Grice, Logic and Conversation

• Formalist: Formal language is different and better than ordinary language
• Informalist: Ordinary language has a broader use

 

 

 

1. Implicatures

Logic and Conversation

• Divergence Thesis $\longleftarrow$ Prior Consensus

  The $\textcolor{red}{\text{formal connectives}}$ ($\and,\or,\to,\neg$) and the $\textcolor{blue}{\text{natural language words}}$ ("and", "or", "if...then...", "not") mean different things

  Example

  "$A\and B$" means "$A=\text{True}$ and $B=\text{True}$"

  However, in the example of

  • They got married and they had a baby
  • They had a baby and they got married

  "and" has a different use

• Grice's Position: This consensus is not warranted

  The formal connectives and the natural language terms mean the same thing

  Often, however, we add to the meaning of sentences in conversation by non-explicit means, or Implicatures

• Types of Implicature

  1. Conventional implicature

  2. Conversational implicature $\longleftarrow$ Grice's paper is about this

     $A$ says something, and $B$ can infer the implicature from the context

• Why do Implicatures arise?

  The Maxims (see 2.) are responsible for conversational implicatures

 

 

 

2. Cooperative Conversation

• Cooperative Principle

  "Make your contribution such as required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged"

  Grice: Conversation is not a random succession of sentences, it should have some common direction / purpose

  Simply Put: conservation has a purpose and what you say should serve that purpose

• The Maxims

  1. Relation

     Everything that is said should "be relevant" to the conversation being had

  2. Quality

     Do not say what you believe to be FALSE

     Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

  3. Quantity

     Make your contribution as informative as is required

     Do not make your contribution more informative than is required

  4. Manner

     Avoid obscurity of expression

     Avoid ambiguity

     Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)

     Be orderly

 

 

 

3. Grice's Predictions

Grice's theory makes certain predictions that are verifiably true

• Cancellability

  When embedding a sentence under a logical connective, sometimes the connective will become logically stronger. As such, the implicature will disappear

  Simply Put: Implicature can be cancelled by SAYING MORE

  Example

  1. You may have soup or salad
  2. You may have soup and salad
  3. You may not have soup or salad
  4. If you have soup or salad, then you must pay

  Implicature of [1]: "It is FALSE that [2]"

  • Otherwise, by the Maxim of Quantity, the speaker would directly say [2], since this is logically stronger

  Embedding [1] under Negation leads to [3]

  • [3] is equivalent to "You may not have soup and may not have salad"
  • The Implicature of [1] is covered explicitly in this sentence, hence no longer an implicature
  • And it does not violate the Maxim of Quantity

  Embedding [1] under Conditional leads to [4]

  • [4] means that either you have soup, or have salad, or have both, then you have to pay
  • The Implicature of [1] is no longer of significance, hence no longer an implicature
  • And it does not violate the Maxim of Quantity

  For conjunction, its implicature will disappear in certain language context

  Examples

  • Toto is a dog or an animal

    • Unlike the previous "soup or salad" example, dog is a subset of animal!
    • So there is no implicature like "It is FALSE that Toto is a dog and an animal"!

  • You need to take Logic or Discrete Math (to satisfy the course requirement)

    • Considering the context, you can take both courses, but only one is required
    • There is no stronger thing you can say, then there is no implicature

• Context-Sensitivity

  In making sentences relevant in different contexts, it is expected that different information will be taken as implied

  Example

  "It’s getting late!" as uttered

  • to one’s child at home

    Implicature: "Time to wash up and sleep!"

  • at a business meeting

    Implicature: "Time to wrap up!"