Chapter 4
Interaction and discourse
Which information is implicit and which explicit in the following NGT example? If there is implicit information, please provide the technical terms for it.
| Jan: | index man car expensive always buy. |
| ‘He always buys expensive cars.’ | |
| Marie: | fast drive want. |
| ‘He wants to drive fast.’ | |
| Jan: | never join index 1. |
| ‘I will never join him.’ |
The relationship between buying expensive cars and driving fast is not made explicit. Marie assumes that Jan will understand that expensive cars usually go fast, and that she is thus offering a reason for buying an expensive car. Jan then states that he does not want to join the man but leaves implicit that this is motivated by the fact that he does not like fast driving (or possibly by the fact that he does not like expensive cars). Both are examples of conversational implicature.