What is left unsaid; implicatures in political discourse.

Abstract

The participants in a conversation adhere to the cooperative principle and the maxims. However, some things are left unsaid because of the fact that diplomatic discourse or political discourse makes frequent use of ‘implicatures’, in order to suggest information not explicitly expressed in the text. These inferences are usually based on particular beliefs, opinions and knowledge of some concrete situation. The political implicatures that is, the specific political inferences that participants make in the communicative situation, for instance MPs in a parliamentary debate may make, are based on (their understanding of) this speech and its context. In this paper, several instances of maxim violation and inplicatures present in political discourse will be analyzed, by paying importance to the way politicians favor them so as to conceal the truth. We will take into consideration Edi Rama`s interview to CNN about the presidential election in USA, as a case study of implicatures use and function.