Abstract
In terms of Groenendijk and Stokhof’s (1984) formalization of exhaustive interpretation, many conversational implicatures can be accounted for. In this paper we justify and generalize this approach. Our justification proceeds by relating their account via Halpern and Moses’ (1984) non-monotonic theory of ‘only knowing’ to the Gricean maxims of Quality and the first sub-maxim of Quantity. The approach of Groenendijk and Stokhof (1984) is generalized such that it can also account for implicatures that are triggered in subclauses not entailed by the whole complex sentence.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Atlas, J.D. and Levinson, S.C., 1981, “It-clefts, informativeness and logical form,” in Radical Pragmatics, P. Cole, ed., New York: Academic Press.
Chierchia, G., “Scalar implicatures, polarity phenomena, and the syntax/pragmatics interface,” Manuscript, University of Milan.
Gazdar, G., 1979, Pragmatics, London: Academic Press.
Green, M., 1995, “Quantity, volubility, and some varieties of discourse,” Linguistics and Philosophy 18: 83–112.
Grice, H.P., 1967, “Logic and Conversation,” typescript from the William James Lectures, Harvard University. Published in P. Grice (1989), Studies in the Way of Worlds, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 22–40.
Groenendijk, J. and Stokhof, M., 1984, “Studies in the semantics of questions and the pragmatics of answers,” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Amsterdam.
Halpern, J.Y. and Moses, Y., 1984, “Towards a theory of knowledge and ignorance,” pp. 165–193 in Proceedings of 1984 Non-Monotonic Reasoning Workshop, American Association for Artificial Intelligence, New Paltz, NY.
Harnisch, R.M., 1976, “Logical form and implicature,” pp. 313–391 in An Integrated Theory of Linguistic Ability, T.G. Bever, eds., New York: Crowell.
Heim, I., 1982, “The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Hirschberg, J., 1985, “A theory of scalar implicature,” Ph.D. Thesis, UPenn.
Horn, L., 1972, “The semantics of logical operators in English,” Ph.D. Thesis, UCLA.
Horn, L., 1989, A Natural History of Negation, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kamp, H., 1981, “A theory of truth and semantic representation,” pp. 277–322 in Formal Methods in the Study of Language, Groenendijk, eds., Amsterdam.
Landman, F., 2000, Events and Plurality: The Jeruzalem Lectures, Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Leech, G.N., 1983, Principles of Pragmatics, London: Longman.
Levinson, S.C., 1983, Pragmatics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levinson, S.C., 2000, Presumptive Meanings. The Theory of Generalized Conversational Implicature, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Matsumoto, Y., 1995, “The conversational condition on Horn scales,” Linguistics and Philosophy 18: 21–60.
McCarthy, J., 1980, “Circumscription – a form of non-monotonic reasoning,” Artificial Intelligence 13: 27–39.
Merin, A., 1994, Decision–Theoretic Pragmatics, Lecture Notes read in Course BA 5, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.
Sauerland, U., 2004, “Scalar implicatures of complex sentences,” Linguistics and Phiolosophy 27, 367–391.
Schulz, K., 2003, “You may read it now or later,” Master Thesis, University of Amsterdam.
Soames, S., 1982, “How presuppositions are inherited: A solution to the projection problem,” Linguistic Inquiry 13: 483–545.
Spector, B., 2003, “Scalar implicatures: Exhaustivity and Gricean reasoning?,” in Proceedings of the ESSLLI 2003 Student session, B. ten Cate, ed., Vienna.
van Benthem, J., 1989, “Semantic parallels in natural language and computation,” pp. 331–375 in Logic Colloquium ‘87, H. D. Ebbinghaus, et al., eds., Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.
van der Hoek, W., Jaspers, J., and Thijsse, E., 1999, “Persistence and minimality in epistemic logic,” Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence 27: 25–47.
van der Hoek, W., Jaspers J., and Thijsse, E., 2000, “A general approach to multiagent minimal knowledge,” pp. 254–268 in Proceedings JELIA 2000, M. Ojeda-Aciego, et al. eds., Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
van Rooij, R. and Schulz, K., “Pragmatic meaning and non-monotonic reasoning: The case of exhaustive interpretation,” submitted, University of Amsterdam.
von Stechow, A. and Zimmermann, T.E., 1984, “Term answers and contextual change,” Linguistics 22: 3–40.
Wainer, J., 1991, “Uses of nonmonotonic logic in natural language understanding: Generalized implicatures,” Ph.D. Thesis, Pennsylvania State University.
Zimmermann, T.E., 2000, “Free choice disjunction and epistemic possibility,” Natural Language Semantics 8: 255–290.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
van Rooij, R., Schulz, K. Exhaustive Interpretation of Complex Sentences. J Logic Lang Inf 13, 491–519 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10849-004-2118-6
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10849-004-2118-6