Implicature

Implicature, introduced by philosopher Paul Grice, is a central concept in pragmatics, the study of language use in context. It distinguishes between what a speaker literally says (the semantic content) and what they communicate beyond that literal meaning. Understanding implicatures is crucial for interpreting utterances correctly.

Grice identified two main types of implicature: conventional and conversational. Conventional implicatures are tied to specific words or phrases and are part of the conventional meaning of those expressions. Conversational implicatures, on the other hand, arise from general principles of cooperative conversation.

Conversational implicatures are governed by Grice's Cooperative Principle, which assumes that participants in a conversation are generally trying to be cooperative, truthful, relevant, and clear. This principle is further broken down into four maxims: Quality, Quantity, Relation, and Manner.

The maxim of Quality encourages speakers to be truthful and only say what they believe to be true and have adequate evidence for. The maxim of Quantity instructs speakers to be as informative as required for the current purpose of the exchange, but not more informative than necessary.

The maxim of Relation (or Relevance) dictates that speakers should make their contributions relevant to the ongoing conversation. The maxim of Manner urges speakers to be clear, concise, and orderly in their communication, avoiding obscurity and ambiguity.

Implicatures are generated when a speaker appears to violate one or more of these maxims, but the hearer assumes that the speaker is still being cooperative at some deeper level. The hearer then infers an additional meaning that reconciles the apparent violation with the assumption of cooperation.

For example, if someone asks "Do you know what time it is?" and the response is "Well, the postman has already been," the respondent appears to violate the maxim of relevance. The hearer then infers that the respondent doesn't know the exact time but is implying that it is after the time the postman usually arrives.

The study of implicature has had a significant impact on various areas of philosophy, including philosophy of language, ethics, and epistemology. It provides a framework for analyzing how meaning is constructed in context and how communication can be both explicit and implicit.