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Conversational Postulates Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

J. L. Morgan
J. L. Morgan*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
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Abstract

Examining Gordon & Lakoff's influential article (1971) on conversational postulates, this paper shows that the term postulate is misleading; that G&L's concept of conversational implicature as a case of entailment is mistaken; and that their view of the interaction of conversational implicature and syntactic rules is based on an incorrect analysis. It is suggested that some of the problems in their paper stem from a pernicious ambiguity of the phrase ‘can convey’.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , June 1977 , pp. 277 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 by Linguistic Society of America

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References

Cole, Peter, and Morgan, Jerry (eds.) 1975. Syntax and semantics, 3: Speech acts. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, D., and Lakoff, G. 1971. Conversational postulates. Papers from the 7th regional meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society, 63–84. [Reprinted in Cole & Morgan, pp. 83–106.].Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. 1968. Logic and conversation. ms. [Published in Cole & Morgan, pp. 41–58].Google Scholar
Sadock, J. 1975. Toward a linguistic theory of speech acts. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Searle, J. 1975. Indirect speech acts. In Cole & Morgan, pp. 59–82.Google Scholar