On the Comprehension of Speaker-Meaning
What is meaning, and how is it communicated? Paul Grice’s formulations of speaker meaning (Grice, 1957) and conversational implicature (1975) pave the way to answer those questions. In a nutshell, Grice demonstrates that our intuitions about the distinction between what is said and what is communicated can be explained in terms of communicative intentions. Unfortunately, his theory lacks psychological plausibility, and it fails to give an adequate explanation of how hearers comprehend a speaker’s communicative intention.