Exercise Implicatures

The following material is an adapted form of material created by student participants of the project e-Learning Resources for Semantics (e-LRS).
Involved participants: Stephanie C., Stephie R., Jenny, Anna P.

Grice's Conversational Maxims

According to Grice's theory of conversational implicature, there are four basic maxims which specify how to be cooperative in conversation: Quantity, Manner, Quality and Relation. Grice believed that implicatures arise when these maxims are violated and the speaker (relying on an assumption of cooperation) is forced to infer meaning.

Which of the four maxims are violated the five dialogues below? (Take a look at the participants' Prezi presentation if you need help with the maxims.)

Quantity	Manner	Quality	Relation
				Mom: What did you think of Junior’s childish behavior last night? Dad: Well, boys will be boys
				Student A: Do you like Linguistics? Student B: Well, let’s just say I don’t jump for joy before class.
				Student: I was absent on Monday - did I miss anything important? Teacher: Oh no, of course not, we never do anything important in class.
				Student A: Can you tell me where the lecture is? Student B: It is in room 254, the room in which I had my first university class ever.

The youtube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI9tFOcVnV4 contains short clips with examples of violations of the four maxims.

Scalar Implicatures

This exercise deals with Scalar Implicatures. A linguistic scale consists of a set of linguistic alternates, or contrastive expressions of the same grammatical category, which can be arranged in a linear order by degree of informativeness or semantic strength. (Take a look at the participants' Prezi presentation if you need help with the scalar implicatures.)

1 Put the following sentences in the right order. Start with the sentence which contains the strongest quantifier.

Strongest	--->	--->	Weakest
				All of the boys went to the party.
				Many of the boys went to the party
				Some of the boys went to the party.
				Most of the boys went to the party.

2 Indicate the relative strength of the connectives.

strongest	-> weakest
		Alex likes books and movies.
		Alex likes books or movies.

3 Indicate the relative strength of the matrix predicates with respect to the subject's commitment to the truth of the complement clause.

strongest	--->	weakest
			Pat believes that Chris loves semantics.
			Pat doubts that Chris loves semantics.
			Pat knows that Chris loves semantics.

Implicatures in Figures of Speech

Common examples of implicatures can be found in figures of speech such as Irony, Sarcasm, Hyperbole or Metaphor. Look at the pictures below and decide which of the figures of speech apply:

Irony	Sarcasm	Hyperbole	Metaphor

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