Embedded disjunctions and the best response paradigm

Abstract

The current study investigates implicature of embedded disjunctions. We employ a paradigm in which implicatures are inferred indirectly from action choices of test subjects. This avoids meta–linguistic judgements on which previous studies relied. The focus is on four different types of implicature that may be triggered by embedded disjunctions in a situation with a competent speaker. We distinguish between local and global scalar implicatures, exhaustive and existence implicatures. The results provide evidence that varieties all four types of implicature have been inferred by a majority of subjects.