Implicatures and Naturalness

Abstract

Pragmatics postulates a rich typology of implicatures to explain how true assertions can nevertheless be misleading. This typology has been mainly defended on the basis of a priori considerations. We consider the question of whether the typology corresponds to an independent reality, specifically whether the various types of implicatures constitute natural concepts. To answer this question, we rely on the conceptual spaces framework, which represents concepts geometrically, and which provides a formally precise criterion for naturalness. Using data from a previous study, a space for the representation of implicatures is constructed. Examination of the properties of various types of implicatures as represented in that space then gives some reason to believe that most or even all types of implicatures do correspond to natural concepts.

Understanding Instructional Communication towards Elementary School Students in English Classroom

“…Conversational implicature is a conversation that happens in a particular context with the utterance from speakers having other intended meanings, and the interlocutors make assumptions about the information (Yule, 2006, as cited in Yulianti et al, 2022. Previous study mentioned that conversational implicature refers to the context in ascertaining what speakers are trying to deliver (Douven, 2021). Conversational implicature has implicit meaning in conversation, yet the speakers do not convey it literally (Brown andYule, 1983, quoted by Sofyan et al, 2022).…”

Conceptual spaces and the strength of similarity-based arguments

“…Useful summaries of empirical support so far reported for it are to be found inGärdenfors (2014),Douven (2016a, 2019a, 2021a, 2021b.…”