
The conversational implicature
is a message that is not found in the plain sense of the sentence. The
speaker implies it. The hearer is able to infer (work out, read
between the lines) this message in the utterance, by appealing to the rules
governing successful conversational interaction. The success of a conversation
depends upon the various speakers' approach to the interaction. The way in
which people try to make conversations work is sometimes called the cooperative
principle.
The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as
informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is
needed, and no more.
2.
The...