Embedded Implicature: An Unresolved Issue in Conversational Implicature Theory

It has been noticed that post-propositional conversational implicature can be embedded under the scope of logical operator and contributes to the truth-conditional propositional meaning.This type of embedded implicature is at issue with Gricean conversational implicature theory and has become a focus in the current theoretical debates over grammatical and pragmatic approaches.This paper presents a critical review of the existent literature on embedded implicature, and points out that the grammatical view is over-generating and pragmatic view under-generating.Furthermore, it claims that a further understanding of embedded implicature relies on broadening the research scope, innovating the empirical research paradigm, and exploring a model based on the interaction between grammar and pragmatics.