Talk:NMTS-InferencePage

Comments on your dialogues

Note: Comments by Prof. Sailer are indicated by his initials "MS".

User:Anna P.

• Entailments follow logically from another sentence, meaning that all the information in the entailment has to be "given" in the utterance that entails it."Howard's mom needs to dress first before she can attend to her son" is therefore not an entailment of the sentence "I'm not decent". You could say that "I'm not decent" flouts the maxim of quantity, and the implicature is that Howard's mom really wants to convey that she needs to dress first before she can attend to him.
• Implicature: Might also be a conventional implicature, because the word "suddenly" expresses the contrast between how it has been done before, and what has changed now. In this case, this change of behaviour evokes doubts in Howard.

User:Lorena

• Entailment: Questions don't have entailments since they cannot be true or false. MS: An entailment of 2 is: "At least half of our friends were at the party."

• MS: please mention what triggers the presupposition (the wh-question in your example)

• I like your other examples, and you're right, Kevin's sentence "Well, if I hadn´t had to pick my parents from the airport…" is also a Particularized conversational implicature.

User:Lisa

• The presupposition "Lisa has a dog" in Line 3 is a existential presupposition. I like the rest of your examples!
• Your example of an implicature is good, you could also talk about the implicature of "and" here - I think the implicature would be +> plus, but you could also interpret it as +>and then. This would be a conventional implicature.

User:AnKa

• You could maybe specify that the Implicature is a Generalized Conversational Implicature.
• I don´t think that the question "Is there a male English teacher at your school?" contains a presupposition.

User:Moonhwa9113

• Questions don't have entailments since they cannot be true or false. Otherwise nice examples!

User:Elisabeth.krall

• Implicature: Tim does flout the maxim of manner and of quantity actually. But I don't think he wants to convey any additional meaning by it, so I wouldn't classify it as an Implicature. Tom's reply "Oh… yes, if you say so", on the other hand, is a hedge, indicating that he couldn't quite follow/didn't really understand Tim's utterance.

• Additional note: Your entailment is a symmetrical entailment as it is a paraphrase.

User:Anna

• "The timing belt broke" would actually be a Particularized Conversational Implicature, flouting the maxim of relevance.

• For "She didn't manage to go there" the Lexical Presupposition is that "She tried to go there". "She was not there" is simply the assertion of the sentence, it is also an entailment.

• MS: Yes!! She was not there is an entailment. That is a wonderful example of one.
• MS: Line 5 could also be seen as a violation of relevance, with the effect that a change of topic is brought about.
• The implicature of line 5 cannot be "Peter wants Mary to pass him the salt", as this is what he actually says, if he is flouting the maxim of relevance (see above), the implicature could possibly be +> Never mind, let's eat our dinner now or +> let's talk about something else.

User:Anna Böcher

• Entailment: An entailment must follow logically from the utterance it is an entailment of, which means the information in the entailment must be inherent in the original utterance. "I want to talk like a lady in a flower-shop" does not entail that she doesn't talk like that yet. An entailment of "I want to talk like a lady in a flower-shop" could be "Somebody wants to talk like a lady in a flower-shop".

User:Leo

• The sentence “Have you seen Gretel in the last couple of days?“ presupposes that someone called Gretel exists and both Kurt and Liselotte know her. Questions don't have entailments since they cannot be true or false.

• MS: an example of an entailment would be: "she broke her leg." entails "she had an injury of the leg."

User:Ulrike

• The type of your Implicature is a hedge. Nice examples!
• The implicature shows that the speaker is conscious of the maxim of quality, she does not want to give false information.

• MS: Your example of entailment is at the same time a presupposition. An example of an entailment would be: "I think they live in Hammersmith." entails "It is possible that they live in Hammersmith."

User:Marc M

• Good examples!

User:Slc

• MS: it's "the following lines" not "the following pages"

• MS: Entailment: Entailments are not background assumptions but part of what is actually said/asserted. Your 12b is a clear entailment. In the case of the others, (a) is rather a presupposition, (c ) is not clear, I am not sure whether this is a logical consequence or whether we have put in some cultural knowledge about goodbye gifts and saying goodbye.

User:VerenaS

• "Where has Steven moved?" presupposes "A person called Steven exists and is known to both, Simon and Sylvia". Questions don't have entailments since they cannot be true or false.
• MS: An example of an entailment in your dialogue might be: "somewhere near Moscow" entails "somewhere near a city in Russia"
• The type of your Implicature is a hedge.

• MS: typo in "somewhere"

• MS: Your dialogue seems to have a break. I do not see the connection between line 2 and 3 (unless the nights had been together with Steven, maybe).

User:Hilâl

• "My brother Jake cannot go to Brazil" presupposes that "Carry has a brother whose name is Jake". An entailment could be the sentence: "Someone cannot go to Brazil."
• MS: en example of an entailment would be: "My brother Jake cannot go to Brazil" entails "Someone called Jake cannot go to Brazil"

• "He didn't pass the exam." -> The presupposition would be that "He took an exam." "Jake had to take an exam in order to go to Brazil." would be the Particularized Conversational Implicature of the sentence.

• Yes (see above), "He didn't pass the exam" would at first seem to go against the maxim of relevance, but we assume the implicature is +> Jake had to take an exam to go to Brazil". This requires specific knowledge of the situation i.e. you often need to pass language exams to go and study or work in other countries, this means it is a particularized conversational implicature.

User:FlorianB

• "What's in this bottle?" presupposes that "There is a bottle" (existential presupposition) and that something is in it (structural presupposition). Questions don't have entailments since they cannot be true or false.
• MS: An example of an entailment would be: "Motor oil [is in the bottle]" entails "There is oil in the bottle."
• "I'd better call a doctor." flouts the maxim of relevance and "Drinking motor oil is not a good idea and a doctor - for the insane? - should be consulted" is a Particularized Conversational Implicature.

User:Jennifer Borchert

• "When will you be allowed to leave the hospital?" presupposes that B is in the hospital. (structural presupposition) Questions don't have entailments since they cannot be true or false.

• "I guess in a week." is an Implicature, more specifically a hedge.

• "I really look forward to our holidays in june!" presupposes that A and B will go on a holiday in June. There is no implicature. MS: you can test that it is a presupposition by negating: "I don't look forward to our holidays in june" still allows for the inference "A takes a vacation".

• MS: an example of an entailment would be: "I look forward to our holidays in june" entails "I look forward to something"