Philosophers of language, semanticists and pragmaticists have carried out extensive research on the phenomenon of embedded implicature over the past two decades. One of the current debates is ‘whether embedded implicatures are recovered semantically or pragmatically’. In this paper, we examine hearers’ recovery of embedded implicature within the framework proposed by neo-Gricean pragmaticists, especially Horn, Levinson and Huang. We argue that hearers would first focus on the lexical word that can trigger a scale to extract a relevant scale. Based upon the scale, he/she is able to calculate a pre-semantic conversational implicature. Then he/she would decode the semantic meaning of the whole utterance. Finally, he/she could take both the pre-semantic conversational implicature and semantic meaning into account to obtain an embedded implicature. In a word, we postulate embedded implicatures as results of the interaction between pre-semantic conversational implicatures and semantic meanings. Furthermore, we hold that embedded implicatures are products of pre-semantic conversational implicatures’ projection onto semantic meanings.
| Published in | Science Innovation (Volume 13, Issue 6) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.si.20251306.16 |
| Page(s) | 170-176 |
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Embedded Implicature, Neo-Gricean Pragmatics, Embedded Scale, Pre-Semantic Conversational Implicature, Projection
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APA Style
Bai, L. (2025). A Neo-Gricean Pragmatic Analysis of Embedded Implicatures. Science Innovation, 13(6), 170-176. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20251306.16
ACS Style
Bai, L. A Neo-Gricean Pragmatic Analysis of Embedded Implicatures. Sci. Innov. 2025, 13(6), 170-176. doi: 10.11648/j.si.20251306.16
AMA Style
Bai L. A Neo-Gricean Pragmatic Analysis of Embedded Implicatures. Sci Innov. 2025;13(6):170-176. doi: 10.11648/j.si.20251306.16
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Download@article{10.11648/j.si.20251306.16,
author = {Lirong Bai},
title = {A Neo-Gricean Pragmatic Analysis of Embedded Implicatures
},
journal = {Science Innovation},
volume = {13},
number = {6},
pages = {170-176},
doi = {10.11648/j.si.20251306.16},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20251306.16},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.si.20251306.16},
abstract = {Philosophers of language, semanticists and pragmaticists have carried out extensive research on the phenomenon of embedded implicature over the past two decades. One of the current debates is ‘whether embedded implicatures are recovered semantically or pragmatically’. In this paper, we examine hearers’ recovery of embedded implicature within the framework proposed by neo-Gricean pragmaticists, especially Horn, Levinson and Huang. We argue that hearers would first focus on the lexical word that can trigger a scale to extract a relevant scale. Based upon the scale, he/she is able to calculate a pre-semantic conversational implicature. Then he/she would decode the semantic meaning of the whole utterance. Finally, he/she could take both the pre-semantic conversational implicature and semantic meaning into account to obtain an embedded implicature. In a word, we postulate embedded implicatures as results of the interaction between pre-semantic conversational implicatures and semantic meanings. Furthermore, we hold that embedded implicatures are products of pre-semantic conversational implicatures’ projection onto semantic meanings.
},
year = {2025}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - A Neo-Gricean Pragmatic Analysis of Embedded Implicatures AU - Lirong Bai Y1 - 2025/12/24 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20251306.16 DO - 10.11648/j.si.20251306.16 T2 - Science Innovation JF - Science Innovation JO - Science Innovation SP - 170 EP - 176 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-787X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20251306.16 AB - Philosophers of language, semanticists and pragmaticists have carried out extensive research on the phenomenon of embedded implicature over the past two decades. One of the current debates is ‘whether embedded implicatures are recovered semantically or pragmatically’. In this paper, we examine hearers’ recovery of embedded implicature within the framework proposed by neo-Gricean pragmaticists, especially Horn, Levinson and Huang. We argue that hearers would first focus on the lexical word that can trigger a scale to extract a relevant scale. Based upon the scale, he/she is able to calculate a pre-semantic conversational implicature. Then he/she would decode the semantic meaning of the whole utterance. Finally, he/she could take both the pre-semantic conversational implicature and semantic meaning into account to obtain an embedded implicature. In a word, we postulate embedded implicatures as results of the interaction between pre-semantic conversational implicatures and semantic meanings. Furthermore, we hold that embedded implicatures are products of pre-semantic conversational implicatures’ projection onto semantic meanings. VL - 13 IS - 6 ER -
School of Foreign Languages, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China
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