The incausality of 'dennoch' and 'trotzdem': Generic Contrast

Abstract

In this paper, I suggest an adaptation of the incausality implicature ascribed to ‘concessive’ contrast with discourse connectives such as German dennoch (‘however’) and trotzdem (‘nevertheless’). Based on both, theoretical considerations and empirical data, I will argue that this contrast involves a generalization: a generic operator GEN (cf. Krifka et al., 1995) in the conventional implicature generalizes over variables in the asserted conjuncts. Theintroduction of the generic operator in the inference does not only provide insights on the close relation between properties of generic sentences and the concessive interpretation, it also allows for a consolidation of prevalent approaches to contrast with dennoch and trotzdem in the previous literature.