Implicitness

Erika Lombart, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium
erika.lombart@uclouvain.be

In linguistics, Grice distinguishes between presuppositions and understatements. Presuppositions are a conventional form of implicitness triggered by the presence of indicators in a proposition. They are ubiquitous and heterogeneous, as they pertain to both relational and referential aspects. Presuppositions can be found in syntax and lexicon, as well as in language register. For communication to continue, presuppositions are generally taken for granted by all interlocutors. These presuppositions often remain unnoticed during conversation, yet they form a crucial foundation for mutual understanding and coherence in discourse. Understatements are implicit statements characterised by indirect anchoring. They add extra meaning to part or all of the utterance, yet no element of the propositional content explicitly signals this implicitness. Therefore, their implicature can only be derived once the proposition has been stated and contextualised. The recognition of an understatement often relies on shared knowledge, contextual cues, and pragmatic competence on the part of the listener. Inference may be possible, but is not obligatory. This means that the implied meaning does not necessarily have to be accepted as true by all interlocutors. Sperber and Wilson develop the theory of relevance, which complements these notions by explaining that interlocutors evaluate utterances based on their contextual relevance. According to this theory, understatements are examples of implicatures that acquire meaning only within a specific context, where listeners must make inferences to achieve a coherent interpretation. Implicit statements, such as understatements, thus rely on a balance between cognitive processing effort and contextual effects obtained. According to Searle, understatements are indirect speech acts, in which one speech act is performed indirectly through another. Certain figures of classical rhetoric, such as irony as well as illocutionary tropes, are part of implicitness.

Keywords: implicature, illocution, interpreation

Related Entries: Implicit, Implicit Bias, Explicit/Explicitness

References:
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Speech acts (pp. 41–58). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004368811_003
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech Acts. Cambridge University Press.
Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance: Communication and cognition (2nd ed.). Blackwell.