Semantics: a coursebook, second edition

U N I T   2 6
Conversational implicature
325
a A:
‘Professor, will you write a letter of recommendation for me?’
B:
‘Certainly. I will say that you were always neatly dressed, punctual,
and are unfailingly polite.’
b A:
‘How are you today?’
B:
‘Oh, Lansing is the capital of Michigan.’
c A:
‘I’m not feeling very well today.’
B:
‘There’s a hospital across the street.’
d A:
‘What did you think of that new movie?’
B:
‘Well, the costumes were authentic.’
e A:
‘How did you get that car into the dining room?’
B:
‘It was easy. I made a left turn when I came out of the kitchen.’
f A:
‘What colour did you paint your living room?’
B:
‘I painted the walls o
ff-white to match the black sofa. The trimming
will be gray except by the door, which will be salmon to match the
Picasso print I bought two years ago.’
g. A:
‘How’s the weather?’
B:
‘It’s 86.7 degrees Fahrenheit. The air is humid, muggy, and the
pavement is so hot I can feel it through my shoes.’
h. A:
‘What’s your recipe for a birthday cake?’
B:
‘It should have icing. Use unbleached 
flour and sugar in the cake and
bake it for an hour. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and beat in three
fresh eggs.’
i A:
‘How do you like my new suit?’
B:
‘Well, your shoes look nice.’
j A:
‘Have you done your homework and taken out the garbage?’
B:
‘I’ve taken out the garbage.’
k A:
‘I may win the lottery for $83 million.’
B:
‘There may be people on Mars, too.’
4 For each of the following 
fill in an appropriate utterance for B which
implicates (but does not entail) the indicated implicature. There may be
several appropriate possibilities
a A:
‘Let’s see if this store has what we are looking for.’
B:
...................................................................................................................
Implicature: The store sells expensive merchandise
b A:
‘Why don’t we have lunch in this restaurant?’
B:
...................................................................................................................
Implicature: The food there is too fattening
c A:
‘Are the Browns at home?’
B:
...................................................................................................................
Implicature: The Browns are usually home when their car is in the
driveway

PA RT   S I X
Interpersonal and non-literal meaning
326
d A:
‘Should we turn right or left?’
B:
...................................................................................................................
Implicature: B isn’t sure which way to turn
e A:
‘How is your physics course going?’
B:
...................................................................................................................
Implicature: B is having trouble in the course
5 Think about the meaning relationship between the following pair of
sentences.
a Most birds are on the lawn
b Many birds are on the lawn
Does (a) entail or merely implicate (b)? Remember that entailments cannot
be cancelled without contradiction (because asserting a sentence and denying
its entailment results in a contradiction), as in the following.
c Jack managed to open the door, but he didn’t open the door
Sentence (c) is a contradiction because the fact that Jack managed to open
the door entails that he in fact did open the door, but then the second clause
denies that this is true. Implicatures, on the other hand, can be cancelled
without contradiction, as in the following sentence, where the original
implicature of the sentence I tried to buy food – i.e. that I couldn’t buy food –
is cancelled by my saying that in fact I succeeded in doing so.
d I tried to buy food, and in fact I succeeded
Therefore, if sentence (a) above entails sentence (b), then the following
sentence (e) should be a contradiction, while if (a) only implicates (b), then
the second part of (e) below (which negates the proposition in (b)) should
merely cancel (b) without a contradiction.
e Most birds are on the lawn, but in fact there are not many birds on the
lawn
There may be a di
fference of opinion about these sentences. See if you can
figure out what it is about the meanings of most and many which appears to
contribute to your answer.
6 Consider the following exchange.
A:
I may win the lottery for $83 million
B:
There may be people on Mars, too
A:
What are you, some kind of astronomer?
B originally triggered an implicature in her response to A’s original
statement, which you provided earlier in question 3k above. What e
ffect
does A’s retort then have on the implicature originally triggered by B?

327

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