Implicature of complex sentences in error models

Due to their intensive discussion, implicatures of complex sentences became a kind of benchmark for testing different frameworks of Gricean pragmatics. We propose a novel approach which is based on a communication model with feedback and speaker errors in signal selection. The communication model is introduced as an extension of standard signalling games. In this model, implicatures are explained by the speaker’s tendency to omit parts of their utterances. In this explanation, the error coping strategy of the hearer plays an essential role. In order to account for implicature cancellation, clausal implicatures, and implicatures of complex sentences with disjunction, an additional nonmonotonic component is needed which represents normality assumptions about the level of speaker expertise. Keywords: complex sentences; error models; game theory; preferential models; scalar implicatures