Scalar Implicatures and Beyond

This book offers a comprehensive survey on the study of scalar implicatures, a central topic in modern pragmatics. This multidimensional and interdisciplinary topic is intensely studied in contemporary linguistics, psycholinguistics, and philosophy of language. Being one of the most prominent topics in pragmatics, they offer a window into the mind of communicative agents. On the one hand, scalar implicatures are closely related to the lexicon and grammar of natural languages. On the other hand, they shed light on how the linguistic meaning is enriched with context and speakers’ intentions and knowledge. Starting from an overview of the classic Gricean theory and the theoretical development introduced by post-Gricean scholars, the book illustrates the modern accounts of scalar implicatures across the domains of theoretical linguistics, such as semantics, pragmatics, and psycholinguistics. The central part of the book is devoted to the review of the most influential studies on the acquisition, comprehension, and processing of these pragmatic inferences. The last part of the volume focuses on open issues concerning scalar implicatures by illustrating recent experimental studies and theoretical accounts advanced by the authors in collaboration with several scholars.