The Conventional Implicature of Ddu_b(DdU_2,Ddu_3): On Semantics of Dou_b from the Perspective of Discourse Analysis

摘要

In existing studies dou_b (dou_2, dou_3) is a polarity-marker and a universal quantifier which sometimes expresses having done or been and has an emphatic function. This paper argues that marking-a-polarity, universal quantification and expressing having done or been are all conversational implicatures or context meanings of dou_b sentences. And as a kind of generalized conversational implicature the emphatic function which belongs to dou_b construction is drawing from a plausible inference. But it is not the conventional meaning of dou_b. The conventional implicature of dou_b indicates that the speaker has made a judgment on the state of affairs described by a proposition, and he/she believes that the possibility of the state of affairs is inferior-to-expectation (or normal). As a kind of rule meaning it is a non-truth conditional, procedural and pragmatic meaning. But it is different from an ordinary rule meaning that is an explicit, literal, objective and truth conditional meaning because it is subjective, non-truth conditional and implicit. And it is different from a conversational implicature because it is non-cancellable.