Implicatum

Implicatum is a term used in linguistics and philosophy of language to refer to something that is implied but not explicitly stated. It is a concept closely related to implicature, which is the act of implying something. While implicature is the speaker's action of conveying a meaning indirectly, implicatum is the meaning that is conveyed.

The idea of implicatum is often discussed in relation to Gricean pragmatics, particularly Grice's Cooperative Principle and its associated maxims. According to this theory, speakers generally aim to be truthful, informative, relevant, and clear in their communication. When a speaker appears to violate a maxim, listeners often infer that the speaker has intended to convey a meaning beyond the literal words spoken. This inferred meaning is the implicatum.

For example, if someone asks "Are you going to the party?" and the response is "I have to study," the literal meaning is about the necessity of studying. However, the implicatum is that the speaker is not going to the party because of their study obligations. The listener infers this negative response by understanding the relevance of the statement to the original question.

Implicata can be conventional or conversational. Conventional implicata are associated with the meaning of specific words or grammatical constructions and are part of the conventional meaning of an utterance. Conversational implicata, on the other hand, arise from the interaction of the literal meaning of an utterance with the context of utterance and the assumption of cooperative conversational behavior. The study of implicata helps to explain how humans understand more than what is literally said, contributing to efficient and nuanced communication.