NMTS-InferencePage

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Homework of November 27

Task

Come up with or report a short dialogue and use it to illustrate:

1. one entailment
2. one presupposition (what is the trigger? what kind of presupposition is it?)
3. one implicature (what kind of implicature is it? show the calculation by applying the maximes in the case of conversational implicatures)

Dialogues

Dialogue by User:Manfred

The following passage is taken from David Mitchell Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre, 2004, p.33f.

1. Along the gangway I stepped (Prophetess was bucking like a
   
2. young bronco) to the officers' mess, knocked & entered. Mr
   
3. Roderick & Mr Boerhaave were listening to Cpt. Molyneux. I
   
4. cleared my throat and bade all good morning, at which our ami-
   
5. cable captain swore, `You can better my morning by b-ing
   
6. off, instanter!´
8. Coolly, I asked when the captain might find time to hear news
   
9. of an Indian stowaway who had just emerged from the coils of
   
10. hawser taking up my `so-called cabin´. During the ensuing silence
    
11. Cpt. Molyneux's pale, horny-toad complexion turned roast beef
    
12. pink. Ere his blast was launched, I added the stowaway claimed
    
13. to be an able-seaman & begged to work his passage.

Entailment: Line 4: I bade all good morning entails I said something

Presupposition: Lines 8/9: hear news of an Indian stowaway .... Presupposes: there is an Indian stowaway ....
Type of presuppostion: factive
Note 1: the factive presupposition with hear is not as strong as with know, realize or the other predicates discussed in class.
Note 2: In line 12, the verb claim is used. Its complement clause's content (the stowaway is an able-seamben) is not presupposed.

Implicature: Lines 10: my so-called cabin. Implicature: my cabin is not a proper cabin (because of all the stored hawser)
Type of implicature: particularized conversational implicature.
Calculation: The maxim of manner seems to be flouted (be brief) by the apperantly superfluous so-called. The addressee understands that the speaker wants to communicate more than just saying that the stowaway was in his cabin. The attribute so-called indicates that the object does not fully satisfy the criteria of what would count as a real cabin.

Add your dialogues here

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