We are considering the 75 implicatures (I counted them) in the segment of
one letter Steinbeck wrote (as Ritchie quotes it).
Thanks to McEvoy for the input.
In a message dated 3/1/2016 5:38:31 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Could we have an explanation of things that does not trigger any
implicature and an explanation of why they don't while other things do? What
is the
implicature, if any, triggered by the above question?
Well, Zwicky (some of whose friends call him 'whisky', as it 'flows'
better) prefers 'invited'. An implicature is "invited", not triggered.
The distinction is between an 'implicature' and an 'entailment': the two
major contributions of 20th century philosophy to the vocabulary of the
philosophy of language: both are originally legalese ('entail', 'he was
implicated in a crime') but due to two opposite unis: Cambridge (where Moore
coined 'entailment') and Oxford (where Grice said he had coined 'implicature'
--
it had been coined by Sidonius -- vide Lewis/Short, "Latin Dictionary",
entry, 'inmplicatura [sic]', an entanglement.
Surely there are implicatures invited by
i. My play failed.
Steinbeck does not say:
ii. Dear Larry,
I know you produced it and all, but
I'm sorry to disappoint you on this
one. I failed as a playwright here.
Have you read today's reviews?
Love,
Steinbeck.
The use of 'my' in (i) implicates that
iii. While the acting counting, it was still _my_ play.
Terris used to say, "_my_ Ophelia", and a friend of her used to say, "my
Hamlet". By using the posessive 'deictic' "my" Steinbeck implicates there's
one and only one to blame: the play, of course.
Implicatures are always cancellable, as (i) is:
ii. My play "failed," as they say, but do they care about what they say?
Only, that's only "as" they say: not that I heard anyone 'say' it!
Entailments are NOT: but the tricky thing with entailment is that you have
to provide a conceptual 'analysis' of "fail" before you proceed. Grice's
example:
iv. Yesterday, we were in Scotland. I tried to bring Hadrian's Wall down --
but I did not really fail, since I was only exercising my muscles to my
wife's admiration.
Cheers,
Speranza
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