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Chapter 3. Pronouns and implicature

  • Wayne A. Davis
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Implicitness
This chapter is in the book Implicitness

Abstract

In this chapter I investigate how differences among pronouns are related to differences in implicature. I characterize pronouns within my foundational theory of meaning, according to which words are conventional signs of mental states, principally thoughts and concepts, and meaning consists in their expressions. Indexicals express concepts that are distinctive in the way they link to other concepts or presentations. Indexical concepts are individuated by their sortal and determiner components. Indexicals have deictic, demonstrative and anaphoric uses. Pronouns are indexical words that can be used anaphorically with nouns as antecedents. After reviewing previous findings that the distinction between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns cannot be explained in terms of implicature or pragmatic principles, I describe a wide range of implicatures that are generated by pronoun use. Some are semantic – what Grice called “conventional implicatures”. Sentences have these uncancelable implicatures because of the specific concepts expressed by the pronouns. Pronoun use also generates a wide range of conversational or pragmatic implicatures, through both non-semantic convention and specific contextual factors.

Abstract

In this chapter I investigate how differences among pronouns are related to differences in implicature. I characterize pronouns within my foundational theory of meaning, according to which words are conventional signs of mental states, principally thoughts and concepts, and meaning consists in their expressions. Indexicals express concepts that are distinctive in the way they link to other concepts or presentations. Indexical concepts are individuated by their sortal and determiner components. Indexicals have deictic, demonstrative and anaphoric uses. Pronouns are indexical words that can be used anaphorically with nouns as antecedents. After reviewing previous findings that the distinction between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns cannot be explained in terms of implicature or pragmatic principles, I describe a wide range of implicatures that are generated by pronoun use. Some are semantic – what Grice called “conventional implicatures”. Sentences have these uncancelable implicatures because of the specific concepts expressed by the pronouns. Pronoun use also generates a wide range of conversational or pragmatic implicatures, through both non-semantic convention and specific contextual factors.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Implicitness 1
  4. Part I. Word and phrase
  5. Chapter 2. What’s a reading? 15
  6. Chapter 3. Pronouns and implicature 37
  7. Chapter 4. Implicitness in the lexis 67
  8. Chapter 5. Zero subject anaphors and extralinguistically motivated subject pro -drop in Hungarian language use 95
  9. Part II. Sentence and utterance
  10. Chapter 6. Implicitness via overt untruthfulness 121
  11. Chapter 7. Lexical pragmatics and implicit communication 147
  12. Chapter 8. Indirect ritual offence 177
  13. Chapter 9. Implicitness in the use of situation-bound utterances 201
  14. Chapter 10. Thematic silence as a speech act 217
  15. Part III. Text and discourse
  16. Chapter 11. The dynamics of discourse 235
  17. Chapter 12. Why don’t you tell it explicitly? 259
  18. Chapter 13. Implicature and the inferential substrate 281
  19. Index 305
  20. Index 305
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.276.03dav

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Implicitness 1
  4. Part I. Word and phrase
  5. Chapter 2. What’s a reading? 15
  6. Chapter 3. Pronouns and implicature 37
  7. Chapter 4. Implicitness in the lexis 67
  8. Chapter 5. Zero subject anaphors and extralinguistically motivated subject pro -drop in Hungarian language use 95
  9. Part II. Sentence and utterance
  10. Chapter 6. Implicitness via overt untruthfulness 121
  11. Chapter 7. Lexical pragmatics and implicit communication 147
  12. Chapter 8. Indirect ritual offence 177
  13. Chapter 9. Implicitness in the use of situation-bound utterances 201
  14. Chapter 10. Thematic silence as a speech act 217
  15. Part III. Text and discourse
  16. Chapter 11. The dynamics of discourse 235
  17. Chapter 12. Why don’t you tell it explicitly? 259
  18. Chapter 13. Implicature and the inferential substrate 281
  19. Index 305
  20. Index 305
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