GRICEIANA

Speranza

Evaluativity and its distribution can be accounted for using a Gricean notion of conversational implicature. 

In cases like equatives in which evaluativity is sensitive to the polarity of the adjective, evaluativity is a strengthening of meaning resulting from a Manner implicature. 

In cases like the positive construction in which evaluativity is not sensitive to polarity, evaluativity is a strengthening of meaning resulting from a Quantity implicature, similar to those associated with tautologies like War is war. This chapter includes a discussion of why evaluativity is the resulting strengthened meaning in degree constructions, based largely on work by Bolinger (1972). The analysis draws on independent observations of the sensitivity of implicature to topic and questions under discussion to explain the asymmetrical status of evaluativity in equatives. The account is extended to absolute adjectives as well as relative ones.