A neo-Gricean pragmatic analysis of Chinese pragmatic markers

This article presents a pragmatic analysis of Chinese pragmatic markers in Chinese. The analysis is Gricean in spirit but differs from Grice (1989) in that it analyses pragmatic markers as conventional implicature potential bearers rather than conventional implicatures per se. A conventional implicature potential, attributable to the conventional meaning of a pragmatic marker, is stable and invariant across contexts. However, it cannot be fleshed out into an actual conventional implicature until it interacts with a specific context. Unlike other analyses (e.g., Schiffrin, 1987, Bach, 1999 and Blakemore, 2002), which detach themselves from Grice’s (1989) classical account, this analysis retains Grice’s spirit that the meaning of pragmatic markers is part of what the speaker implicates. It is also noted in the analysis that conventional implicatures are subjective in nature.

Research highlights► A typology and a general description of Chinese pragmatic markers are presented. ► A sketch of Grice’s account of pragmatic makers is provided. ► A neo-Gricean in-depth analysis of Chinese pragmatic markers are offered.