The Role of Pragmatic Inferences in Interpreting Implicatures
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25212/lfu.qzj.8.5.47Keywords:
inference, Deductive, Literary Works, Implicature, Explicature.Abstract
An inference is one of the pragmatic phenomena that has an important role in communication. It is defined as a process that leads to the interpretation of what a speaker or writer means or implicates. This study aims at studying the role of inferences in interpreting implicatures in literary texts. It hypothesizes that conversational implicatures cannot be interpreted unless they are contextualized and inferred. In this process, the reader or hearer relates intentions to what a speaker or writer means. So, the emergence of implicatures is related to the pragmatic inference that is considered reasonable conclusions. This research consists of four sections, (1) an introduction, (2) types of inference, (3) main distinctions between inferences, (4) relationship between an inference and literary texts, and (5) conclusions the study arrived at.
Downloads
References
Ahmed, M. S. (2011). “Presupposition as a Pragmatic Inference toward a New Conceptualization of the Term”. International Journal of Business and Social Science. Vol. 2(7), pp. 63-68.
Ariel, M. (2010). Defining Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Arundale, R. B. (2005). “Pragmatics, Conversational Implicative and Conversation”. In: London and New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, pp. 41-63.
Bach, K. and Harnish, R. (1979). Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Bianchi, C. (2013). “Writing Letters in the Age of Grice”. In: Capone, A. Lo Piparo, F. and Carapezza, M. (eds.) Perspectives on Pragmatics and Philosophy. Cham: Springer, pp. 189-201.
Birner B. J. (2013). Introduction to Pragmatics. Malden and Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Bo, Y. (2015). “Analysis of Puns in English Advertising Language from the Relevance Theory”. Sino-US English Teaching. 12(8), pp. 602-607.
Breheny, R. (1998). “Inference Economy and Focus”. In: Rouchota, V. and Jucker, A. H. (eds.) Current Issue in Relevance Theory. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 105-140.
Brown,G. and Yule, G. (1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Carston, R. (2002). “Linguistic Meaning, Communicated Meaning and Cognitive Pragmatics”. Mind and Language. 17(1-2), pp. 127-148.
Carston, R. (2002). Thoughts and Utterances, The Pragmatics of Explicit, Communication. Oxford: Blackwell.
Clark, B. (2020). “Identity Inferences: Implicatures, Implications and Extended Interpretations”. Language and Literature. 29(4), pp. 424-445.
Clark, B. (2013). Relevance Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Culpeper, J. and Haugh, M. (2014). Pragmatics and the English Language. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Davis, W. (2016). Irregular Negations, Implicature and Idioms. Berlin: Springer.
Degen, J. and Tanenhaus, M. K. (2011). “Making Inferences: The Case of Scalar Implicature Processing. Proceeding of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, pp. 3299-2204.
Escandell-Vidal, V. (2004). “Norms and Principles: Putting Social and Cognitive Pragmatics Together”. In: Reiter, R. M. and Placenica, M. E. (eds.) Current Trends in the Pragmatics of Spanish. John Benjamins Publishing Company: Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, pp. 347-372.
Escandell-Vidal, V. (1998). “Intonation and the Procedural Encoding of Attributed Thoughts: The Case of Spanish Interrogatives. In: Rouchota, V. and Jucker, A. H. (eds.) Current Issue in Relevance Theory. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 169-204.
Fitch, K. L. and Sanders, R. E. (eds.) Handbook of Language and Social Interaction.
Grabe, W. and Stoller, F. L. (2011). Teaching and Researching Reading (2nd). New York: Routledge.
Grice, H. P. (1975). “Logic and Conversation”. In: Cole, P. and Morgan, J. (eds.) Syntax and Semantics, Vol.3: Speech Acts, pp.22-40.
Haugh, M. (2012). “Inference and Implicature”. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, pp. 2658-2665. .doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0535
Hasegawa, Y. (2017). “Analyzing Explicit and Implicit Reading Questions in a Term-Exam: A Case Study”. Japan Language Testing Association. 20, pp. 57-75.
DOI: 10.20622/jltajournal.20.0_57
Horn, L. (1984). “Towards a New Taxonomy of Pragmatic Inference: Q-based and R-based Implicature. In: Schiffrin, D. (ed.), Meaning, Form and Use in Context: Linguistic Applications GURT84. Washington: George Town University Press, pp. 11-42.
