Cover not available

In:Implicitness: From lexis to discourse
Edited by Piotr Cap and Marta Dynel
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 276] 2017
► pp. 1–12

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 1
Implicitness

Familiar terra incognita in pragmatics

 | University of Łódź
 | University of Łódź
Published online: 30 June 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.276.01dyn
The aim of this chapter is to shed light on the concept behind the label “implicitness”, which is ubiquitous in the pragmatic scholarship but has rarely constituted the focus of attention per se. In the teeth of the intuitive use of the label, which seems synonymous with “indirectness” used in some research traditions, an organizing conception of implicitness phenomena is provided and advanced. Implicitness is presented as encompassing both the use and the system side and, importantly, the cases where different-size phrasal, sentential and textual carriers of indirect meaning can be identified. This view is reflected in the content of the present volume.
Article outline
  • 1.Explicating implicitness
  • 2.This collection: Aims and general structure
  • 3.Chapter-by-chapter overview
  • References
References (26)
References
Ariel, Mira. 2004. “Most.” Language. 80: 658−706. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. “Revisiting the Typology of Pragmatic Interpretations.” Intercultural Pragmatics 13: 1–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bazzanella, Carla. 2011. “Indeterminacy in Dialogue.” Language and Dialogue 1: 21−43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Behrens, Bergljot, and Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen. 2009. “Introduction to Contributions in ‘Structuring Information in Discourse: The Explicit/Implicit Dimension’.” Oslo Studies in Language 1: 2−16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bertuccelli Papi, Marcella. 2000. Implicitness in Text and Discourse. Pisa: Edizoni ETS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. “Implicitness.” In Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights vol. I: Key Notions in Pragmatics, ed. by Jef Verschueren and Jan-Ola Östman, 139−162. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bhat, Darbhe Narayana Shankara. 2004. Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brandon, Robert. 1998. Making It Explicit: Reasoning, Representing, and Discursive Commitment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. From Empiricism to Expressivism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davis, Wayne A. 2005. Nondescriptive Meaning and Reference. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ducrot, Oswald. 1972. Dire et ne pas dire. Principes de sémantique linguistiques. Paris: Hermann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dynel, Marta. 2013. “Being Cooperatively Impolite: Grice’s Model in the Context of (Im)Politeness Theories.” In Research Trends in Intercultural Pragmatics, ed. by Istvan Kecskes and Jesus Romero-Trillo, 55−83. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haugh, Michael. 2015. Im/Politeness Implicatures. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoogervorst, Jan, Henk van der Flier, and Paul Koopman. 2004. “Implicit Communication in Organisations: The Impact of Culture, Structure and Management Practices on Employee Behaviour.” Journal of Managerial Psychology 19: 288−311. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kirsner, Kim, Craig Speelman, Murray Maybery, Angela O’Brien-Malone, Mike Anderson, and Colin MacLeod (eds). 1998. Implicit and Explicit Mental Processes. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kurzon, Dennis. 2007. “Towards a Typology of Silence.” Journal of Pragmatics 39: 1673–1688. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lepore, Ernie, and Matthew Stone. 2015. Imagination and Convention: Distinguishing Grammar and Inference in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. 1987. “Minimization and Conversational Inference.” In The Pragmatic Perspective: Selected Papers from the 1985 International Pragmatics Conference, ed. by Marcella Bertuccelli Papi and Jef Verschueren, 61−129. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morency, Patrick, Steve Oswald, and Louis de Saussure. 2008. “Explicitness, Implicitness and Commitment Attribution: A Cognitive Pragmatic Approach.” Belgian Journal of Linguistics 22: 197–219. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Östman, Jan-Ola. 1986. Pragmatics as Implicitness. PhD dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sbisà, Marina. 2007. Detto non detto. Le forme della comunicazione implicita. Roma-Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, John R. 1980. “The Background of Meaning.” In Speech Act Theory and Pragmatics, ed. by John RJohn R. Searle, Ferenc Kiefer, and Manfred Bierwisch, 11–41. Boston: Reidel. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shopen, Tim. 1973. “Ellipsis as Grammatical Indeterminacy.” Foundations of Language 10: 65−77.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tanck, Sharyl. 2002. “Speech Acts Sets of Refusal and Complaints: A Comparison of Native and Non-native English Speakers’ Production.” TESOL Working Papers ([URL] accessed September 1, 2015).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Mulken, Margot, Renske Van Enschot, and Hans Hoeken. 2005. “Levels of Implicitness in Magazine Advertisements.” Document Design 13: 155−164. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xia, Mu, Yun Huang, Wenjing Duan, and Andrew Whinston. 2007. “Implicit Many-to-One Communication in Online Communities.” Communities and Technologies 27: 265−274.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue