Discourse-Level Implicature

A Case for QUD

Bibliographic Data

ID11273022
AuthorsKatja Jasinskaja (University of Cologne), Fabienne Salfner (0000-0001-9685-8973, Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics), Constantin Freitag (University of Konstanz, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume54
Issue3
Pages239-258
Publication date2017-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse Processes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-853X • E-ISSN: 1532-6950
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0163853x.2016.1150672
OpenAlexW2329108802
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited18

This article argues that multisentence discourses give rise to Gricean quantity implicatures that go beyond the mere sum of the implicatures of the sentences they consist of. We formulate two theories of discourse-level implicature: the null theory, which only has a mechanism for sentence-level implicature and does not rely on any specific notion of discourse structure, and a theory that assumes that discourse is hierarchically structured by Questions Under Discussion (QUD) and that QUDs can guide the derivation of quantity implicatures at all levels of discourse structure. In two experiments using the inference task paradigm and focusing on sequences of sentences with contrastive topic, the QUD-based theory is shown to make more accurate predictions than the null theory. This finding provides additional motivation for the QUD-based approach to discourse structure

Discourse analysis · Implicature · Inference · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Null (SQL · Pragmatics · Sentence · Task (project management · Computer Science · Multi-Agent Systems and Negotiation · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence