Conversational Reasoning in the Absence of Quantity

Fox (2014) argues that cancelling the Maxim of Quantity can minimally dissociate between the pragmatic (primarily neo-Gricean) and grammatical approaches to scalar implicature. Under the pragmatic approach, scalar implicatures only arise as a result of adherence to the maxim of Quantity. The grammatical approach can predict that scalar implicatures remain available, in principle, when Quantity is not a conversational requirement as they arise from mechanisms independent of the maxim of Quantity. The present study operationalizes Fox’s game-show scenario into an experiment in which participants are tasked with determining which items are associated with money. The host, who is reticent about their knowledge, provides partial information (disjunctions and numerals) as hints to help the contestants. Experimental results demonstrated that participants can strengthen the meaning of disjunctions and numerals to help them make judgments about the relevant alternatives. The present work provides experimental evidence for the availability of scalar implicatures in a conversational context where the speaker does not obey the maxim of Quantity.