Global Approach to Scalar Implicatures in Dynamic Semantics

Global Approach to Scalar Implicatures in Dynamic Semantics Jae-Il Yeom Hongik University English Language and Literature 94 Wausan-ro, Sangsu-dong, Mapo-gu Seoul 121-791 KOREA jiyeom@hongik.ac.kr Abstract It has been disputed whether scalar implica- tures (= SIs) arise globally or locally. Basi- cally SIs should be global because they arise by comparing strengths of whole alternative statements. On the other hand, there are a lot of examples in which local SIs are prefer- able. Linguists like Chierchia (2002) and Fox (2006) even claim that SIs arise by ap- plying an operator to syntactic constituents to get their stronger meanings. In this paper, I claim that SIs are global and seemingly lo- cal implicatures are effects of contexts on global implicatures. Moreover, I will show that no syntactic analyses work. 1 Introduction Scalar implicatures (SIs) arise on the basis of the maxim of quantity by Grice (1975): (1) The maxim of quantity: a. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange). b. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. It is the first maxim of quantity that is relevant to SIs. When a stronger statement is relevant to the context and a speaker utters a weaker statement, it is implicated that the stronger statement is not true in the speaker’s information state. Assuming that the speaker is well-informed and that he knows the stronger alternative is false, the hearer accepts the implicature as true. Grice did not explicate the precise procedure of getting a SI. Horn (1972, 1989) suggested that a SI arises by comparing a set of alternative state- ments that arises by replacing a scalar term in the original statement with a stronger scalar alterna- tive expression in the language system. Behind this idea lies the assumption that a set of scalar terms, which is called a scalar set, is given in the language system. Sauerland (2004) gives a more precise procedure, within the Neo-Gricean tradi- tion that a SI arises based on a set of scalar alter- natives. He assumes that SIs have an epistemic status, following Gazdar (1979), but deviates from his idea by assuming that the maxim of quantity gives rise to only uncertainty inferences, which he calls primary implicatures. Primary implicatures have the form of ‘K’, in which K means ‘know’ and is a stronger alternative sentence of the orig- inal utterance. The hearer tentatively strengthens each of the primary implicature of the form ‘K’. If the stronger implicature is compatible with the meaning of the statement and all the primary im- plicatures, it gets the status of a SI, which he calls a secondary implicature. His idea is illustrated in the following: (2) John broke some glasses. (3) a. ScalAlt(some) = {all, many, some} b. ScalAlt(John broke some glasses) = {John broke all glasses, John broke many glasses, John broke some glasses} c. (2) primarily implicates the following: ¬K(John broke all glasses) ¬K(John broke many glasses) d. secondary implicatures: K¬(John broke {all, many} glasses) The use …

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