Linguistic terminology terms | LETTER - Q

What is a quality implicature?

A quality implicature is a conversational implicature based on the addressee 's assumption as to whether or not the speaker is observing or flouting the conversational maxim of quality .

If the speaker is assumed to be observing the maxim, then the addressee makes a standard implicature . If the speaker is assumed to be flouting the maxim, then the addressee makes a more nonstandard type of implicature.

• The sentence John has two Ph.D.'s implicates both of the following:

  • "I believe John has two Ph.D.'s."
  • "I have adequate evidence that John has two Ph.D.'s."

  It may also cause an implicature derived from the addressee’s belief that the speaker is flouting the maxim quality.

• In the following exchange, the obvious falsehood of B’s utterance implicates that B is saying that A is wildly incorrect:

  A: Tehran’s in Turkey, isn’t it, teacher?

  B: And London’s in Armenia, I suppose.

• What is conversational implicature?

Grice 1975 46

Levinson 1983 105–106, 109–110

What is a quantifier?

A quantifier is a determiner that expresses a referent 's definite or indefinite number or amount.

A quantifier functions as a

• modifier of a noun , or
• pronoun .

• all

  All are welcome

  All these people

• five
• many
• some

• What is a numeral?

• What is a determiner?

Crystal 1980 293

Hartmann and Stork 1972 190

Lyons 1977b 454–455

Mish 1991 963

What is a quantity implicature?

A quantity implicature is a conversational implicature based on an addressee 's assumption as to whether the speaker is observing or flouting the conversational maxim of quantity .

If the speaker is assumed to be observing the maxim, then the addressee makes a standard implicature . If the speaker is assumed to be flouting the maxim, then the addressee makes a more non-standard type of implicature.

• The utterance Nigel has 14 children commonly implicates ‘Nigel has only 14 children’, even though it would be compatible with Nigel’s having 20 children.

  Source:

  Levinson 1983 106

• The utterance War is war is itself uninformative; however, depending on its context, it will implicate items such as the following:

  • ‘All war is undifferentiated (and thus uniformally unjust).’
  • ‘This is the way war is; stop complaining.’

• What is a clausal implicature?
• What is a scalar implicature?

• What is conversational implicature?

Grice 1975 45

Levinson 1983 106, 110–111

What is a question?

Here are two senses of question:

1. A question is an illocutionary act that has a directive illocutionary point of attempting to get the addressee to supply information.
2. A question is a sentence type that has a form (labeled interrogative ) typically used to express an illocutionary act with the directive illocutionary point mentioned above. It may be actually so used (as a direct illocution ), or used rhetorically.

Here are some examples of sentences, ordered to illustrate the two senses of question above:

1. An illocutionary act that attempts to obtain information from an addressee

   • Tell me your name.
   • Give me your address.

2. Sentences with inverted word order or interrogative pro-forms

   • What’s your name?
   • Did you sleep well?

• What is an alternative question?
• What is a tag question?
• What is a wh-question?
• What is a yes-no question?

• What is an illocutionary act?

Crystal 1985 254

Hartmann and Stork 1972 190

Larson 1984 234

Mish 1991 966

What is a quotative evidential?

A quotative evidential is an evidential that signals that someone else is the source of the statement made.

• What is evidentiality?

Chung and Timberlake 1985 244

Nida 1949 169

Palmer 1986 7, 71

Dahl 1985 150–151

Faust 1973