A Uniform Treatment of Pragmatic Inferences in Simple and Complex Utterances and Sequences of Utterances
arXiv:cmp-lg/9504017
Abstract
Drawing appropriate defeasible inferences has been proven to be one of the most pervasive puzzles of natural language processing and a recurrent problem in pragmatics. This paper provides a theoretical framework, called ``stratified logic'', that can accommodate defeasible pragmatic inferences. The framework yields an algorithm that computes the conversational, conventional, scalar, clausal, and normal state implicatures; and the presuppositions that are associated with utterances. The algorithm applies equally to simple and complex utterances and sequences of utterances.
7 pages, LaTeX Source. To appear in the Proceedings of ACL-95. Requires aclap.sty file