LT5903 Chap.7 Context, Cooperation and Implicature
Context, Cooperation and Implicature
Meaning in an event
Pragmatics treats an utterance as a situated event with a speaker, hearer, time and place. Linguistic, situational and social context can change how the same words function. Felicity concerns appropriateness in that setting. The cooperative principle and maxims of quality, relevance, quantity and manner support inferences when a speaker appears to flout an expectation.
Implicatures remain defeasible and cancellable, unlike semantic entailments, which makes cancellation the central diagnostic.
Represent the utterance event
Record who speaks, who hears, where and when the exchange occurs, what has already been said and which social relationship is active.
Indexicals such as I, here and now require those coordinates, while indirect requests and politeness depend on shared expectations. Linguistic context supplies surrounding expressions, situational context supplies the immediate setting and social context supplies roles and norms.
The same sentence can perform a different action when one coordinate changes, so preserve the context before proposing an interpretation.
Distinguish encoded content from inference
Begin with the conventional content and its entailments. Then add what a cooperative hearer is likely to infer.
If a speaker names one completed task when asked whether all tasks are complete, the literal content concerns that task; the suggestion that others remain unfinished arises from choosing a weaker answer. Keeping the layers separate prevents an implicature from being reported as part of sentence meaning.
It also shows which part can survive when the context is altered.
Use the maxims as reasoning prompts
Quality concerns adequate evidence and sincerity, quantity the amount of information, relevance the connection to the exchange and manner clarity and orderliness. A conspicuous departure can be interpreted as a flout when the hearer continues to assume cooperation and searches for a reason.
Do not identify a maxim from surface oddity alone. State the conversational expectation, the observed departure and the inference that restores relevance or informativeness. Several maxims may interact, but the explanation should name the most direct route.
Apply cancellation as a diagnostic
An implicature is defeasible: the speaker can add information that removes it without contradiction.
Write an explicit continuation and test whether the combined utterance remains coherent. An entailment cannot be cancelled in the same way; adding its negation produces contradiction. Cancellation is stronger evidence than simply declaring an inference pragmatic. Also test context dependence: a background fact may block an inference before it arises.
The final answer should separate the literal proposition, inferred proposition and cancelling continuation.
Evaluate felicity independently of truth
An utterance can express a true proposition yet be infelicitous because it is inappropriate, unhelpful or mismatched to the social setting. Conversely, a well-formed conversational move can convey a mistaken claim.
For requests, promises and other acts, ask whether participants, authority, intentions and circumstances fit the act. Avoid turning felicity into a general synonym for grammaticality or politeness. Name the failed contextual condition and explain how changing it would make the utterance appropriate.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Sentences and utterances
- 02
Three kinds of context
- 03
Felicity
- 04
Conversational maxims
- 05
Implicature and cancellation
Worked example · free
Derive a quantity implicature
- 2State literal content.
- 3Name the maxim and inference.
- 3Write a cancellation.
Key terms
- Utterance
- A situated event in which an expression is used.
- Felicity
- Appropriateness of an utterance to its context.
- Cooperative Principle
- The assumption that contributions support the purpose of an exchange.
- Conversational Maxim
- An expectation concerning quality, relevance, quantity or manner.
- Implicature
- A defeasible inference supported by context and cooperation.
Context, Cooperation and Implicature FAQ
What does context add to sentence meaning?
Linguistic context supplies prior discourse, situational context supplies facts about the setting and social context supplies participant relationships. Together they can turn an ability question into a request or make an otherwise ordinary response inappropriate.
Does flouting a maxim mean communication has failed?
Not necessarily. A conspicuous surface violation can invite the hearer to search for an additional cooperative meaning, producing irony, understatement or an indirect warning. The analysis must explain why that inference restores relevance or informativeness.
How can I distinguish implicature from entailment?
Try explicit cancellation. If the added clause removes the inference without contradiction, the meaning is likely implicated. If cancellation contradicts the original proposition, the relation is semantic entailment rather than a conversational inference.
Exam move
Annotate dialogues in four layers: literal content, relevant context, maxim and inferred meaning. Always finish with a cancellation test and explain why it succeeds or fails. Rewrite one contextual coordinate while holding the sentence fixed and predict which interpretation changes. When naming a flout, record the expectation, departure and repair inference so the maxim is justified rather than selected from surface oddity.
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