PART 3: UTTERTANCE MEANING

-Chapter 8: The meaning of the utterance -

Presented by Group 12:

Pham Van Phi

Bui Thi Thuong

8.7. Entailment : assertion and presupposition

MAIN CONTENTS

8.10. Modality

8.8. Implicatures

8.9. Reference

8.7 Entailment : assertion and presupposition

a) The definition of Entailment:

E 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 (Goddard,

1998).

An entailment is something that logically follows from

what is asserted in the utterance.” [Yule, 1996]

Ex :

1. My parents gave me a very wonderful vacation

2. My parents gave me a vacation

+) : (1) necessarily implies or entails (2)

+): what about (2) and (1)?(2) does not entails (1) If (2)

is true,then (1) is not neceesarily true The answer can be found

in the meaning of the parts “wonderful vacation and vacation”

” wonderful vacation’’ is included in the scope of “

vacation” and not the other way round.

=That is , Entailment may be seen as a kind of hyponymic

relation

8.7 Entailment : assertion and presupposition

b)Subtypes of entailment

Entailment

AssertionPresupposition

A declarative sentence typically asserts that a state of affair exists.

a. Johnny kicked the dog

b. Johnny denied kicking the dog

c. Johnny did not deny kicking the dog

The 1st of these asserts that a state of affairs exists.

Assertion

A declarative sentence typically asserts that a state of affair exists.

On contrary, the 2nd example does not assert anything about Johhny kicking the dog.Saying, for instance, “ Johhny did not deny kicking the dog” simply concerns ,her denying while the state of affairs that “Johnny kicked the dog” still obtains.

Assertion

A declarative sentence typically asserts that a state of affair exists.

- In semantic literature, the content of “ deny” in the 2nd example is a presupposition.We cannot cancel the presuppositon bt negating the main verb.

“A sentence S1 presupposes S2 just in case S1 entails S2 and the negation of S1 also entails S2”

So (b) presupposes (a) bcz both it and its negation (c) still entail (a)

Assertion

is the assumption the speaker

makes about what the hearer is

likely to accept without challenge

a. Have you stopped giving up smoking?

b. Would you like another pen?

In (a), the speaker has presupposed that at some time the past the person used to smoke,and in (b) the person has a pen before.

When presupposions are inconsistent with actual state of the world, the utterance is felt to be strange.

You would feel surprised at (a) if you really never gave up smoking.

Presupposition

is the assumption the speaker

makes about what the hearer is

likely to accept without challenge

c. Why did you hide the thief?

This presupposes that you did hide him. You may fall into the trap if you are not careful about the intention of the questioner..

d. Ex: John doesn’t write poems anymore.

-> presupposes that John once wrote poetry

Presupposition

is the assumption the speaker

makes about what the hearer is

likely to accept without challenge

For example:

a. The king of France is bald.

b. The king of France is not bald.

c. Is the king of France bald?

d. If the king of France is bald, he should

wear a hat in the winter .

There is a king of France.

Presupposition

(a) He MANAGED to repair the clock

(b) He didn't MANAGE to repair the clock

(c) She stopped running

(d) You are late again.

(e) When did she travel to the USA?

(f) Where did you buy the book?

(g) She pretended that he

had understood what she meant.

.

Identify the respective presuppositions

a. he tried to repair the clock

Asserted meaning: he suceeded

b. he tried to repair the clock

Asserted meaning: he failed

c. She used to run

d. You were late before.

e. She traveled

f. You bought a book

g. He did not understand what she meant.

8.8 Implicatures

a.Definition

Implicature 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 whom John is meeting this

evening is not his mother, his sister or his wife.

Implicatures

b. Types of implicatures

Conventional implicatures Conversational implicatures

It is the name given to non-truth-conditional aspects of meaning which areconventionally attached to particular linguistic forms.

Implications derived on the basis of conversational principles and assumptions, relying on more than the linguistic meaning of words in a sentence.

8.8

Conversational implicature

A (conversationally) implicates B if it is the case that uttering A in a certain conversational context systematically suggests, everything else being equal, that B is true. However, the implicature can be called off (i.e., cancelled).ex :Student A: Do you like Linguistics?

Student B: Well, let’s just say I don’t jump for joy before class.

A asked B about his feelings about the class, and B said B didn’t celebrate before the class. It shows the uninterested feeling of B about Linguistics subject

Conversational implicature

- Cooperative Principle:1. Quantity: give the right amount of information (not too little, not too much).2. Quality: try to say only what is true (don't say that for which you lack adequate evidence; don't say what you know to be false).3. Relevance: make what you say relevant to the topic at hand.4. Manner: be clear (avoid ambiguity, excessive wordiness, obscurity, etc.).