Huang, Y. (2014). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Iten, C. (1998). “Because and Although: A Case of Duality”. In: Rouchota, V. and Jucker, A. H. (eds.) Current Issue in Relevance Theory. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 59-80.
Leech. G. (2008). Language in Literature: Style and Foregrounding. London and New York: Routledge.
Leech. G. and Short, M. (2007). Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose (2nd ed.). Harlow: Pearson Longman.
Levinson, S. (2000). Presumptive Meanings: The Theory of Generalized Conversational Implicature. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Levinson, S. (1987). “Pragmatics and Grammar of Anaphora”. Journal of Linguistics. 23(2), pp. 379-434.
Li, D. (2008). “The Pragmatic Construction of Word meaning in Utterances”. Journal of Chinese Language and Computing. 18(3), pp. 121-137.
Márquez, M. (2000). “An Inferential Model of Communication, as Envisaged in Relevance Theory”. Philologica Canariensia. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, pp.40-57.
Mazzarella, D. (2014). “Is Inference Necessary to Pragmatics?” Belgian Journal of Linguistics. 28, pp. 71-95. DOI: 10.1075/bjl.28.04
Mercier, H. and Sperber, D. (2009). “Intuitive and Reflective Inferences”. In: Evan, S. B. and Frankish, K. (eds.) In Two Minds: Dual Processes and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 149-170.
Oswald, S. and Maillat, D. (2018). “Pragmatic Inference and Argumentative Inference”. In: Oswald, S. and Maillat, D. (eds.) Argumentation and Inference. Proceedings of the 2nd European Conference on Argumentation, Friboury 2017, Vol. 1.
Pinto, R.C. (2001). Argument, Inference and Dialect. Dordrecht: Springer.
Ramos, F.Y. (1998). “A Decade of Relevance Theory”. Journal of Pragmatics. 30, pp. 305-345.
Rouchota, V. and Jucker, A. H. (1998). “Introduction”. In: Rouchota, V. and Jucker, A. H. (eds.) Current Issues in Relevance Theory. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 1-10.
Sbisà, M. (2013). “Locution, Illocution, Perlocution”. In: Sbisà, M. and Turner, K. (eds.) Pragmatics of Speech Acts. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 25-75.
Searle, J. R. (ed.) (1979). Expression and Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Searle, J. R. (1975a). “Indirect Speech Acts”. In: Cole, P. and Morgan, J. L., (eds.), Syntax and Semantics: Vol. 3: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press, Inc., pp.59-82; 60.
Seifert, C., Robertson, S. and Black, J. (1985). “Types of Inferences Generated during Reading”. Journal of Memory and Language. 24, pp. 405-422.
Senft, G. (2014). Understanding Pragmatics. London and New York: Routledge.
Short, M. (1998). “From Dramatic Text to Dramatic Performance”. In: Culpeper, J., Short, M. and Verdonk, P. (eds.) Interface: Exploring the Language of Drama from Text to Context. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 6-18.
Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (2013). “Précis of Relevance: Communication and Cognition”. In: Ezcurdia, M. and Stainton, R. (eds.) The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary in Philosophy. Broadview Press: Ontario, pp. 220-246.
Sperber, D. Wilson, D. (1991). “Irony and Use-Mention Distinction”. In: Davis, S. (ed.) Pragmatics: A Reader, pp. 550-566.
Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance: Communication and Cognition (2nd ed.).
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1987). “Précis of Relevance: Communication and Cognition”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Vol. 10, pp. 697-754.
Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1986). Relevance: Communication and Cognition (1st ed.).
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Terkourafi, M. (2021). “Inference and Implicature”. In: Haugh, M. Kádár, D. Z. (eds.) Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 30-47.
Warner, C. (2014). “Literary Pragmatics and Stylistics”. In: Burke, M. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 362-377.
Yule, G. (2010). The Study of Language (4th edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, D. and Sperber, D. (1993). “Linguistic Form and Relevance”. Lingua, pp. 1-25.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Qalaai Zanist Journal allows the author to retain the copyright in their articles. Articles are instead made available under a Creative Commons license to allow others to freely access, copy and use research provided the author is correctly attributed.
Creative Commons is a licensing scheme that allows authors to license their work so that others may re-use it without having to contact them for permission