Conversational implicature is context-dependent meaning inferred beyond literal wording. Grice relates it to conversational purpose, background knowledge, and expectations about contributions. Such inferences can often be cancelled and reconstructed in principle; consequential commitments require confirmation when plausible implications remain uncertain or admit competing interpretations.
- FamilyModel
- Category of its source unitTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainMeaning & Clarity
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.