Semantics: a coursebook, second edition

U N I T   2 6
Conversational implicature
321
Comment Sue’s double negative here could also be an apparent violation of a maxim of
brevity, according to which a speaker should try to be as brief as possible. A
doubly negative sentence is not as brief as a simple positive sentence. The
factors of clarity and brevity are hard to distinguish consistently. We will look
at a few more examples of implicature.
Practice Consider the conversation:
A:
‘Did you buy salt?’
B:
‘I tried to’
(1) If B had bought salt, would it be reasonable to assume that 
this was because he had tried to do so?
Yes / No
(2) If B had bought salt, would he be telling A more than was 
necessary by mentioning that he had tried to buy it?
Yes / No
(3) Could A reason as follows: If he had bought salt, he would not 
tell me that he had tried to buy it; since he tells me speci
fically 
that he tried to buy it, I conclude that he did not buy salt.
Yes / No
(4) Is the proposition that B did not buy salt an implicature of
his utterance?
Yes / No
Feedback
(1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) Yes
Practice Give an implicature of B’s utterance in each of the situations below.
(1) A:
‘Do you love me?’
B:
‘I’m quite fond of you’
Implicature: .....................................................................................................
(2) A:
‘Was there a 
fiddler at the bar last night?’
B:
‘There was a man scraping a bow across a violin’
Implicature: .....................................................................................................
(3) A:
‘Do you like my new carpet?’
B:
‘The wallpaper’s not bad’
Implicature: .....................................................................................................
Feedback
(1) B does not love A. (2) The 
fiddler at the bar was not very good.
(3) B does not like A’s new carpet.
Comment Remember that in a case of implicature the hearer crucially makes the
assumption that the speaker is not violating one of the conversational
maxims, of relevance, of informativeness, or of clarity (or brevity).
Practice Below are some conversations between two people, A and B. After each
conversation an implicature from B’s utterance is given. In each case, say

PA RT   S I X
Interpersonal and non-literal meaning
322
whether the crucial assumption leading the hearer to this implicature
involves the maxim of (R) relevance, (I) informativeness, or (C) clarity (or
brevity). Circle your answer.
(1) A:
(by an obviously immobilized car) ‘My car’s broken down’
B:
‘There is a garage round the corner’

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