Scalar Implicature:A Cognitive-Pragmatic Approach

As a heated topic in linguistic pragmatics today,scalar implicature is a key issue at the border war betvween semantics and pragmatics.Grice’s theory of conversational implicature cannot well explain this kind of implicatures.Thus,this thesis is intended to adopt a cognitive-pragmatic approach,i.e.an interdisciplinary study between cognitive linguistics and pragmatics to investigate how scalar implicature is generated,which settles many disputes on scalar implicature in post-Gricean pragmatics.Firstly,Hirschberg’s classifications of’eleven partially ordered sets are divided into entailment sets and non-entailment sets.This study proves that entailment sets including entailment scales and non-entailment scales can generate scalar implicature,while non-entailment sets cannot generate scalar implicature.Entailment sets are analyzed from both vertical and horizontal relationships in a schema-instance set within the framework of Cognitive Grammar.From the vertical relationship between the schema and its instances,entailment sets are proved to be schema-instance sets.The schema is schematic to its instances and the instances instantiate their schema,which is irreversible.From the horizontal relationship between instances in a schema-instance set,instances in a schema-instance set are contrasted with one another by one semantic relation,i.e.the unilateral entailment relation.Scalar implicature is redefined in this thesis and many controversies in post-Gricean pragmatics are resolved within the framework of Cognitive Grammar.Then,the nature of scalar implicature is further analyzed.The focus is on the mechanism for the generation of scalar implicature.Because the vertical relationship between the schema and its instances is conventionalized and the horizontal relationship between instances in a schema-instance set is also conventionalized,the schema-instance set is also conventionalized.Scalar implicature is generated by conventionalized schema-instance sets.A conclusion is drawn that the generation of scalar implicature is a process of conventionalization.Applying the framework of Cognitive Grammar into the study of scalar implicature,this study offers a new perspective in this field.Firstly,this study is one of-the earliest attempts to analyze scalar implicature based on the schema-instance relationship in Cognitive Grammar.Secondly,this study offers a new understanding of Cognitive Pragmatics.Traditionally,Cognitive Pragmatics refers to Relevance Theory in a narrow sense.However,in this thesis it refers to the interface study between cognitive linguistics and pragmatics.Thirdly,non-entailment sets cannot generate scalar implicature because they are contradictory to the definition of scalar implicature.Fourthly,entailment sets are proven to be conventionalized schema-instance sets,and entailment sets as a whole is the starting point for the analysis.Fifthly,scalar implicature is generated by the conventionalized schema-instance set.