3 Cooperation and Implicature

How Horn’s two principles work
2. A: 我想去听语用学讲座。 B: 我不是不想去听语用学讲座.
Utterance A in (2) simply expresses a conventional wish while utterance B has used an indirect way of expressing a wish, therefore it implicates that “he wants to go, but can’t”.
Horn’s theory of pragmatic division of labor (语用劳动分工理论)
Stereotypical relation is an important concept. It is the starting point for pragmatic inference. The stereotypical relation can be linguistic, involving a linguistic item or an expression or extra-linguistic, involving the social, cultural and situational factors.
Horn’s Two Principles of Conversational Implicature
The quantity principle explains that when the speaker speaks P, he implicates P as the upper limit. The relevance principle stipulates that when the speaker speaks P, he implicates more than P. This seems to be a paradox.
How Horn’s two principles work
1. A: Larry stopped the car. B: Larry caused the car to stop. 2. A: 我想去听语用学讲座。 B: 我不是不想去听语用学讲座。
How Horn’s two principles work
Stereotypical Examples
1.他每到一处，都有小秘跟着。 2. He has had a few drinks too many. 3. 举头望明月，低头思故乡。 According to the relevance principle, “ 小 秘 ” implicates “a female secretary” because of the stereotypical relation.
Cooperation and Implicature Part 3 Horn’s 2 Principles Levinson’s 3 Principles
I. Horn’s Two Principles of Conversational Implicature
a)数量原则 (Q-principle) 1. 要使你的话语充分 Make your contribution adequate. 2. 能说多少就尽量说多少 Say as much as you can (based on the principle of relevance)
Q-Principles
Quantity 数量原则 Don't make your statement informatively weaker than you know unless what you have stated is in conflict with the information principle. 说话人准则：不要让你的陈述在信息上弱 于你所知道的程度，除非你的陈述与信 息原则相抵触。
Horn’s theory of pragmatic division of labor (语用劳动分工理论)
2. Quantity principle tends to nonstereotypical interpretation 数量原则倾向于非常规理解
If the speaker uses a non-conventional, marked and lengthy expression M instead of a brief and unmarked expression U, then the expression M will acquire additional meaning. He implicates non-stereotypical implicature G out of many potential meanings.
Horn’s Two Principles of Conversational Implicature
Based on the quantity principle, the listener wants the speaker to provide adequate information and to say as much as he can. If the information provided has reached an upper limit, it will help the listener to figure out the implicature that the upper limit allows.
Horn’s Two Principles of Conversational Implicature
b)关系原则 (R-principle) 1. 要使你的话语只是必需的 Make your contribution such as is required. 2. 不说多于所要求说的话 Don’t make your contribution more than is required. (based on the principle of quantity)
Examples
“Drinks” implicates “alcoholic drinks”, therefore the implicature “he has got drunk” . “明月”in Chinese culture is in stereotypical relation to “union”. A bright full moon will naturally remind a man in the strange land of the family union.
Horn’s theory of pragmatic division of labor (语用劳动分工理论)
1.Relevance principle tends to stereotypical interpretation 关系原则倾向于常规理解 If the speaker has used a brief and unmarked expression U, then the expression U possesses, in general, the stereotypical implicature F out of all the potential meanings it might have.
Horn’s Two Principles of Conversational Implicature
Based on the relevance principle, the speaker has provided the information that is necessary. He will not say what is not necessary so that the listener can work out the implicature that the lower limit allows. When these two seemingly paradoxical principles are put together, the result is :
II. Levinson’s Three Principles of Conversational Implicature
Levinson said that Horn . . . . didn’t recognize the difference between semantic and expression minimization. Semantic Minimization: General expressions are preferred to specific ones. Expression Minimization: Shorter expressions are preferred to longer ones.
Horn’s Two Principles of Conversational Implicature
In communication, people always tend to convey the greatest information with the least (most economic) utterances.
Levinson’s 3 Principles
Quantity Informativeness Manner
Each principle has 2 sides: Speaker’s Maxim — Specifies what the principle guides the speaker to say. Recipient’s Corollary — Specifies what it allows
1. A: Larry stopped the car. B: Larry caused the car to stop.