Elena Tsvetkova

В тази статия ще разгледаме теорията на Ръсел за обозначаването и критиката към нея, отправена главно от Стросън. Основният акцент се поставя върху изказванията, които включват определени описания, които не се отнасят до нищо. Анализът изисква и да се обърне внимание изобщо на разграничението между денотация и значение, защото то е ключов аспект от аргументацията на Ръсел и Стросън. Ще поставим този проблем в контекста на други автори, които взимат отношение по въпроса: Гийч, Остин, Донелан, и Сърл. Целта на този текст е да се покаже, че Ръсел допуска грешка в анализа на тези изказвания в това, че казва, че употребата на определените описания имплицира съществуване. Тезата, защитавана в тази статия е, че ако анализираме изказванията, които реферират към несъществуващи предмети, като изказвания, които не са неистинни, а по-скоро неуместни, те няма да ни се струват проблематични.

Grice’s theory of conversational implicature is discussed in this article with an emphasis on the transition between the literal meaning of an expression and the implicated meaning. Assuming the position expressed in the graded salience hypothesis, it is explained that in some cases the transition from what the speaker says to what he wants the listener to understand is based on the salient meaning of the used expressions. Special attention is paid to expressions that have more than one obvious meaning, in order to show that even when the context plays a role in the understanding of an expression, this meaning can still be perceived as a result of socio-linguistic conventions.

В тази статия се прави опит за прилагане на прототипната теория в преподаването и обучението по гражданско образование. Основната цел е по-детайлно разбиране на понятията, които се въвеждат с този предмет, свързани с Европейската референтна рамка за ключовите компетентности от 2006 г. Основната теза е, че при въвеждането на нови понятия в процеса на обучение подход, базиран на когнитивно осъзнаване на един израз, има предимство пред класическата теория, защото не само се усвоява значението на думата, но и се разбира по-добре нейната употреба. Чрез сравнение между понятия, дефинирани в учебник по гражданско образование, и функционирането им в реалната езикова практика се изясняват разминавания в тълкуването. Прототипната теория се предлага като подход за преодоляване на такива разминавания.

In the curriculum for civic education, as a part of the lifelong learning process, soft skills are developed. Conversational skills as a part of the soft skillset are taught concerning problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills. One of the arguments that are defended in this article is that teaching conversational skills with the intent to avoid a conflict or solve a problem would obstruct open communication because it creates a bias toward the goal of the conversation. Instead, a more productive way to enter a conversation would be an open-minded approach with respect toward different opinions and with the possibility to learn something new. The second argument is that everyday language creativity as a property of all language use can be applied to Grice’s notion of conversational implicature to express a positive message, ensuring better understanding while respecting the listener and the social etiquette. … Read more

In this article, I consider certain types of presupposition and quantitative implicatures, the interpretation of which is based on the usage of scalar expressions. The aim is to explain how presuppositions and implicatures are processed by showing the commonalities and differences between them. Solving this task will shed light on the question of the relationship between language and context. The “scalar implicature approach to presuppositions” is reviewed as a prerequisite for explaining cases in which presuppositions and implicatures are treated in a similar way. The question of consideration is that even when scalar implicatures are understood automatically and independently of context, we have preliminary pragmatic models that predetermine context and influence the way we interpret such statements and how we arrange the terms on the scale. This approach is used as a prerequisite for the possibility of talking about degrees in the scales – i.e., cases of an utterance involving scalar expressions, where the same expression – both in presupposition and in an implicature – can mean something different to a certain degree, and yet the hearer grasp that degree of meaning without much additional effort in processing. … Read more

This article examines a variety of legal texts that serve as examples to support the thesis that it is possible to find implicatures in legal discourse. Legal texts are seen as a special type of speech situation in which the participants are partially cooperative, because the intention to protect the interests of one of the parties is an integral part of the communication. This is also one of the purposes of using implicatures. Another purpose can be the desire to explicate the importance of some aspect of the text.

