3. ENTAILMENT
◦ Is a relationship that applies between two sentences where the truth of one implies the
truth of the other because of the meanings of the words involved.
◦ Example:
My parents gave me a very wonderful vacation.
My parents gave me a vacation.
- The sentence (A) The president was assassinated. entails (B) The president is dead.
4. ◦ Entailment is a concept that refers to a specific kind of relationship between two
sentences.
◦ More specifically, entailment means that if one sentence is true, then another sentence
would also have to be true: the second sentence would be entailed by the first
sentence.
◦ Another way to prove entailment between two sentences is to demonstrate that if the
one sentence is false, then the other sentence must also be false. Entailment is closely
related to the concept of logical consequence.
◦ Within logic, the idea that if A is true, then B must be true too is nothing other than a
form of entailment.
5. TYPES OF ENTAILMENT
1. Assertion
- A declarative sentence typically asserts that a state of affair exist.
- Example:
Johny kicked the dog
Johny denied kicking the dog
2. Presupposition
- Is the assumption on the speaker makes about what the hearer is likely to accept
without challenge
- Example:
Have you stopped giving up smoking?
6. IMPLICATURES
◦ Is a technical term which refers to what is suggested in an utterance even though
neither expressed nor strictly implied.
◦ Example:
John is meeting a woman this evening
the woman can be his mother, sister or wife.
7. TYPES OF IMPLICATURE
1. Conversational implicature
- Is the name given to non-truth-conditional aspects of meaning which are
conventionally attached to particular linguistics forms.
- Example:
A: do you like linguistics?
B: well, let’s just say I don’t jump for joy before class.
2. Cooperative principle
- Quantity: give the right amount of information
- Quality: try to say only what is true
- Relevance: make what you say relevant to the topic of hand
- Manner: be clear (avoid ambiguity)
8. Types of maxims
1. The Maxims of Quality
2. The Maxims of Quantity
3. The Maxims of Relation
4. The Maxims of Manner
9. 3. The Maxims of Quality
◦ i. Do not say what you believe to be false
◦ ii. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
4. The Maxims of Quantity
◦ i. Make you contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange)
◦ ii. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required
5. The Maxims of Relation
◦ Be relevant
6. The Maxims of Manner
i. Avoid obscurity of expression
ii. Avoid ambiguity
iii. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)
iv. Be orderly
◦ Following the cooperative principle and its maxims ensures that in an exchange, the right amount of
information is provided and that the exchange is conducted in a truthful, relevant, perspicuous
fashion.
10. REFERENCE
◦ Is the relationship that exist between an expression used by a speaker and an object
which he/she is referring to or talking about.
◦ Example:
I lost my book on the train.
the entity referred to by ‘I’ or ‘train’ or ‘book’ will vary from situation to situation .
‘I’ can refer to any speaker.
11. MODALITY
◦ Is another category associated with both sentence and utterance meaning.
◦ The purpose of treating modality is to see how it fits in the utterance
◦ Example:
He may not love her.
12. Questions??
Exercise!!
Discuss the possible conversational implicatures in the
following utterance:
1. Fred thinks there is a meeting tonight.
_______________________________________
2. I ate some of the cake.
______________________________________
3. Joe is poor but happy.
_______________________________________
