Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

The non-saying of what should have been said

Colonna Dahlman, Roberta LU (2021) In Acta Analytica
Abstract
According to Grice’s analysis, conversational implicatures are carried by the saying of what is said (Grice 1989: 39). In this paper, it is argued that, whenever a speaker implicates a content by flouting one or several maxims, her implicature is not only carried by the act of saying what is said and the way of saying it, but also by the act of non-saying what should have been said according to what would have been normal to say in that particular context. Implicatures that arise without maxim violation are only built on the saying of what is said, while those that arise in violative contexts are carried by the saying of what is said in combination with the non-saying of what should have been said. This observation seems to justify two... (More)
According to Grice’s analysis, conversational implicatures are carried by the saying of what is said (Grice 1989: 39). In this paper, it is argued that, whenever a speaker implicates a content by flouting one or several maxims, her implicature is not only carried by the act of saying what is said and the way of saying it, but also by the act of non-saying what should have been said according to what would have been normal to say in that particular context. Implicatures that arise without maxim violation are only built on the saying of what is said, while those that arise in violative contexts are carried by the saying of what is said in combination with the non-saying of what should have been said. This observation seems to justify two claims: (i) that conversational implicatures have different epistemic requirements depending on whether they arise in violative or non-violative contexts; (ii) that implicatures arising in non-violative contexts are more strongly tied to their generating assertion than those arising with maxim violation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Paul Grice, Conversational implicatures, Violative implicature contexts, Non-violative implicature contexts
in
Acta Analytica
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85113172136
ISSN
0353-5150
DOI
10.1007/s12136-021-00481-1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
38e0c8ef-e5c9-4ab5-8bc1-0f9fcb2b5b85
date added to LUP
2021-08-24 15:08:22
date last changed
2022-04-27 03:26:00
@article{38e0c8ef-e5c9-4ab5-8bc1-0f9fcb2b5b85,
  abstract     = {{According to Grice’s analysis, conversational implicatures are carried by the saying of what is said (Grice 1989: 39). In this paper, it is argued that, whenever a speaker implicates a content by flouting one or several maxims, her implicature is not only carried by the act of saying what is said and the way of saying it, but also by the act of non-saying what should have been said according to what would have been normal to say in that particular context. Implicatures that arise without maxim violation are only built on the saying of what is said, while those that arise in violative contexts are carried by the saying of what is said in combination with the non-saying of what should have been said. This observation seems to justify two claims: (i) that conversational implicatures have different epistemic requirements depending on whether they arise in violative or non-violative contexts; (ii) that implicatures arising in non-violative contexts are more strongly tied to their generating assertion than those arising with maxim violation.}},
  author       = {{Colonna Dahlman, Roberta}},
  issn         = {{0353-5150}},
  keywords     = {{Paul Grice; Conversational implicatures; Violative implicature contexts; Non-violative implicature contexts}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Acta Analytica}},
  title        = {{The non-saying of what should have been said}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12136-021-00481-1}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s12136-021-00481-1}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}