Definition of the word implicature

The term "implicature" has its roots in the field of linguistics, specifically in the study of language pragmatics. The word was first coined by the British philosopher and linguist Paul Grice in the 1960s. Grice was interested in how people convey meaning beyond the literal sense of words, and he proposed the concept of implicature to explain this phenomenon. Grice defined implicature as "what is conveyed by the saying of something, but is not part of what is said" (Grice 1969). In other words, implicature refers to the indirect and implicit meaning that is inferred or assumed by the listener based on the context, circumstance, and shared knowledge between the speaker and the listener. For example, saying "I'm tired" might implicature that you need rest or don't feel like doing something. Since then, the concept of implicature has been widely adopted in linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive science to study how people communicate and understand each other.