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HomeUpcoming EventsWolfgang Schwarz (ANU): The (pragmatic) Power of Unspecificity
Wolfgang Schwarz (ANU): The (pragmatic) power of unspecificity

Sometimes, if we say something unspecific, what we say is taken to imply several more specific things. For example, 'you're allowed to take electrical items in your hand luggage' suggests that you're allowed to take computers, cameras, and hand dryers (but perhaps not tasers). Similarly, 'she might have bought an electrical item' suggests that there are various electrical items she might have bought, and 'if they had found an electrical item in your hand luggage, they would have arrested you' suggests that there are various electrical items that would have got you arrested. There are good reasons to think that this effect is merely pragmatic rather than licensed by the truth-conditional content of the uttered sentences. But standard pragmatic explanations don't seem to work either. I suggest that these explanations can perhaps be made to work if we interpret the relevant modals as plural indefinites.

Date & time

  • Tue 22 Oct 2013, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

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Coombs Seminar Room B

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Philsoc seminars