Explanation
A scalar implicature arises when choosing a weaker expression suggests that a stronger alternative is false. Saying “Some contributions were clear” may convey that not all were clear, although the literal meaning of some is compatible with all. The inference relies on assumptions about informative exchange: if the speaker could have made the stronger, relevant, and justified claim, they would have done so. Scalar implicatures are therefore context-sensitive, cancellable, and altered by embedding. The conceptual movement reconstructs the alternative scale, examines speaker competence and relevance, and separates the pragmatic inference from literal semantic content.
Movement of thought
1. Stronger and weaker relevant alternatives to the uttered expression are identified. 2. Literal content is separated from possible pragmatic exclusion of stronger alternatives. 3. The speaker's knowledge, evidence, and communicative aims are assessed. 4. Cancellation, reinforcement, and embedding test whether the inference is genuinely implicated. 5. Only under suitable relevance conditions is the stronger alternative inferred not to hold.
Scientific use case
Pragmatics, psycholinguistics, and acquisition research investigate scalar implicatures through reaction times, judgements, and contextual manipulation. Alternative sets, speaker knowledge, and the scale actually activated are crucial.
Example
Asked about an examination, a teacher says, “Many passed.” If exact complete results are known and relevant, listeners often infer “not all”; if the teacher knows only an interim result, that inference is unwarranted.
Counterexample
When someone says “Some, perhaps even all,” the inference “not all” disappears without contradiction. This cancellability shows that the inference is not a logical consequence of the word's meaning.
Distinction
Distinguish scalar implicature from logical entailment, presupposition, and conventional implicature. It is a cancellable pragmatic inference based on alternatives, relevance, and presumed informativeness.
Effect on thought and perception
Scalar implicatures let concise utterances communicate more than they literally encode. They increase efficiency while also creating room for strategic vagueness and misunderstanding.
Resonance
The weaker expression summons its stronger alternative as an absent possibility. Meaning arises in the tension between what was said, what could have been said, and what was not chosen.
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Scalar implicature“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-133-030. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-133-030The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.
Historical background
On page 202, Jespersen describes how the article in a few changes the quantity expression from a quasi-negative to a positive orientation. Inspection of the scan confirms the passage in ChapterXV. This documents a historical observation about form and quantitative evaluation. It does not itself establish a scalar implicature derived from choosing between stronger and weaker alternatives. The OCR represents a later printing with a 1934 afterword; the later pragmatic theory still requires direct evidence.
How conceptual history changes the analysis
Distinguish the quantity expression’s meaning from an inference about an unchosen alternative. A scalar-pragmatic analysis must test the exclusion of the stronger alternative and the inference’s contextual cancellability.
References for the historical section
- Otto Jespersen, The Philosophy of Grammar, work first published 1924; inspected later printing with November 1934 afterword, exact printing year unresolved · Chapter XIV, a few and few, printed p. 202; Chapter XXIV, negation
Selected historical witness, not a complete genealogy or a first English attestation. Atlas comparisons and applications are original editorial interpretations. OCR of a later printing containing a 1934 afterword. The catalogue’s 1924 date identifies the work’s first publication, not the inspected copy. Historical judgments about languages and social groups require critical distance.