Üleimplikatsioon

Üleimplikatsioon, meaning "over-implication" in Estonian, is a term used in linguistics and philosophy to describe a situation where a speaker's utterance carries a stronger or more specific meaning than what is strictly entailed by the literal words used. This phenomenon is closely related to Gricean implicature, particularly scalar implicature.

For example, if someone says "I ate some of the cake," the literal meaning only asserts that a portion of the cake was consumed. However, an over-implication arises if the listener understands that the speaker did not eat all of the cake. The word "some" on its own entails that at least one part was eaten, but it does not strictly exclude the possibility of having eaten the whole cake. The listener infers the more specific meaning that only a part was eaten because the speaker could have used a stronger statement like "I ate all of the cake" if that were true.

Üleimplikatsioon highlights the pragmatic aspect of language, where listeners make inferences based on the assumption that speakers are being cooperative and providing relevant information. The choice of a less specific term often signals that a more specific term is not applicable. This is a common way in which everyday language conveys more information than is strictly encoded in the words themselves, relying on shared understanding and context.