语言学conversational-implicature.ppt
Coversational,Implicature,By:Li Cuihong,Outline,GriceCooperative PrincipleConversational Implicature,Grice(19131988)a British-educated philosopher of languageStudy:The differences and relationships between speaker meaning and linguistic meaning.nonliteral speech as the outcome of a cooperative principle,and some derived maxims of discourse,speaker meaning,Grices work:he proposed different kinds of implicatures and used that term as he claimed that implication was not the right word.He reprinted many of his essays and papers in his valedictory book,Studies in the Way of Words.Significance:one of the foundations of the modern study of pragmatics.,Categories of Implicature,Cooperative Principle,Cooperative principle is a very important factor in the process of generating implicature.Grice:Make your conversational contribution such as is required,at the stage at which it occurs,by the accepted perpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.(Cole&Morgan,1975:45),Four Maxims of Cooperative Principle,Quantity Maxim(数量准则)Quality Maxim(质量准则)Relation Maxim（关系准则）Manner Maxim（方式准则）,Quantity Maxim,1.Make your contribution as informative as is required(for the current perpose of the exchange).2.Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.Michael has four dictionaries.Michael has five,six or even more dictionaries.,Quality Maxim,Try to make your contribution true:1)Do not say what you believe to be false.2)Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.Honesty is the first policy.,Relation Maxim,Be relevant（关联的）.1)A:Mrs.Smith is so disgusting at the party.B:The curtain is very beautiful.2)A:I am out of petrol.B:There is a garage at the corner.,Manner Maxim,Be perspicuous:1)Avoid obscurity of expression.2)Avoid ambiguity.3)Be brief(Avoid unnecessary prolixity)4)Be orderly.Open the door.Go to the door,put the key into the lock,turn the key clockwise two times and push.Husband:What should we buy for the kids?Wife:Lets veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M.,Conversational Implicatures,A conversational implicature is an inference from the semantic content depending on context,speakers intention,hearers attitude and the mutual assumption.Grices Theory of Conversational Implicature(1967)is one of the single most important ideas in pragmatics(Levinson,1983),examples for implicature,A:How are you?B:Im dead.(possible speaker meaning:Im very tired.)A:Would you like a cocktail?Its my own invention.B:Well,mmm,uh its not that we dont not drink.(possible speaker meaning:No,I dont like it.),Two Categories,Generalized Conversational Implicature Particularized Conversational Implicature,Generalized implicature is the implicature that arises as a result of observing the maxims.This type of implicature can be understood and interpreted without making reference to any conversa-tional contexts.(不需上下文也能产生的会话含义叫一般会话含义)e.g.I walked into a house.+The house is not my house.(一般会话含义),Particularized implicature（特殊会话含义）arises from the act of flouting or violating the maxims.By flouting the maxims,the speaker wants to force the listener to draw extended implicature.Therefore,the interpretation of a particularized implicature has to rely on certain specific context as in the following example：The dog is looking very happy.（需要上下文才能产生的会话含义),Special features of implicatures,Cancellability 可取消性Non-detachability 不可分离性Calculability 可推导性Non-conventionality 非规约性Indeterminacy 不确定性,Cancellability,add more clause to cancel the implicature.1)Bill has four books.(Implicature:Bill has only four books and no more or no less.)Bill has four books,perhaps five or more.2)A:There is a young lady with him,sir.She is crying.B:Pretty?A:I should say she is pretty,sir,in a quite inoffensive way.You are the cream in my coffee.In fact,I dont like cream.,Non-detachability,Conversational implicatures are attached to the content rather than to the form.In other words,it is not possible to get rid of the implicatures by substituting words with synonyms.Bob is a genius.Bob is a mental prodigy.Bob is an exceptionally clever human being.Bob is an enormous intellect Bob is a big brain.Compare:Bill didnt manage to save the child.Bill didnt save the child.,Calculability,An addressee would make the inference in question to preserve the assumption of cooperation.a set of factors which have to be analyzed if we want to work out the implicature:1)the conventional meaning of the utterance,i.e.,the propositional content.2)the Cooperative Principle and submaxims.3)the context.4)the mutual understanding of the participants,what has been said and what is expected to follow.5)all these things must be accessible to the participants in the conversation.,Non-conventionality,The literal meaning remains the same in all contexts,but conversational implicature will vary or be lost as the context changes.It is cold here.,Indeterminacy,An expression with a single meaning can produce different implicatures as the contexts and participants vary.He is an ox.1)as stubborn as an ox2)as dumb as an ox.,Thank you,
