Implicature
Intention, Convention, and Principle in the Failure of Gricean Theory

A systematic critique of the Gricean theory of implicature, an established doctrine in the philosophy of language.

Wayne A. Davis (Author)

9780521038065, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 June 2007

216 pages
21.5 x 14 x 1.2 cm, 0.286 kg

'Implicature remains a stimulating and ambitious book which criticises Gricean pragmatics in a cogent and challenging way.' Cercles

H. P. Grice virtually discovered the phenomenon of implicature (to denote the implications of an utterance that are not strictly implied by its content). Gricean theory claims that conversational implicatures can be explained and predicted using general psycho-social principles. This theory has established itself as one of the orthodoxes in the philosophy of language. Wayne Davis argues controversially that Gricean theory does not work. He shows that any principle-based theory understates both the intentionality of what a speaker implicates and the conventionality of what a sentence implicates. In developing his argument the author explains that the psycho-social principles actually define the social function of implicature conventions, which contribute to the satisfaction of those principles. This challenging book will be of importance to philosophers of language and linguists, especially those working in pragmatics and sociolinguistics.

Introduction
Part I. Concept and Theory: 1. The concept of implicature
2. Theoretical importance
3. Gricean theory
4. Grice's razor
5. Sufficiency
Part II. Differentiation: 6. Quantity implicatures
7. Tautology implicatures
8. Conjunction implicatures
9. Idioms
10. Non-Gricean speech
Part III. Determinacy and Calculability: 11. Background constraints
12. The meaning constraint problem
13. The rhetorical figure problem
14. 'Indeterminate' implicatures
15. Relevance implicatures
16. Close-but implicatures
17. Quantity implicatures: the possibility of ignorance
18. Quantity implicatures: other possibilities
19. Tautology implicatures
20. Conjunction implicatures
21. Conflicting principles
22. 'Relevance' theory
23. Modal implicatures
Part IV. Presumption and Mutual Knowledge: 24. The cooperative presumption condition
25. The presumption of relevance
26. Mutual knowledge
27. Meaning versus communication
28. Implicature and inference
29. The recognition of implicature
Part V. The Existence of Implicature Conventions: 30. Conventions
31. Quantity implicatures
32. Tautology implicatures
33. Conjunction implicatures
34. Disjunction implicatures
35. Modal implicatures
36. Figures of speech
37. Relevance implicatures
38. Close-but implicatures
39. Manner implicatures
40. Interrogative and imperative implicatures
Part VI. The Nature of Implicature Conventions: 41. First-order versus second-order semantic conventions
42. Idioms
43. Indirect speech-act conventions
44. The role of conversational principles
45. The principle of antecedent relation
46. The universality of implicature conventions
47. Conclusion
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS], Philosophy of language [CFA]