ___ They knew each other. Cooperation and ImplicaturePart 1 Introduction to Grice Cooperation / Implicatures Consider various “kinds” of logic: Logico-mathematics ? Natural Language Language ? Non-conventional language A “conversational implicature” is a non-conventional meaning conveyed by an utterance. Paul Grice “discovered” them. Tautologies: X=X ‘The Los Angeles Angels’“The The Angels Angels” Gobi Desert / Sahara Desert (Desert) (Desert) A1: ‘This is the reason it happens.’A2: ‘This is why it happens.’T: ‘This is the reason why it happens.’ Tautologies: X=X The following have implicatures:‘War is war.’ or ‘Boys will be boys.’ ‘战争就是战争’ or ‘男孩就是男孩’ ‘头是头，脚是脚’ or ‘分是分，秒是秒’ Popular examples: (usually for emphasis)‘sufficiently adequate’ ‘new innovation’ ‘planning ahead’ ‘added bonus’‘suddenly, without warning’ ‘free gift’ Cooperation / Implicatures Cooperation / implicature do the following: 1) Shines light on the way we interpret any linguistic facts. E.g. “The sky is blue.” 2) Dramatically simplifies the structure and content of semantic descriptions. E.g. “She got married and pregnant.” 3) Bridges semantic gaps that semantic theory would be unable to connect. E.g.? Cooperation / Implicatures A: Can you tell me thetime? B: Well, the milkmanhas come. Semantically:A: Do you have the ability to tell me the time? B: [?…] A [definite] milkman went to a [speaker’s] location prior to utterance. Cooperation / Implicatures A: 1) Do you have the ability to tell me the time of the present moment (as commonly indicated on a watch or mobile phone)?  2) If so, please do so tell me. B: 1) No I don’t know the exact time. 2a)