Potential Implicature
Potential Implicature
A potential implicature is an implicature that would arise from any of the components of a givenutterance if that component were uttered in some linguistic or extralinguistic context, whether or not the implicature is an actual implicature of the given utterance.
English
The sentence I think that some went has two potential implicatures:
- The matrix sentence I think … has the potential clausal implicature ‘I don’t know [that some went]’.
- The complement clause … some went has the potential scalar implicature ‘Not all went’.
Page/s: 133-134
Source: Levinson 1983
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983.Pragmatics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University.
Page/s: 55
Source: Gazdar 1979
Gazdar, Gerald. 1979.Pragmatics: Implicature, presupposition, and logical form. New York: Academic.
Broader Terms
- BT↑ Implicature
Related terms
- RT⇆ Actual Implicature
- RT⇆ Clausal Implicature
- RT⇆ Complement Clause
- RT⇆ Matrix Sentence
- RT⇆ Scalar Implicature
