Book contents
- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction
- Reviews
- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- IIntroduction
- Part IRecords and Force
- 1Fictional Records
- 2Internal Records
- 3Foreground and Background
- 4Gricean Reasoning and Cooperation
- 5Supporting Assumptions and Default Inferences
- 6Fictive Force
- 7Fiction and Assertion
- Part IIFiles and Roles
- References
- Index
4 - Gricean Reasoning and Cooperation
from Part I - Records and Force
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2026
Book contents
- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction
- Reviews
- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- IIntroduction
- Part IRecords and Force
- 1Fictional Records
- 2Internal Records
- 3Foreground and Background
- 4Gricean Reasoning and Cooperation
- 5Supporting Assumptions and Default Inferences
- 6Fictive Force
- 7Fiction and Assertion
- Part IIFiles and Roles
- References
- Index
Summary
In the last chapter we saw that presuppositions are both mandatorily imported into fictional records and mandatorily generated as fictional truths along with their triggers. Presuppositional information is backgrounded in the sense that it is assumed to be available as part of a fictional record. This chapter examines a key source of foreground information in fictional records: conversational implicatures. I argue that conversational implicatures are inferred from what authors say on the basis of assuming that the author had Gricean intentions about their audience and is obeying principles of cooperation regarding the story. Further, we will see that conversational implicatures are mandatorily imported but not mandatorily generated.
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- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction , pp. 58 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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