Two tasks are assigned to this article, related to Grice's theory of conversational implicatures. One of them is concerned with the distinction that Mark Jary proposes between behavioral and material conversational implicatures and the idea that, if this distinction is accepted, then Grice’s notion of non-natural meaning is reduced to cases of behavioral implicatures. An attempt is made to disprove this position and simultaneously maintain the distinction between the two types of implicature. The second task is related to the application of Grice’s theory in linguistic studies to further develop explanations for the processing of utterances containing metaphor or irony.

Изследването е свързано с преподаването на ключови понятия по гражданско образование. Целта е да се предложи алтернативен подход за дефиниране на термини като гражданин, права, личност и др., който да свърже предишния опит на учениците с тези думи и лексикалната дефиниция на термините. Този подход е вдъхновен от идеи за прилагане на прототипната теория и изучаването на метафори в обучението по чужди езици. Хипотезата е, че може успешно да се приложат такива методи и в преподаването по гражданско образование, така че обучението да бъде обвързано с практиката. В статията са включени примери от учебниците по гражданско образование за XI клас, където са предложени дефиниции, вдъхновени от тези подходи. Освен това е направено сравнение между лингвистичните интуиции на учениците (обобщени в резултати от запитване) и предложените дефиниции в учебниците.

The article presents an overview of Grice’s notion of implicatures with a focus on the interpretation of quantitative (scalar) implicatures. Processing an implicature in the case of scalar implicatures is based on automatic understanding of expressions that are part of a linguistic scale. Such linguistic scales are sequences of terms where the use of the stronger term implies the weaker one or the use of the weaker term implies the negation of the stronger one. With examples that affirm the linguistic intuitions of members of a language community, it is illustrated that within these scales, the meaning of expressions is used with varying degrees of strength according to the speaker’s meaning.

The article examines the expressions in political slogans from several consecutive election campaigns held in Bulgaria in 2023 and 2024. Natural language analysis tools developed in the field of logic and philosophy of language were used to reveal the intention behind the slogan. In advertising, the slogan engages consumers in a language game and provokes them to choose a given product over others similar to it on the market. This characteristic of the slogan has also been adopted in election campaigns. By analyzing the implicit meaning of slogans, conclusions can be drawn about the message that the party aims to convey to its voters, even when it is not explicitly stated. An analysis of implicatures, and prototypical and salient expressions used in slogans is applied to achieve this goal. With the use of such means of expression the pragmatic inference is possible because people in a linguistic community have common sociocultural and linguistic intuitions. In this sense, the message of the slogan conveys values that are shared by the audience. The article examines examples that show the emotions that copywriters intend to provoke in voters. Prototypical and salient phrases are interpreted with minimal cognitive effort, because they are used frequently and participants in a given language community understand them almost instantly. Implicatures are perceived as a kind of form of linguistic creativity, which is realized in the text of the slogan, so a personal connection is created between the representatives of a political party and its voters, although another of their essential characteristics is also preserved - the free interpretation of the speaker’s intentions.

Campaign posters and printer billboards are reviewed in this article with a focus on the slogan. The main argument is that the analysis and the function of an ad slogan can be applied to political campaign slogans. Certain similarities can be found in the purpose of the two, but also similar techniques are used to engage the audience: by using salient expressions or conversational implicatures voters are engaged in a language game that increases the chances of the slogan fulfilling its purpose. For this reason, the theory of implicatures and the Graded salience hypothesis are briefly reviewed. The message becomes easier to grasp and remember because it uses familiar expressions as it is shown in the evidentiary sample.

The article reviews cases of unsuccessful implicatures and possible reasons for misunderstanding the speaker’s meaning. The focus is on explaining misunderstanding with the graded salience hypothesis. Under review are examples of cases where the conventional meaning and intended meaning differ thus resulting in a misunderstanding. The graded salience hypothesis offers an explanation of how we understand expressions based on personal preference priority, so the main argument made is that in cases of misunderstanding the speaker and the listener prioritize different meanings attributed to the same expression due to differences in knowledge, personal background, familiarity with the expression in particular usage, etc. There are also cases of scalar implicatures where the inference meaning is not always the same. In such cases, the speaker’s meaning could be misunderstood if the listener considers a different meaning of the scalar expression as more salient than the one the speaker wishes to convey.