[Fen]

So, I'm totally lost on my semantics assignment since the whole course kind of made almost no sense to me, and I reaaallly have to do it right if I don't want to fail. I'm a bit desperate atm, so sorry for asking the forum for help. My eternal love for the help, though .


Assuming that B is cooperative, identify the meaning of B’s answer and the Gricean maxim(s) that gives rise to the implicature of B’s utterance. Explain A’s or any observer’s reasoning in interpreting B’s answer.

A: Have you seen my amber bracelet and earrings?
B: You left your earrings on the bathroom sink

[rocket0612]

I don't understand the assignment. Judging by the thread title I thought it might mean do the sentence make sense in a semantic sense but I have no idea what you are after, and I would assume most other people would be in the same boat. Can you be more specific.

[Fen]

It's for my Semantics course (referential Semantics based on Probable World theory, to be more precise). Maybe I should have added a "linguistics" somewhere in the title to separate it from colloquial semantics >.<

[evantej]

(Original post by Fen)
So, I'm totally lost on my semantics assignment since the whole course kind of made almost no sense to me, and I reaaallly have to do it right if I don't want to fail. I'm a bit desperate atm, so sorry for asking the forum for help. My eternal love for the help, though .


Assuming that B is cooperative, identify the meaning of B’s answer and the Gricean maxim(s) that gives rise to the implicature of B’s utterance. Explain A’s or any observer’s reasoning in interpreting B’s answer.

A: Have you seen my amber bracelet and earrings?
B: You left your earrings on the bathroom sink

Gricean maxims suggest co-operation between speakers. What the question is asking you to do is explain how B co-operates with A to answer their question (i.e. where is their amber bracelet and earrings). The semantic aspect involves describing how the maxims work.

For example, one of the maxims relates to clarity of expression. B could easily have said in response to A: 'the amber bracelet and earrings you are missing are on the bathroom sink'. What is the difference between this response and the one you were given? Did B use different words in order to shorten their response?

If you are completely stuck I would have a look at Grice's work before you do anything else.

[Thatstudentdude]

Above poster's right; probably best to check out and become really familiar with Grice's work - it'll make it more clear.

It sounds to me like you're analysing pretty much how B has come to that answer for A's query. The two maxims that stand out to me here are Quality and Relevance. B has answered in a way that a) the quality of his answer is assumed to be true i.e the earrings really are on the bathroom sink and b) the response is directly relevant to A's question.

Implicature wise, I suppose you could always talk about how the assertion is slightly distorted but the presupposition is clear to B. Rather than answering;...

A: Have you seen my amber bracelet and earrings?
B: Yes. I have.

...B understands that A's question requires an answer that's developed (You left your earrings on the bathroom sink.) The entailment is therefore B giving a answer that's high in quality and relevance.

I hope that sort of helped? I don't know if I've explained it very well - if you want more help deciphering what I said, just ask!