Unexpected Premisses: Part I
Frans H. van Eemeren, Rob Grootendorst · Argumentation and Advocacy · 1982
Although unexpressed premisses generally present few problems in colloquial speech, it is nevertheless sometimes difficult to determine exactly what premiss is unexpressed in a particular episode of argumentation. Two approaches are discussed and found to be unsatisfactory, the common logical approach and the presuppositional approach. Neither provides an explanation of interlocutors' behaviour, nor a usable set of guidelines for explicitizing unexpressed premisses. However, the insights of Grice make it possible to improve this situation. In Part I, the authors describe unexpressed premisses as conversational implicatures. In Part II, they formulate guidelines for detecting such conversational implicatures.