Exercise :Discuss the possible conversational implicatures in the following utteerances:

1. A: Will Sally be at the meeting this afternoon?B. Her car broke down. Sally won't be at the meeting.

2. "Fred thinks there is a meeting tonight."Fred doesn't know for sure that there is a meeting

tonight.3. I ate some of the cake this sentence implies “I did not eat all of the cake”

4. Joe is poor but happy This sentence implies poverty and happiness are not

compatible but in spite of this Joe is still happy. This sentence will always necessarily imply “Surprisingly Joe is happy in spite of

being poor”.

a) 8.9.1

- Definition :Reference is the relationship that exists

between an expression used by a speaker and an

object which he/she is referring to or talking about

- Ex: I lost a book on the train yesterday

The entity referred to by “ I” or “ train” or “

book” will vary from situation to situation.In fact, “I”

can refer to any speaker.

8.9 Reference

a) 8.9.1

-Simple propoitions normally includes 2 kinds :

Name Predicates

Serve to pick out or refer ascribe proerties to entities

to entities (both concrete

and abstract in some possible

worlds about which statements

are made

8.9 Reference

b) 8.9.2

- Pronouns constitute a special class of referring expression,

even though they are traditionally regarded as noun-

subsitutes . They are characterized by a special function

often called deictic(pointing) or indexical function.

Therefore,personally and demonstrative pronouns can serve

as the best example of this class.

ex :I met her and took her for a walk.

This refers to an event which can be viewed as past form the

moment this utterance is made.It is also observed that most

languages have a dichotomous tense system rather that

trichotomous,involving past and present.

8.9 Reference

c) 8.9.3

- The expression of tense is,though, language-specific:

synthetically and lexically.It should be noted that there

is no reason in principle why distinctions of tense must

be necessarily expressed in inflectionally variants formd

of language.

- In Vietnamese,they may be expressed by particles like

“ đã” or lexical, adverbials like “ hôm qua” or “ ngày

mai” ,which are no more closely gramatically

associated with the verb than with any other part of the

sentence.

8.9 Reference

c) 8.9.3

- Wheras tense is a deintic category, aspect is not.It is

basically a pemporal category expressing a kind of

time correlation.

Compare: - She has seen this film

- She had seen this film before she left.

It suggests that while 2 states of affairs as expressed

by them are past,the point worth nothing is that

perfection aspect relation a past event to either a present

point of time or a past point of time.

8.9 Reference

- Definition : Is another category associated with both

sentence and utterance meaning

- The purpose of treating modality: is to see how it fits

in with utterance

- In this sense,modality may be said to be deictical

- The determination of whether modality is be

objective and subjective is context-dependent.

8.10 Modality

Ex: He may not love her

If the utterance is given an objective epistemic

interpretation, its propositional content will be: relative

to what is known,it is possible that he will not love her

In other words, the modality is represented as a

matter of fact.

On the other hand,given its subjective interpretation,

its propositional content will be : I think it is possible

that he will not love her.

8.10 Modality

Compare:- You must finish the report by tomorrow

- You have to finish the report by tomorrow

It may be of interest to remember that traditional

treatment of these 2 verbs often stamps the first as

subjective obligation and the latter as objective

obligation.It could help much to consider epistemic and

deonic modality in relation to illocutionary commitment.

8.10 Modality

- All natural languages offer their users prosodic

resources including stress, intonation to do this

job.Some,but by no mean all,grammaticalize them in

the category of mood, and other may lexical or semi-

lexicalize them by means of modal verbs( may,

must...), modal adjectives ( possible, likely...) , modal

adverbs ( possibly, really, actually...)

- Within the scope of epistemic modality, we can find

a diversity including such items as : possibility,

inference, belief, hearsay,deduction, opinion,

commitment,quotation,doubt, evidence.....

8.10 Modality

Consider: - She looks pretty

- They say she is pretty

In the 1st,the proposition signals the fact that the

ground for the speaker’s assertion lies in his direct

experience. In the 2nd ,it is hearsay.

For Frawley, deontic modality expresses the

imposition of the state of affairs on individuals or

with the modality as deixis,the imposition of an

exoressed world on a reference world.

8.10 Modality

Let’s consider: She must be nice to him

It is deontic in the sense that there is an obligatory

state of affairs that the argument or participant must

come to : be nice to him

While epistemic modality can be grounded in the

present,past, or future, deontic modality is firmly

grounded in the future.

Obviously, she will be nice,hopefully, from any point

of time after the moment of speaking

8.10 Modality

Lyons suggests that epistemic modality is possibility-

based and deontic modality is necessity-based.

It should be noted that it is always easy to distinguish

epistemic and deontic modality synchronically:

Consider: You must be kidding

You have to be kidding.

8.10 Modality

CONCLUSION

• Sentences types are viewed as a way of

grammaticalizing the illoentionary force in many

languages such as English for one,

• Other parts of utterance meaning is presupposition

and implicatures, accounting for what a speaker can

imply,suggest, or mean as distinct from what he

literally says.

• This principles consists of 4 maxims: quantity,

quality, relation and manner.

• Finally, we had a look at reference ,but not just in the

narrow sense. Reference can involve tense,as well