Conversational Implicatures: Modelling Relevance Theory Probabilistically

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22354v1
• Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2025 13:50:49 GMT
• Title: Conversational Implicatures: Modelling Relevance Theory Probabilistically
• Authors: Christoph Unger, Hendrik Buschmeier,
• Abstract summary: Recent advances in probability theory have led to a 'probabilistic turn' in pragmatics and semantics.<n>This paper explores in which way a similar Bayesian approach might be applied to relevance-theoretic pragmatics.
• Score: 2.166951056466718
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Recent advances in Bayesian probability theory and its application to cognitive science in combination with the development of a new generation of computational tools and methods for probabilistic computation have led to a 'probabilistic turn' in pragmatics and semantics. In particular, the framework of Rational Speech Act theory has been developed to model broadly Gricean accounts of pragmatic phenomena in Bayesian terms, starting with fairly simple reference games and covering ever more complex communicative exchanges such as verbal syllogistic reasoning. This paper explores in which way a similar Bayesian approach might be applied to relevance-theoretic pragmatics (Sperber & Wilson, 1995) by study a paradigmatic pragmatic phenomenon: the communication of implicit meaning by ways of (conversational) implicatures.

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