Implicature: Intention, Convention, and Principle in the Failure of Gricean Theory

Wayne A. Davis

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511663796

H. P. Grice virtually discovered the phenomenon of implicature (to denote the implications of an utterance that are not strictly implied by its content). Gricean theory claims that conversational implicatures can be explained and predicted using general psycho-social principles. This theory has established itself as one of the orthodoxes in the philosophy of language. Wayne Davis argues controversially that Gricean theory does not work. He shows that any principle-based theory understates both the intentionality of what a speaker implicates and the conventionality of what a sentence implicates. In developing his argument the author explains that the psycho-social principles actually define the social function of implicature conventions, which contribute to the satisfaction of those principles. This challenging book will be of importance to philosophers of language and linguists, especially those working in pragmatics and sociolinguistics.

'Implicature remains a stimulating and ambitious book which criticises Gricean pragmatics in a cogent and challenging way.'

Source: Cercles

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Implicature

Intention, Convention, and Principle in the Failure of Gricean Theory

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-vi

Contents
pp vii-viii

Introduction
pp 1-3

1 - Concept and theory
pp 4-32

2 - Differentiation
pp 33-61

3 - Determinacy and calculability
pp 62-113

4 - Presumption and mutual knowledge
pp 114-131

5 - The existence of implicature conventions
pp 132-154

6 - The nature of implicature conventions
pp 155-190

References
pp 191-200

Index
pp 201-206

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Implicature

Intention, Convention, and Principle in the Failure of Gricean Theory

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