8.5英语文学学习.pptVIP

Conversational Implicature Relevance Theory Outline Introduction Pragmatics Principles underlying the implicature phenomenon Types of implicature Examples Introduction Pragmatics Implicature = anything that is inferred from an utterance but that is not a condition for the truth of the utterance. (Gazdar, 1979) Presupposition = anything that is presupposed to be true given an utterance Presupposition Possible criterion: given an utterance U, the proposition p that is inferred by listener from both U and not U is a presupposition Example: The king of France is bold. The king of France is not bold. From both sentences, the affirmation and the negation, we infer that there is a king of France Implicature Implicatures are inferred based on the assumption that the speaker observes or flouts some principles of cooperation (different authors have identified different principles) Grice – 4 principles (so called “maxims”) Levinson (1981), Horn (1984) – 2 principles Grice Principles Quantity maxim the communication must be adequately but not overly informative Quality maxim the speaker does not believe it to be false and has adequate evidence for his statement Maxim of relation or relevance the communication must be relevant Maxim of manner the communication must be clear, unambiguous, brief, and orderly Grice Principles, reduced form The Q-principle Say as much as you can (given I) The I-principle Say no more than you must (given Q) Types of Implicatures Standard implicature – based on the assumption that the speaker observes the cooperation principles A: I’ve just run out of petrol. B: There is a garage just around the corner. B infers that he can find oil at the garage. Types of Implicatures Flouting implicatures – based on the assumption that the speaker deliberately flouts one of the communication principles A: The capital of Morocco is Casablanca B: Yes, and the capital of U.K. is Moskow A infers that his statement was wrong. Types of Implicatures, another classi