Semantic implication

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Semantic implication (also: ( semantic ) entailment / conditional ) is a linguistic term used to denote an implication in which, in contrast to the material implication of logic, the partial statements are related to one another in terms of content. The validity of a semantic implication does not depend on the syntactic relationships of the sub-clauses in a logical calculus , but on the fact that every semantic model that fulfills the antecedent also makes the following clause true, or that every object that is represented by a certain word can be designated, can also be assigned another, implied word.

Linguistics

The semantic implication concept plays a fundamental role in word semantics . The one-sided semantic implication largely corresponds to hyponymy , the mutual semantic implication to synonymy .

logic

However, implication does not only refer to the contextual relationship of words in a meaning field. One speaks of a semantic implication with regard to statements.

The following example comes from the language philosopher John Austin : The sentence The cat lies on the mat semantically implies that the mat lies under the cat . If a person claims at the same time that the cat is lying on the mat, but the mat is not under the cat, this can only be explained with a lack of language skills.

Delimitation from the presupposition

The semantic implication is to be distinguished from the presupposition . The presupposition of a statement or a question is that the proper names appearing in it are related to certain objects. In fact, the semantic implication applies regardless of the assumption that the named objects also exist: If the cat is on the mat, the mat is under the cat is true even if the cat is not on the mat, yes even if it is the cat doesn't exist.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Hadumod Bußmann (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft. 3rd updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 (implication).
  2. ^ Homberger, Subject Dictionary for Linguistics (2000) / Implication