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 maxims 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.
(Comment: this is not a real dialogue, but the text is clear enough so that it is easy to see what has been said in the described situtation.)

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: it is remarkable that in this case the presupposition projects over a modal (might) and an embedded question (when ...).
Note 2: the factive presupposition with hear is not as strong as with know, realize or the other predicates discussed in class.
Note 3: 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.

Dialogue by User:Lisa

1. Lisa and Verena are chatting during a lecture.
   
2. Lisa says: "I really regret havig taken this course."
   
3. Verena nodds and asks: "How is your dog?"
   
4. "Oh she is fine. But yesterday she drove me crazy.
   
5. She chased a cat and ran into a garden!"

Entailment:

Line 1: Lisa is talking.

       Verena is talking.

Presupposition:

Line 2: "I regret having taken this course" presupposes that Lisa took the course. The presupposed information following the verb "regret" can be treated as a fact. Therefore, it is a factive presuppostion.

Line 3: "How is your dog" presupposes that Lisa has a dog. Explanation as in 2.

Implicature:

Line 5: "...chased a cat and ran into a garden!" Implicature: It was not Lisa´s cat or garden. She does not know to whom both belongs. Here, no special knowledge is required in the context to calculate the additional conveyed meaning. If Lisa was capable of being more specific she would have said "my garden/cat" or " the garden/cat of xy" (following the maxim of quantity). Therefore, it is a generalized conversational implicature.

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