Quantity implicatures / Bart Geurts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Geurts, Bart, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Connotation (Linguistics).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (212 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In recent years, quantity implicatures - a type of pragmatic inference - have been widely debated in linguistics, philosophy, and psychology, and have been subject to an enormous variety of analyses, ranging from lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic, to various hybrid accounts. In this first book-length discussion of the topic, Bart Geurts presents a theory of quantity implicatures that is resolutely pragmatic, arguing that the orthodox Gricean approach to conversational implicature is capable of accounting for all the standard cases of quantity implicature, and more. He shows how the theory deals with free-choice inferences as merely a garden variety of quantity implicatures, and gives an in-depth treatment of so-called 'embedded implicatures'. Moreover, as well as offering a comprehensive theory of quantity implicatures, he also takes into account experimental data and processing issues. Original and pioneering, and avoiding technical terminology, this insightful study will be invaluable to linguists, philosophers, and experimental psychologists alike.

Contents:

1. Gricean pragmatics. 1.1. Saying vs. implicating ; 1.2. Discourse and cooperation ; 1.3. Conversational implicatures ; 1.4. Generalised vs. particularised ; 1.5. Cancellability ; 1.6. Gricean reasoning and the pragmatics of what is said

2. The standard recipe for Q-implicatures. 2.1. The standard recipe ; 2.2. Inference to the best explanation ; 2.3. Weak implicatures and competence ; 2.4. Relevance ; 2.5. Conclusion

3. Scalar implicatures. 3.1. Horn scales and the generative view ; 3.2. Implicatures and downward entailing environments ; 3.3. Disjunction : exclusivity and ignorance ; 3.4. Conclusion

4. Psychological plausibility. 4.1. Charges of psychological inadequacy ; 4.2. Logical complexity ; 4.3. Abduction ; 4.4. Incremental processing ; 4.5. The intentional stance ; 4.6. Alternatives ; 4.7. Conclusion

5. Nonce inference or defaults?. 5.1. True defaults ; 5.2. Strong defaultism ; 5.3. Weak defaultism ; 5.4. Contextualism ; 5.5. Conclusion

6. Intentions, alternatives, and free choice. 6.1. Free choice ; 6.2. Problems with the standard recipe ; 6.3. Intentions first ; 6.4. Free choice explained ; 6.5. Comparing alternatives ; 6.6. Two flavours of Q-implicature ; 6.7. Conclusion

7. Embedded implicatures : the problems. 7.1. The problems ; 7.2. Varieties of conventionalism ; 7.3. Against conventionalism ; 7.4. Conclusion

8. Embedded implicatures : a Gricean approach. 8.1. Disjunction ; 8.2. Belief reports ; 8.3. Factives and other presupposition inducers ; 8.4. Indefinites ; 8.5. Contrastive construals and lexical pragmatics ; 8.6 . Conclusion.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-21792-X

1-282-96699-5

9786612966996

0-511-99148-7

0-511-99050-2

0-511-99247-5

0-511-98868-0

0-511-97515-5

0-511-98688-2

OCLC:

700706224