conventional implicature?

[Marta Carretero]

        Dear 'funknetters':

        I am a teacher of linguistics at the Universidad Complutense,
Madrid, and one of my subjects is pragmatics, of which my students are 5th
year undergraduates. Now I am teaching cooperation and implicature, as in
Grice's proposal, and soon I will come across the notion of 'conventional
implicature'. I am beginning to think that what comes under the label
'conventional implicature' (for instance, BUT and HOWEVER carry the
'implicature' that what follows will run counter to expectations) could
well be included in the LEXICAL MEANING of these items, since these
'implicatures' are independent of context and persist in all the uses of
these words. I would appreciate it very much if some of you could send me
messages about your views on this subject.

        Thank you very much in advance.


Marta Carretero
Departamento de Filologia Inglesa
Facultad de Filologia - Edificio A
Universidad Complutense
28040 - Madrid.